On the Tuesday after Hurricane Lowell, Mindy Hibbitt stood near the Lawai Beach Resort and watched her son use an excavator to pull her food shack, Riptides Shave Ice & Snacks, out of the resort's lagoon. When the shack finally came up, family, friends and passersby cheered. Mud streaked the new mural of an octopus holding a rainbow shave ice, but the colors were still bright.
Lawai Road has been through this before. Lowell came ashore on Sept. 7 and 8, 2026, and it is the third major hurricane to hit this stretch since 1982. Four weeks later, the recovery along the road shows what the earlier storms taught. The places that rebuilt stronger after Iwa and Iniki are being repaired where they stand, and much of the remaining work belongs to the community.
Third Storm, First Time Standing
The Beach House is the clearest example. Hurricane Iwa destroyed the restaurant in 1982, and the owners rebuilt it farther back from the shoreline. Ten years later, Hurricane Iniki flattened it again, and they moved it back once more. Chef Marshall Blanchard told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that Lowell is the restaurant's third hurricane, and the first one its building survived.
That doesn't mean the damage was small. In the days after the storm, a stray coral head sat outside one of several broken windows, and inside were flipped tables, ocean rocks and branches. Blanchard has spent 20 years in that kitchen and told KHON he had never seen anything like it. Because the building survived, though, the job is replacing windows and fixtures, not starting over.
Blanchard said the third structure was built with stronger materials and that reopening by Christmas is possible, depending on how quickly windows and other fixtures arrive. He was careful about that date. "You never know the timing of getting things done," he said. "It's so up in the air." That was his outlook in mid-September, and no newer public timeline has followed. Treat Christmas as a hope for now. It isn't a reservation date.
In the meantime, the restaurant has been looking after people. Managers fed its 170 staff and set up Starlink internet for them while they assessed the damage. The extra food it had stocked for the Labor Day crowd went to employees, neighbors and hotel guests who had nothing to eat. Assistant general manager Sarah Nelson told KHON, "We will be reopening, we'll come back bigger and better."
The Shack That Has to Start Over
Riptides is at the other end of the recovery. The shack was too small to harden the way the restaurant was. The family strapped it down and boarded the windows, and it still wasn't enough. In Hibbitt's words, waves 35 feet high lifted the whole structure and threw it into the lagoon. "It is completely ruined."
The stand has been in front of the resort for about 25 years, with several owners over that time. Hibbitt bought it during COVID-19. She switched the menu to gluten-free, added homemade syrups and organic food, and has kept it open seven days a week. "We're the only food truck down here," she said. "It is an iconic landmark that has been there for 25 years," she told The Garden Island. "It just belongs there, and we're trying to make this happen."
The plan is to rebuild from the ground up, replace all the equipment that was destroyed and restock. A GoFundMe page is collecting money for it. There is also an event you can attend in person:
- What: The Riptides "Fun-Raiser," a keiki- and pet-friendly benefit for the Riptides rebuild and the Kauai Humane Society's field trip program
- When: Saturday, Oct. 17, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. A first session ran on Oct. 3.
- Where: Kauai Humane Society
- For dogs: Free pupcups, bandana crafts, an agility course in the dog park, puppy playpens and playgroups
- For people: Riptides shave ice, plus Za Pizza
Walls Older Than the Road
A little farther along, Prince Kūhiō Park at Hoʻai Bay took the worst of Lowell's history. The site is the birthplace of Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole, and Lowell is the third major storm to damage it, after Iwa in 1982 and Iniki in 1992. The storm surge knocked down rock walls dating to the 15th century, toppled a rock shrine, and tipped over the one-ton boulder that holds the park's commemorative plaque. Where there had been grass and bougainvillea, it left rocks, dirt, asphalt, boulders and coral heads.
Volunteers have now hauled out most of that debris. Green waste, trees, household debris and boards still need to come out of the large pond. The Royal Order of Kamehameha, Chapter 3, Kaumualiʻi, owns and maintains the park. Its caretaker, Chad Schimmelfennig, wants the walls rebuilt by the community, not by contractors.
"We have a lot more walls to be built so we are going to take things slow and create more community work days to actually educate and have the community be a part of the restoration so that it's the community that is going to rebuild this place." Chad Schimmelfennig, caretaker, Prince Kūhiō Park
No work day dates have been announced yet. Updates will come through the nonprofit Na Kahu, and donations go to the Restore Prince Kūhiō Park GoFundMe. The park's statue of the prince was not damaged. Schimmelfennig said that when people told him so, his first thought was "there is no way that statue is moving."
Where the Week Still Holds
Repairs on Lawai Road will take months. Much of the rest of the South Shore routine is already running again. Statuses are changing week to week, so the table lists each one with the date it was reported. Call ahead before you go.
| Place | Status | As of |
|---|---|---|
| Kauaʻi Culinary Market, The Shops at Kukui'ula | Wednesdays, 3:30 to 6 p.m., with local farmers and vendors | Oct. 2 county update |
| Kiahuna Golf Club | Course cleared and open for play | Club website, undated |
| Kiahuna Plantation | Non-oceanfront bungalows reopened. The future of the oceanfront units is unclear because of permit issues. | Oct. 2 |
| Poʻipū Beach Park | West-end comfort station closed. The park itself is not listed as closed. | County Parks page, updated Sept. 30 |
| The Beach House Restaurant | Closed for repairs. Possible return by Christmas. | Mid-September |
| Riptides Shave Ice & Snacks | Destroyed. Rebuild fundraising underway. | Oct. 3 |
The newest addition to the morning routine is a short drive up from the coast. Kiahuna Sunrise Cafe opened in April 2026 on the grounds of the historic Kiahuna Plantation at 2253 Poipu Road. Its owners, Kirk and Paula Coult, run restaurants in Aspen, Breckenridge and Salida, Colorado, as well as two other locations on Kauai. When it opened, it served breakfast, brunch and coffee daily from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. No one has published its post-storm hours, so check before you go.
For anything not in the table, two community-run websites have been tracking open and closed businesses since the storm. A tourism-industry nonprofit launched openkauai.org, which lists hundreds of Kauaʻi businesses as open, partially open or closed. Some listings include expected reopening dates. Leigh Hachen added post-storm status to her farmers market and food truck site, cocowire.com, after calling and visiting businesses herself. As of Sept. 23, her data showed 70 percent of Kauaʻi's eateries open.
Before Heading to the Water, and Into Town
Stay out of the ocean for now, even at the beaches that look calm. On Oct. 3, Kauaʻi officials issued an islandwide Brown Water Advisory and advised against swimming and all other recreational ocean activities. If you want to spend a morning near the water, the Oct. 17 benefit and the future Prince Kūhiō Park work days put you at the shoreline without going in.
A few minutes inland, Old Kōloa Town's shops are open but quiet. On Sept. 1, Kauai logged 2,346 passenger arrivals. A week after Lowell, the daily count was just over 560. By the last Monday in September it passed 1,000, still under half the early-September level. Valerie Smith, a senior sales associate at Pineapples Boutique who lives in Kōloa, said that when the doors reopened, "It was like a ghost town." Charles Woolfork, who sells handmade jewelry at Brianne & Co., said a strong summer gave the store a cushion and its customers have been supporting it online. Smith also said steady small gains matter. "If you see a little bit each day, it's definitely a positive movement."
On Lawai Road, you can track that progress place by place: new windows at The Beach House, a new shack in front of the Lawai Beach Resort, and rock walls at Hoʻai Bay rebuilt by volunteers.
If Lowell left you with questions about your own home or condo on the South Shore, whether you live in it full time or manage it from the mainland, Ilona Coffey is glad to talk it through in confidence, with the calm, local perspective this season calls for. Request a private Kauai consultation.
