Carole Kai Onouye, an entertainer and super fundraiser for Hawaii charities through the Great Aloha Run, was among people who went to the Hale Umi apartment complex to help residents after the first-floor units were inundated by Tropical Storm Darby and the overflowing Kalihi Stream on July 31. Some apartments were filled with 5 feet of dirty water and debris. I have covered Carole for more than 40 years. She started out playing piano at the Pagoda Hotel bar to raise money to buy her mom, barber Ethel Shimizu, a washing machine.
Carole spent five days helping out on Umi Street despite the fact that she is still using a cane and recovering from a serious bicycle accident two years ago in Germany. She was reluctant to have her storm story told, but with much arm-twisting she relented and said sincerely, “The Lord told me to go there.”
She recounted the story: “The waters broke through the glass sliding doors, smashing holes in the rooms, destroying and contaminating everything in its path,” Carole said. “I first heard about the flood on the TV news. A young girl, Zoe, who lost everything, was especially mourning the loss of her beloved Kamaka ukulele. So, I took my husband Eddie’s Koaloha ukulele from our display table — he won it as a prize — and decided she could use it more than he could. With ukulele in hand, I went down to Umi Street, found her parents, and left it with them.
“Then I saw a sweet-smiling 15-year-old Farrington sophomore, Kamuela DiLay Taufa, who plays football. His story of honor and goodness needs to be told. Kamuela, all 6-foot-plus of him, was helping his family clear furniture out of their place and to sweep out water and mud. When he heard screams and cries coming from some apartments, he knew a woman in one of them was alone, having lost both her father and mother after caring for them for years. He ran to her residence to help her take out whatever they could salvage. He then went on to other apartments to help them throughout the night and the following day.
“I was struck by his gentle spirit and offered him a $100 bill. He quickly said thank you but said he thought another neighbor could use it more. The neighbor’s little boy had been trapped in the bathroom and would have drowned if his father didn’t break down the door. The water went up about 4-1/2 feet and just about covered him. The neighbor was shaken up and was working hard to clean up the mud from his place.
“I assured Kamuela that more money would go to the neighbor … and insisted he take the $100. I also told him that his attitude was just so special and that someday he could become mayor or governor or someone great when he became an adult. What a kid! I wish there were more like him.”
Carole and her husband donated several thousand dollars to those hit the hardest by the storm while Hawaii Stars Presents gave $1,000 through New Hope Oahu’s collection. Carole’s friends Jimmy and Theola Striker bought towels and soap and laundry baskets for all of the ground-floor residents. Claire Nakamura and Carole went to Payless ShoeSource and bought 12 pairs of sneakers for the ground-floor schoolkids and got 12 more pairs of Adidas sneakers donated from the Great Aloha Run. Right on, Carole …
ONWARD: “How to Party with an Infant,” a new book by the New York Times best-selling author of “The Descendants,” Kaui Hart Hemmings, received a plug in the Aug. 22 issue of People magazine. Kaui struck gold with “Descendants,” which was adapted into the outstanding film of the same name starring George Clooney … “Hell or High Water,” starring Chris Pine and Ben Foster as bank robbers and Jeff Bridges as a Texas Ranger, is a winner. Bridges is top gun …
Condolences to the family of singer-composer- chef Iva Kinimaka, 76, who died Aug. 2; and to Dana Kaluna Morey, who died Aug. 12. Dana was a retired news building telephone operator and before that worked for Hawaiian Tel …
Ben Wood, who sold newspapers on Honolulu streets in World War II, writes of people, places and things. Email him at bwood@staradvertiser.com.
