#Kauai

Most Hawaiʻi State Department of Education public schools on Kauaʻi will reopen to students Monday, Sept. 14, following a week of closures due to impacts from Hurricane Lowell. Kīlauea Elementary and Hanalei Elementary will remain closed to students and staff Monday.

Granting the 15-day extension provides a 45-day acceptance period, the maximum allowable time by state law; the state now has until Sept. 29 to decide on impact statement connected with an application to renew a lease for the Kauaʻi state lands on which the facilities sit.

Hawaiʻi drivers are paying near-record prices at gas pumps heading into the Labor Day weekend, with little relief in sight, according to AAA Hawaiʻi’s Weekend Gas Watch. On Maui, Kahului hit $5.44 (up a full dollar from the same time last year).

“The July 2026 visitor counts represent an 83.4% recovery when compared to pre-wildfire July 2023 with 297,082 visitors,” said DBEDT Director James Kunane Tokioka. “For the first seven months of 2026, there were 1,618,051 visitors on Maui, a 7.7% growth compared to year-to-date 2025, but 9.8% lower than the same period before the wildfires.”

The board seeks a mission-driven executive with extensive senior leadership experience, demonstrated organizational and financial management expertise as well as a deep understanding of Native Hawaiian history, culture, values and contemporary issues.

Maui County’s unemployment rate rose to 3.2% in June, up from 2.5% in May, according to not-seasonally adjusted figures released Monday by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

Women’s Fund of Hawaiʻi has awarded $85,000 across 10 nonprofit programs serving women and girls statewide, with two of the grants supporting Molokaʻi initiatives, the Honolulu-based foundation announced Tuesday.

Visitor spending on Maui rose 26.4% in May compared with a year earlier, outpacing every other island in Hawaiʻi, according to preliminary statistics released Tuesday by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

Hawai‘i’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose a tenth of a percentage point to 2.5% in May, up from 2.4% a year earlier, according to data released today by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

The preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board did not provide a cause of the crash, but said the pilot reported severe vibrations and loss of directional control while making a turn.

The affected individual recently returned from international travel to an area with dengue transmission. No connection to any prior cases in Hawai‘i has been identified.

While the invasive algae species, Avrainvillea erecta, has previously been documented elsewhere in Hawaiʻi, its confirmed presence along Kauaʻi’s south coast raises concern about its potential to spread and impact native marine ecosystems. 

The three-day multiagency search for a missing Kauaʻi man was suspended following the discovery of human remains in waters off Kahili Beach on Saturday afternoon.

A case of avian influenza has now been confirmed in a Koloa Maoli (Hawaiian duck) found sick on Nov. 26 at the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Hanalei Wildlife Refuge in Hanalei, Kauaʻi. The bird which died within 24 hours of being found was recently confirmed positive by the National Veterinary Services Laboratories.

On the leeward side of Kaua’i, Ke Kula Niʻihau O Kekaha — a pre-K-12 charter school — is celebrating its 25th anniversary and a major milestone in preserving ʻŌlelo Niʻihau, the Niʻihau dialect. The school announced it has authored and published more than 400 books in the language, with a selection now on display at the Līhuʻe Public Library.

Gov. Josh Green said shortly after 6 p.m. that buoys off Midway Atoll indicated that the wave measured 6 feet from peak to trough, “so a 3-foot wave riding on top of the ocean.”

The Hawaiʻi State Legislature has passed Senate Bill 1511 to help preserve the safety and natural beauty of Hanalei Bay, located on the north shore of Kaua‘i. The bill limits the size of vessels allowed in the bay to protect its calm waters and ensure it remains a safe space for residents and visitors. 

Chef Sheldon Simeon, the acclaimed Maui culinary wizard behind Tin Roof and Tiffany’s on Lower Main Street in Wailuku, will bring his award-winning cooking to the Garden Isle next month as part of the inaugural Poke Masters’ Table, a new signature event kicking off the Fifth Annual Kaua‘i Poke Fest at Kōloa Landing Resort. Set for 6 p.m. […]

Dozens of high school students and volunteers removed more than 30 abandoned cars from a parcel of Hawaiian homelands in Anahola, Kauaʻi Thursday as part of a community effort to reduce the risk of wildfires in the area.

Seven forestry projects have been selected by Kaulunani Urban and Community Forestry, a program of the DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW), to receive funds to strengthen community connections with trees. Funding from Kaulunani will support these projects on Kauaʻi, Maui, Oʻahu and Hawaiʻi Island over the next three years.