Worst may be over in Hawaii

UNDER sunny skies finally, Hawaii last week began to mop up after six weeks of record-setting storms that dampened thousands of vacations.

Although the islands could get “shots of heavy rain” this month, Derek Wroe, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Honolulu, said, “We’re looking for increasingly drier weather.”

Here was the situation at the Travel Section’s deadline Tuesday:

Roads and resorts were generally open, tourism officials said, but the deluge left its mark.

In Honolulu, signs warning visitors to stay out of the water were being removed Tuesday along Waikiki’s renowned shoreline.

A sewage spill from a broken line had caused high bacteria counts for several days. Tests showed the water to be safe Tuesday, said Janice Okubo, spokeswoman for Hawaii’s Department of Health.

Kahala Mall east of Waikiki reopened Tuesday after a bottom floor flooded March 31 during a storm.

On Kauai, 25 of the 356 rooms at the Kauai Marriott Resort & Beach Club in Lihue were still closed because of water damage, said general manager Bill Countryman. The rest of the resort, he added, was operating normally.

Lihue Airport logged its rainiest month ever in March, meteorologist Wroe said, along with Mt. Waialeale on Kauai, which got more than 93 inches.

The impact on tourism was harder to gauge.

Hawaiian Airlines in late March processed about 300 weather-related ticket changes for Kauai, said spokesman Keoni Wagner, and Countryman said his hotel lost hundreds of room-nights. But Jay Talwar, vice president of marketing for the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau in Honolulu, said travel suppliers reported no “huge impact statewide.”

Airlines’ policies on cancellations varied. Hawaiian and Aloha airlines waived change fees for some Hawaii tickets during part of March, their spokesmen said. So did American Airlines. But United Airlines did not generally waive these fees, said spokeswoman Robin Urbanski.

At the Kauai Marriott Resort & Beach Club, Julie McNamara said she enjoyed meals on the house for two days after a March 11 deluge, which hit right before a conference she helped organize for the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Originally scheduled for Cancun, Mexico, the meeting was moved after Hurricane Wilma last fall damaged the Marriott hotel they were to stay in.

Next year, McNamara said, the academy will take a chance on Cancun again.