1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:06,360 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:08,360 --> 00:00:12,320 Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a 3 00:00:12,440 --> 00:00:15,600 Speaker 1: show that charts the storms of history one day at 4 00:00:15,640 --> 00:00:19,360 Speaker 1: a time. I'm Gay Blues Yay, and in this episode, 5 00:00:19,640 --> 00:00:23,040 Speaker 1: we're reflecting on one of the worst natural disasters to 6 00:00:23,120 --> 00:00:26,799 Speaker 1: ever strike the state of Hawaii, a deadly hurricane that 7 00:00:26,920 --> 00:00:30,880 Speaker 1: wiped out almost every structure on the oldest island in 8 00:00:30,920 --> 00:00:41,640 Speaker 1: the Hawaiian chain. The day was September eleventh, nineteen ninety two. 9 00:00:42,560 --> 00:00:47,160 Speaker 1: A Category four hurricane devastated the Hawaiian island of Kawaii, 10 00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:52,440 Speaker 1: known as Hurricane Iniki, which means strong and piercing wind 11 00:00:52,560 --> 00:00:56,240 Speaker 1: in Hawaiian. The storm made landfall on the island's coast 12 00:00:56,440 --> 00:00:59,480 Speaker 1: with winds of one hundred and forty miles per hour. 13 00:01:00,240 --> 00:01:03,440 Speaker 1: The eye of Inniki was over the island for only 14 00:01:03,520 --> 00:01:06,640 Speaker 1: forty minutes before it re entered the Pacific Ocean and 15 00:01:06,720 --> 00:01:10,280 Speaker 1: proceeded northwest, but that was long enough to damage or 16 00:01:10,319 --> 00:01:14,759 Speaker 1: destroy ninety percent of the island's homes and buildings, and 17 00:01:14,959 --> 00:01:19,400 Speaker 1: to claim the lives of six people. Hurricane Iniki is 18 00:01:19,440 --> 00:01:22,560 Speaker 1: not well remembered on the US mainland, as it was 19 00:01:22,600 --> 00:01:26,280 Speaker 1: overshadowed at the time by Hurricane Andrew, which had wreaked 20 00:01:26,319 --> 00:01:30,120 Speaker 1: havoc on southern Florida less than three weeks earlier, But 21 00:01:30,240 --> 00:01:34,240 Speaker 1: in the Hawaiian Archipelago and on Kawaii in particular, there 22 00:01:34,280 --> 00:01:38,160 Speaker 1: is no forgetting Aniki. Some effects of the hurricane are 23 00:01:38,200 --> 00:01:42,160 Speaker 1: still present today, and it remains the most destructive storm 24 00:01:42,360 --> 00:01:47,440 Speaker 1: in Hawaii's recorded history. Iniki came about during the hurricane 25 00:01:47,480 --> 00:01:51,320 Speaker 1: inducing El Nino event of nineteen ninety two, and was 26 00:01:51,360 --> 00:01:55,760 Speaker 1: one of eleven named tropical cyclones that season. It first 27 00:01:55,840 --> 00:01:59,280 Speaker 1: formed on September fifth and strengthened into a full blown 28 00:01:59,320 --> 00:02:04,200 Speaker 1: tropical store on September eighth. One day later, it intensified 29 00:02:04,280 --> 00:02:09,240 Speaker 1: again into a small but fierce hurricane. Historically speaking, the 30 00:02:09,280 --> 00:02:13,119 Speaker 1: Hawaiian Islands have been largely shielded from tropical storms due 31 00:02:13,160 --> 00:02:16,040 Speaker 1: to a surrounding band of high pressure known as a 32 00:02:16,080 --> 00:02:20,680 Speaker 1: subtropical ridge. As a result, only a handful of major 33 00:02:20,720 --> 00:02:26,080 Speaker 1: storm systems have ever made landfall in the island's modern history. Unfortunately, 34 00:02:26,360 --> 00:02:30,800 Speaker 1: Hawaii's waters were uncommonly warm that September, which weakened the 35 00:02:30,840 --> 00:02:34,919 Speaker 1: subtropical ridge and produced the bathtube like conditions in which 36 00:02:34,960 --> 00:02:40,040 Speaker 1: hurricanes thrive. This effectively cleared a path for Aniki to follow, 37 00:02:40,440 --> 00:02:43,400 Speaker 1: and sure enough, on September ninth, the storm made a 38 00:02:43,480 --> 00:02:46,640 Speaker 1: sharp turn to the north and headed straight for Kawaii. 39 00:02:47,560 --> 00:02:51,800 Speaker 1: Nicknamed the Garden Aisle for its untouched natural beauty, Kawaii 40 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:55,360 Speaker 1: is the fourth largest island of the Hawaiian Archipelago and 41 00:02:55,520 --> 00:02:58,320 Speaker 1: was home to about fifty one thousand people at the time. 42 00:02:59,080 --> 00:03:03,000 Speaker 1: Iniki's unus usual movement caught the island's authorities off guard, 43 00:03:03,400 --> 00:03:06,799 Speaker 1: and many forecasters wrongly assumed that it would still pass 44 00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:11,040 Speaker 1: just south of them. Instead, the system continued to strengthen 45 00:03:11,080 --> 00:03:13,760 Speaker 1: over the next two days, and at eight am on 46 00:03:13,800 --> 00:03:17,680 Speaker 1: September eleventh, it reached its peak intensity as a Category 47 00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:22,440 Speaker 1: four hurricane. As the warning sirens blared early that morning, 48 00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:26,400 Speaker 1: residents across the island scrambled to gather supplies and board 49 00:03:26,480 --> 00:03:30,639 Speaker 1: up their windows. Meanwhile, thousands of tourists rushed to the 50 00:03:30,720 --> 00:03:33,960 Speaker 1: Lehui Airport, hoping to get off the island before the 51 00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:37,920 Speaker 1: storm made landfall. Eventually, though, the airlines were forced to 52 00:03:37,920 --> 00:03:41,160 Speaker 1: stop service, leaving many visitors with no option but to 53 00:03:41,240 --> 00:03:46,280 Speaker 1: seek refuge in public shelters. Iniki reached the island that afternoon, 54 00:03:46,560 --> 00:03:49,840 Speaker 1: packing sustained winds of one hundred and forty five miles 55 00:03:49,840 --> 00:03:53,000 Speaker 1: per hour, with some gusts reaching an excess of two 56 00:03:53,080 --> 00:03:57,040 Speaker 1: hundred miles per hour. By three pm, the powerful winds 57 00:03:57,040 --> 00:04:00,840 Speaker 1: had uprooted trees and utility poles, tore the roofs off 58 00:04:00,880 --> 00:04:05,640 Speaker 1: of houses, and knocked out telephone and power service island wide. 59 00:04:05,680 --> 00:04:09,320 Speaker 1: The intense storm surge also washed thirty foot waves over 60 00:04:09,320 --> 00:04:13,560 Speaker 1: the highways and caused major coastal flooding, particularly on the 61 00:04:13,600 --> 00:04:17,479 Speaker 1: south shore. The eye of the swift moving storm came 62 00:04:17,520 --> 00:04:20,880 Speaker 1: ashore at roughly four pm, and within an hour it 63 00:04:20,920 --> 00:04:24,200 Speaker 1: had already swept across the thirty mile wide island and 64 00:04:24,320 --> 00:04:28,720 Speaker 1: moved fifty miles north into open ocean. Once the immediate 65 00:04:28,800 --> 00:04:32,440 Speaker 1: danger was over, the lengthy process of assessing and repairing 66 00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:36,080 Speaker 1: the damage could commence. More than one hundred people were 67 00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:40,240 Speaker 1: injured by the storm, but remarkably only six deaths were reported. 68 00:04:40,839 --> 00:04:44,200 Speaker 1: The most extensive damage incurred on Kawaii was to the 69 00:04:44,200 --> 00:04:48,800 Speaker 1: island's infrastructure. More than fourteen thousand homes were impacted by 70 00:04:48,800 --> 00:04:52,720 Speaker 1: the hurricane, with fourteen hundred being completely destroyed and five 71 00:04:52,760 --> 00:04:57,359 Speaker 1: thousand others severely damaged. There was also significant damage to 72 00:04:57,400 --> 00:05:01,640 Speaker 1: the island's roads and electrical grid. Many residents without power 73 00:05:01,760 --> 00:05:05,760 Speaker 1: or communication services for months after the storm, and while 74 00:05:05,800 --> 00:05:08,400 Speaker 1: the south shore of Kawaii took the brunt of the 75 00:05:08,400 --> 00:05:11,919 Speaker 1: wind and storm surge, the damage ranged over the entire 76 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:16,240 Speaker 1: island and even to the neighboring island of Oahu. In total, 77 00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:20,680 Speaker 1: Hurricane and Niki caused roughly three billion dollars in damages, 78 00:05:21,120 --> 00:05:24,160 Speaker 1: the equivalent of around six and a half billion dollars 79 00:05:24,200 --> 00:05:28,400 Speaker 1: in today's money. According to Kawaii County officials, It took 80 00:05:28,440 --> 00:05:31,520 Speaker 1: the Garden Aisle about a decade to fully recover, and 81 00:05:31,560 --> 00:05:35,400 Speaker 1: to this day, Hurricane Iniki remains the most powerful and 82 00:05:35,440 --> 00:05:39,440 Speaker 1: the most costly tropical storm to ever hit the Hawaiian islands. 83 00:05:40,360 --> 00:05:44,520 Speaker 1: Iniki also had a peculiar impact on Kawaii's ecosystem, as 84 00:05:44,560 --> 00:05:48,200 Speaker 1: it set loose a large number of non native feral chickens. 85 00:05:48,839 --> 00:05:51,560 Speaker 1: The birds had been brought to the island centuries earlier 86 00:05:51,600 --> 00:05:54,720 Speaker 1: by Polynesian explorers, and had thrived there due to the 87 00:05:54,800 --> 00:05:58,599 Speaker 1: lack of natural predators. The population boomed in the wake 88 00:05:58,640 --> 00:06:02,200 Speaker 1: of the storm, and today Kawaii's feral chickens are a 89 00:06:02,279 --> 00:06:05,640 Speaker 1: kind of unofficial mascot for the island, as well as 90 00:06:05,640 --> 00:06:10,280 Speaker 1: a chronic nuisance for farmers and motorists. Another lesser known 91 00:06:10,360 --> 00:06:14,240 Speaker 1: facet of the storm is its unexpected brush with Hollywood history. 92 00:06:14,880 --> 00:06:17,880 Speaker 1: One of the most influential films of the decade, Steven 93 00:06:17,920 --> 00:06:21,800 Speaker 1: Spielberg's Jurassic Park, happened to be filming on Kawaii at 94 00:06:21,839 --> 00:06:24,680 Speaker 1: the time of the hurricane, and like many other visitors 95 00:06:24,680 --> 00:06:27,359 Speaker 1: to the island, the one hundred and thirty cast and 96 00:06:27,400 --> 00:06:30,400 Speaker 1: crew members had no choice but to hunker down and 97 00:06:30,480 --> 00:06:33,279 Speaker 1: wait it out. By the time the storm hit, the 98 00:06:33,320 --> 00:06:36,880 Speaker 1: filmmakers had already completed most of the on location filming, 99 00:06:37,200 --> 00:06:41,120 Speaker 1: including the helicopter landing scene, the automated ride through the park, 100 00:06:41,360 --> 00:06:44,839 Speaker 1: and various wide angle landscape shots that took advantage of 101 00:06:44,880 --> 00:06:49,919 Speaker 1: Kawaii's lush, tropical rainforests and soaring cliff sides. That said, 102 00:06:50,120 --> 00:06:53,680 Speaker 1: a few intrepid crew members actually braved the storm to 103 00:06:53,760 --> 00:06:56,960 Speaker 1: capture additional footage, and some of it even made it 104 00:06:56,960 --> 00:07:00,240 Speaker 1: into the final film. During the scene when a storm 105 00:07:00,240 --> 00:07:04,040 Speaker 1: strikes the fictional Aila Newblar, some shots of the waves 106 00:07:04,080 --> 00:07:08,400 Speaker 1: and torrential rainfall were actually filmed a long Kawai's Novelli 107 00:07:08,520 --> 00:07:12,840 Speaker 1: Villi Bay just ahead of Aniki's landfall. Most of the 108 00:07:12,840 --> 00:07:17,240 Speaker 1: film's stars, including Laura Dern, Sam Neil and Jeff Goldbloom, 109 00:07:17,320 --> 00:07:20,680 Speaker 1: later went on record about just how harrowing the experience 110 00:07:20,720 --> 00:07:24,080 Speaker 1: had been for them, but Richard Attenborough, the actor who 111 00:07:24,120 --> 00:07:29,440 Speaker 1: played Jurassic Park founder John Hammond, was surprisingly nonchalant. In fact, 112 00:07:29,640 --> 00:07:32,760 Speaker 1: he claimed to have slept through the worst of the storm, 113 00:07:32,880 --> 00:07:35,720 Speaker 1: and when his fellow cast members asked how that was possible, 114 00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:38,640 Speaker 1: he said it had been easy because, after all, he 115 00:07:38,680 --> 00:07:41,360 Speaker 1: had lived through the London Blitz during World War II. 116 00:07:42,440 --> 00:07:46,520 Speaker 1: Nothing like a German bombing campaign to put things in perspective. 117 00:07:48,760 --> 00:07:52,160 Speaker 1: I'm Gabe Lucier and hopefully you now know a little 118 00:07:52,160 --> 00:07:56,280 Speaker 1: more about history today than you did yesterday. You can 119 00:07:56,360 --> 00:08:00,160 Speaker 1: learn even more about history by following us on Twitter, Facebook, 120 00:08:00,160 --> 00:08:04,640 Speaker 1: and Instagram at TDI HC Show, and if you have 121 00:08:04,680 --> 00:08:07,600 Speaker 1: any comments or suggestions, you can always send them my 122 00:08:07,680 --> 00:08:12,200 Speaker 1: way by writing to this day at iHeartMedia dot com. 123 00:08:12,200 --> 00:08:15,000 Speaker 1: Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thanks 124 00:08:15,040 --> 00:08:17,520 Speaker 1: to you for listening. I'll see you back here again 125 00:08:17,560 --> 00:08:20,640 Speaker 1: tomorrow for another day in History class.