Couples from Wingham, Howick, Walkerton and Whitby are home after being caught in a massive flood on a Hawaiian island.
Wingham's Karen Grein and her husband were part of a group staying on the island of Kauai when massive amounts of rain fell last weekend. Kauai is to the north of O'ahu.
Over 711 mm (28 inches) of rain fell in a 24 hour period last Saturday and into Sunday, causing flooding and triggering landslides that devastated the local community.
Before the flooding, the group of eight made their way to a village called Hanalei from Princeville, where they were staying. Both communities are on the north side of the island of Kauai, with Hanalei about five minutes from where the group was staying in rented condos.
After crossing a bridge to get to the village for dinner, the rain started to get heavier and the group was encouraged to turn around and head back to their condos. But they never made it.
Authorities shut down the bridge and the group of eight sat parked waiting for the rain to subside. But after an hour, the rain only got heavier. They then made their way to a nearby restaurant to seek shelter as the water level start to climb.
"We were just taking shelter and it started to get worse and worse," said Grein. "And you couldn't get anywhere because the water was rising like waist height, but it wasn't in the building yet. So we were dry."
So the group set up to stay the night.
"And the people in there were still saying to us, don't be scared, this happens," said Grein. "No one knew how bad it was going to get. We were there for the night with the staff, not a big deal. But at about three in the morning or so, our feet started getting wet and the doors burst."
That forced everyone to the second level.
By this time the two vehicles they had left the previous evening were almost submerged underwater.
The rented vehicles submerged. (Photo submitted by Karen Grein)
The following day, the group was picked up in a boat by surfing legend Laird Hamilton, who makes his home in the Hanalei area. And he took them to the village limits to get to a Red Cross shelter. While the water levels were starting to recede, the damage had been done to the roads and bridges.
Now the group had to wait things out at the Red Cross shelter.
"We had nothing but the clothes on our back, like nothing. Just what we had gone to dinner with," said Grein. "Of course everything was wet. We got to the shelter, the school, and got in there and at first, they had no food or water or anything either."
Following two nights in two different shelters, all four couples eventually reached the airport and flew home. Grein and her husband arriving home late Wednesday night. And while the focus was trying to keep going through the whole ordeal, Grein said it was the people in the community that helped the most, not the authorities.
"We were kind of depending on the authorities to give us some guidance, and there was none," Grein said. "And that what made us so fearful and upset. We've travelled a lot. We weren't in Cuba, we weren't in the Dominican, we weren't in Jamaica, were in the United States of America."
Walkerton's Peggy and Mark Gaynor and Howick's Lyn and Adam Johnson were also involved in the ordeal.