Experts agree it’s only a matter of time until Oahu gets hit by a hurricane or tsunami. We examine the island’s vulnerabilities and what steps are being taken to make it more resilient.
University of Hawaii researchers tracked dozens of hungry tiger
sharks to a remote atoll in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine
National Monument this summer. Civil Beat photojournalist Alana
Eagle documents the expedition in this multimedia special report.
Readers of daily dispatches from the White House press pool that follows President Barack Obama to Hawaii for his annual holiday are usually treated to more of the same: motorcades to the K-Bay gym, golf courses, beaches, expensive restaurants and the like.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
The president himself is rarely ever sighted. Boring stuff.
But Gardiner Harris of The New York Times usually manages to at least spice up the filings with some literary flourishes.
Obama’s motorcade in Kailua, circa 2014.
Cory Lum/Civil Beat
Here’s some examples from Tuesday, unedited:
8:22:38 AM HST
Pool is holding at a nearby McDonalds, whose localized breakfast menu includes a deluxe breakfast that includes Spam. Your pooler believes strongly in being sensitive to local culture and its offerings. But there are some traditions that are unequivocally wrong (slavery and child labor spring to mind), and braised spam with scrambled eggs falls into that unfortunate category of unacceptable localized abominations.
If Scrapple had been on the menu, this judgment would quite obviously be different.
11:43:07 AM HST
The White House has not offered any hint of our destination, but van veterans here are betting that your pool is headed to Hanauma Bay State Park, a gorgeous beach with an abundance of marine life in crystal-clear waters. The park is closed to visitors on Tuesdays, making today ideal for a first family get-away since next Tuesday will be taken up with the visit from the Japanese prime minister.
12:11:43 PM HST
The first family and their friends are spending the afternoon at the beach at Bellows Air Force Base. The previous prediction of a visit to Hanauma, based on years of experience, intense introspection, and a consultation of star charts, proved wrong.
3:06:47 PM HST
Bellows could hardly be more ideal, with a wide strip of mature pines edging up to a white sand beach. The water offers four distinct shades of aquamarine going out to what appears to be a reef, where white breakers form a boundary with a sapphire blue Pacific beyond.The more distant horizon offers sharp trapezoidal islands of tropical vegetation.
In short, crazy beautiful.
Sign up for our FREE morning newsletter and face each day more informed.
Chad Blair is the Politics and Opinion Editor for Civil Beat. You can reach him by email at cblair@civilbeat.org or follow him on Twitter at @chadblairCB.
The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands is one of the most remote places on Earth. Now, it’s threatened by climate change, pollution and politics.
Guam's predominantly Catholic community has been torn apart by decades of allegations of sexual abuse by beloved priests.
Experts agree it’s only a matter of time until Oahu gets hit by a hurricane or tsunami. We examine the island’s vulnerabilities and what steps are being taken to make it more resilient.
University of Hawaii researchers tracked dozens of hungry tiger
Getting A Driver’s License Or ID Can Be Easy. Really!