Pursuits: For Nicole Kahale, Her Calling Came During the Waialua Floods

Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino

As relentless rainwater tore through Waialua in March, submerging homes and stranding people on their roofs, Nicole Kahale was at Dillingham Ranch in nearby Mokulē‘ia getting updates from her brother-in-law, Levi Rita, who was at the scene of the unfolding disaster.

Kahale, the operations manager at the ranch, got in her Polaris ATV and headed toward Waialua, but the flooding was too severe. “It was pushing my Polaris,” she says. “Water wasn’t just coming from the stream—it was flowing down the mountain. It was just insanity.”

After returning to the ranch, she got updates through the night from Rita, who was among those rescuing people from the raging storm. The next morning, when she ventured outside, she couldn’t believe what she saw. “It was like an apocalypse,” she says. “We got out to the main road, and there were people and cars all over the place, cars that had like floated from we don’t know where. No one knew what to do.”

Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino

Shock, fear and sadness gripped Kahale as she processed the devastation and how many people were affected. At 30 years old, she was used to leading the charge at work. Now, she was ready to step up in an even more significant way.

It started with preparing dinner at the ranch for about 40 people who had fled their homes. The meals continued the next day and the following days too, with more people to feed, many of whom Kahale had never met before. The meals then moved to St. Michael Parish, which opened its facilities to support the community. “We made an Instagram post. and then we were doing breakfast and lunch and dinner at St. Michael. It became our home for the next two weeks.”

Kahale’s outreach was only beginning. She became operations manager of a community distribution center that handed out food, water, cleaning supplies and other essentials to whomever needed them. To support the effort, Kahale was tapped to help coordinate the Lāhui Foundation’s aid to flood victims and to facilitate donations from individuals, businesses and organizations like the Hawai‘i Foodservice Alliance and Hawai‘i Foodbank.

Kahale says she hasn’t been surprised by the outpouring of donations and volunteers. This interview took place some three weeks after the initial floods at the distribution center, which was then set up at Waialua District Park. Kahale rolled up to the hub that morning in her ATV with her dog, Beethoven, ready for action. The tent was filled with volunteers, and Kahale was at the center of the outreach, helping direct the flow of people streaming into the parking lot to receive their goods. She was in her element.

“My mom would probably give the person on the side of the road that she doesn’t know the shirt off her back, so I have that in me,” she says. “Leadership has always been my thing, but this brought out my compassion. But over here, we’re all gonna help—that’s just the way the people in Waialua are built.”

At the time, Kahale described the previous few weeks as among the best in her life because she saw the goodness in people and was surrounded by it. While controversies over the years have pitted people on the North Shore against each other, Kahale says that during and in the aftermath of the storms, everyone came together. The experience made her optimistic that those from different sides of contentious issues can find middle ground and work together.

“People who didn’t associate with each other are now having dinner,” she says. “Neighbors who didn’t even know each other are now taking care of one another and cleaning out each other’s houses. I do think that’s the silver lining.”

Diane Seo is the editorial director of HONOLULU Magazine.