 My name is Mark Shklav and I am the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea program. Today we will go across the sea to talk with Kauai lawyer Kai Lawrence. As we all know, Kauai has recently been devastated by rainstorms and severe flooding resulting from those storms. We have heard from many people over the last few days about the humans suffering and the physical damage to Kauai and its infrastructure caused by these storms and the resulting floods. Lawyers also have roles in natural disasters. No, they may not cause them but they help to remedy them. And we are going to get a perspective from Kauai lawyer Kai Lawrence today. We will talk with Kai about the repercussions from the recent storms on the public, the Kauai legal community, the courts on Kauai and the legal issues that have arisen on Kauai due to these events over the last few days. Now Kai, you are talking to me via Zoom. How are you? Good to see you. I'm doing well. How are you doing? Okay. All right. Good. First, I want to know a little bit about you, Kai. Tell me a little bit about your background. How did you end up as a lawyer on Kauai? What kind of law do you do? And I know you're involved in some community activities and also bar activities. So just briefly tell me a little bit about your background. Okay. Yes. So my name is Kai Lawrence. I've been practicing a total of about six years and all six of those years have been on the island of Kauai. Before that, I was attending law school at Pepperdine Law School in Malibu, California. Really had a great time there. I love Southern California. LA was one of my favorite, all-time favorite places to live. But after law school, I wanted to branch out and get some other experience. Myself and my wife, we have ties to Kauai. We both have family out here. And so I was looking for jobs in Hawaii. And I initially found a job as a prosecutor. That was my first job. I came to Kauai for one year as a prosecutor. After a year, I went into private practice. So the past about five years I've been doing private practice. I've kind of been doing a little bit of everything. I started doing criminal defense. The past two years, I've been trying to move more towards business law and estate planning. And that's been going really well. So primarily nowadays, most of my practices are state-related. I still do some criminal defense. I still really like that. That's a great area. So for the past two years, we've been doing that. My wife and I are very happy on Kauai. We love it there. My wife works for Gather, Federal Credit Union. That's a great organization. She has a great job there. And then as far as community activities, we've been really involved in Special Olympics. We really enjoy that opportunity to get back. And the experience itself is really good. It's a life-changing experience to work with the athletes involved in Special Olympics. We coach the team on Kauai. We do softball, powerlifting, and basketball with our athletes. And our athletes are the adult athletes. So we have 22 until, I think our oldest athlete right now is 49. It's our oldest athlete on our team. So we love that. We'll be coming to Oahu for the summer games at the end of May. And we always really look forward to that. That's going to be a great experience. And then also I'm on the Hawaii State Bar Association. I'm the board for the Hawaii State Bar Association. I'm the Kauai director. This is my third year on the board. And again, I love that as well. I have a really good opportunity to mingle with some good lawyers on the board. I feel like there's a lot of really smart and bright minds. Sometimes I actually feel out of place. I feel like I'm the young guy over there, but I really like it. It's been so far, things have been really good. And we have loved our time in Hawaii, kind of staying in Kauai for probably the rest of our lives, I think. Okay. All right. Well, good. And you really, it sounds like you're into the community. And, you know, we've heard a lot about what has happened on Kauai. We've heard on the nightly news, in the newspaper. Kai, you know, we read these things, but we don't really know everything that happens over there. And briefly, you know, what can you tell us that we don't maybe see in the news? Or what's happened there? What are the circumstances after these terrible rain storms? And then I want to know how it's affecting the public. And I guess maybe, you know, since you're involved with the community so much, what repercussions you've seen from those community activities? As far as the community goes that I'm involved with, the interesting thing is that everyone is affected in some way. So maybe you don't see that on the news. You kind of see the areas that were hit the hardest. But even where I live, I live in Kapa'a. And where my neighborhood, we weren't affected too much, although there were neighborhoods in Kapa'a that were really affected. There was the major flooding, not just on the North Shore, but also in Kapa'a and in Kaloa and a few other parts of the island. But the interesting thing is that we all have friends who in some way were connected. We all have friends who were in some way, you know, felt the major effects of the disaster. And so in a way, it really is an island-wide experience. All of us are feeling it in some way. So maybe you don't see that so much on the news. And when I say that, I don't want to take away from the direct impact, because the things you see on the news are the really devastating effects. And those are, and should be, forefront in everyone's mind. And to kind of go into that a little bit more. The main areas that you see on the news, and I'll talk about those mostly, is Honolay, Hainah, and Wainiha. And if you've been to Kauai, you might have been to those areas. Those are three really iconic parts of our island. They're all on the North Shore. Once you pass Honolay, you get into Hainah. And once you pass Hainah, you get into Wainiha. And that's literally the end of the road out there on the North Shore. So Honolay, there was quite a bit of flooding through the main town in Honolay. And so if you've been to Honolay, there is a lot of, that's where a lot of the shops are. A lot of the main community areas are schools, churches, things like that are in Honolay. And the main town there was basically underwater, several feet of water from a lot of the runoff from the mountains. Some of the rivers in that area had totally overflows. There's quite a bit of taro patches out there and pretty much all of the taro patches, I think, were pretty severely affected. So a lot of flooding through that area. As you move up through Hainah, you get into a lot of homes. It's probably most known for that there's quite a bit of high-end real estate in that area. But what you maybe don't see is there's also a lot of pockets of really local areas, like long-time families that have been there for generations, really small, nice post-nate communities in that area. And then especially as you move into Wainiha, you have that same type of community feel. And all three of those areas, Honolay, Hainah, and Wainiha, all experience flooding in some sort, or all the way through the end of the road, there was not just one landslide. You see kind of the main landslides on the news. That's the one that blocked the main highway there. But all through those valleys, there was quite a bit of landslides, I think. Someone I talked to said there was like seven or eight major landslides through that area. And so through all that flooding and the landslides, a lot of people lost their homes. A lot of businesses were affected. And that's kind of the negative aspect that you may have seen on the news and some of the major impacts that you've seen. And just kind of going into that a little more around the island, Kayapana Valley and Kaua had very similar disaster effects in Kayapana. And then also down in Kaloa and some of the valleys there, there were some similar effects also. So those are kind of the main disaster areas on Kaua. Okay, so I hear Kaua is, the island is a community is what I'm hearing you say. I mean, it's really, everybody, it's kind of tight. Everybody knows somebody that was somehow affected or knows about the community, having some flooding or some personal contact. And we don't maybe feel that as much as you do on Kaua, because we're apart from that community. Okay, now, human-wise, human-people-wise, are there positive and negative things that have come out of this event? What's come out from the community human-wise? I would say, I'll kind of talk about three things. There's been a lot of positive things. There's been some negative things, a lot less negative things that I would say human-wise. And then there's been a lot of unintended consequences that we should all learn from. And if this happens again, you should keep these things in mind. So, start with the positive things. I've talked to a few friends who are really forefront up there in the community, a couple friends who actually lived in Wainihaw at the very end of the road there. Their experience was, they felt like, and actually, this goes with my other friend too, who lived in Honolay and he's been really involved in a lot of cleanup. As far as the positive side, we all knew that Kauai was a close-knit community and we all knew that everyone cared about each other, but sometimes it takes a disaster like this to really feel the effects and see how close-knit people really are. And when I say that, I mean, because there really was just a really positive response from that community in general, Kauai in general, across the island. There was a really huge outpouring of support, aid, health. And when I say aid, there was a lot of donation and pick-up spots around the island for people to make donations, food, water, fuel, to also donate cash and monetary donations as well. But then a lot of health-poping hands made their way up to the North Shore to help start cleaning up some of this rubble and this disaster, help people get out of these affected areas that were became isolated. So we have the communities themselves, the island itself, and then I will say statewide, Kauai is just an amazing place because we also felt a huge outpouring from people on other islands. A lot of people on their own without even being asked to set up events, funding pages, set up donation spots on other islands. And I think a few shipments have already made it from other islands of food, water, fuel, things like that. And so Kauai is a great place and sometimes you feel like you're just this one small community area, this one city or this one island. But really when you see something like this, you realize we are all a big group that we care about each other and we don't want to see each other hurt and we felt that a lot. As far as some of the negative aspects, I am really happy to say that, you know, a lot of people were worried that there was going to be some type of white thread looting. A lot of people left certain areas because they had heard all, you know, there might be some type of a bad element that's going to make its way in here and some type of looting or something like that. But really the people I've talked to, there hasn't been a lot of that. And that makes me really happy to hear is that's kind of a scary side to these disasters, I think, and a lot of a lot of different things that you're around the around the globe when disasters happen. But we've been really lucky, there hasn't been too much of that. The one negative thing I heard about, I've heard there was some type of a person burying people in and out of these isolated locations with a boat. But then there was some type of a profiteering or extortion type thing going on through those interactions. You're dropping people off, but then not letting them off unless they paid some type of fee or something like that. And so that was the only negative aspect I heard of. I've heard that the prosecuting attorney on Kauai is looking into that and there may be some type of charges relating to that. I'm not even sure what the charges would be, but really that's the only negative I've heard of something related to that. And then kind of going into some of these unintended consequences is really it's just monetarily. Like a lot of people have been setting up go fund these pages and then they're realizing that sometimes these go fund these pages have tax consequences with them. Funding from the state is coming in, which we definitely need, but we're learning that some programs are feeling the effects of that because the money has to come from somewhere. And then also as far as organizing the resources, that's a learning process too. There's been a lot of really good nonprofits that have been working hard to organize the resources. But what we're learning is that some organizations are a little better than others that add marshaling services. But what we're seeing is everyone's working together. And as we're learning from this, we're learning what works and what doesn't work. Those are kind of some of the unintended consequences. It's not nothing too crazy, but just some things that you may not think about, but that kind of rear their head as you're going through this process. So that's kind of the experience that I've seen or heard so far. Well, it sounds like we have both positive, a lot of positive community things, including the, I'm glad to hear the bigger community of all of Hawaii's participating. And you've kind of now set the stage for what I want to talk about after the break. And after the break, I want to talk about the legal issues that are involved and what you see as a lawyer and what lawyers are helping, what they're doing on Hawaii and what all of our community can do. But we'll take a little break now and we'll come back in about a minute and talk about going forward. All right? The host for Young Talent's Making Way here on Think Tech, Hawaii. We talk every Tuesday at 11 a.m. about things that matter to tech, matter to science, to the people of Hawaii, with some extraordinary guests, the students of our schools who are participating in science field. So Young Talent's Making Way every Tuesday at 11 a.m. only on Think Tech, Hawaii. Mahalo. Are you doing? Okay. Research says reading from birth accelerates the baby's brain development. And you're doing that now? Oh, yeah. This is the starting line. Push. Read aloud 15 minutes. Every child, every parent. We are back. And I am talking with Kai Lawrence, Kauai attorney about the storm on the Garden Island. And we've kind of set the background about what a person on the ground on Kauai, a lawyer, has seen and felt. And now I'd like to go in, Kai, tell me from a lawyer's perspective the legal issues that have come about because of this disaster and the flooding on Kauai. First one I would talk about is, first of all, what kind of assistance people can expect. Right now we have state and county resources providing assistance. When I say assistance, I don't just mean who's out there providing the feed on the ground and actually helping. I mean, at some point people are going to be looking for some type of monetary assistance to try to rebuild. Where we're at right now is the state, excuse me, the county and the state are currently requesting assistance through FEMA. And there's some type of special process through that. And the reason I bring that up is, whether or not these areas get declared through FEMA as a disaster area will affect what type of assistance people will have access to. I think that from the people I talk to, it sounds like FEMA will be declaring these areas disaster areas, which means they'll be able to step in and provide more assistance to individuals. And I've heard that they're expecting that to come through within the next few weeks. And what that would mean is FEMA will actually set up one stop-stop where people can show up and get help on finding out about what they need to do to rebuild. How do they get assistance through the federal government and what kind of assistance is available? So that's the first issue that we've been thinking about it as different legal organizations. Okay, when we're giving advice, what are we going to be advising them? Um, state assistance or federal assistance? We think that federal assistance is going to be coming, but right now it's just state assistance. So that's the first issue we've been we've been thinking about because it'll affect the information that we're giving to others. But some of the other areas that we're looking at being hot topics or issues for people going forward is, first of all, insurance-related issues. Getting some help navigating the insurance process in the insurance world will be a hot area for these individuals looking to rebuild. Also, whether or not persons were required to have blood insurance or whether it was optional in some of these areas, that may make a difference in what kind of assistance people can receive through their insurance. And specifically in areas where they're not required to have blood insurance, I'm sure a lot of people may have elected not to have the blood insurance. Now the interesting thing about that is I'm sure some type of assistance will be available to these individuals who maybe didn't elect to have blood insurance, but they'll be getting it from a different area, maybe coming from government funds rather than through their insurance. But those are some of the areas that people I'm anticipating will be wanting to talk to attorneys about. How do I navigate this insurance problem? Some other areas that are hot topics are landlord tenant type issues in this disaster scenario. There's a lot of people up on the North Shore who are homeowners, but then there's a lot of people who rent in those areas. The huge tourism industry, and there's a lot of workers there that that aren't homeowners, they're renting. And so what happens to them in the disaster areas? What are their rights? What are the landlords rights in these circumstances and situations? Those are going to be hot topics as well. Personal property issues will also be hot topics. A lot of people have lost a lot of damage with cost to property and a lot of property was physically moved by the disaster. And so in some instances you have, you know, my personal property ended up in someone else's yard. What are the implications there? Do I have the right to go retrieve my property? Do I am I responsible for what happened? Is insurance going to cover any damage that my property may have caused to someone else's property through this disaster? So we see those are some of the main topics that we're anticipating people will have questions about. And then long-term people are going to be looking at how do I navigate the planning process? I want to rebuild. I'm going to have to go through the appropriate channels to get permit to get everything approved and to really be able to start from the ground up and build something new. So again, that's going to be another hot topic that attorneys on Kauai are well with the handle, but also that I'm sure there will be people from other islands providing assistance as well in those areas. Some other interesting areas that we've been looking at too is relating to I think I mentioned there was there's a group on Kauai that started a GoFundMe page. It's actually a great place to donate. By the way, it's Coral McCarthy, Gaby Lee, Anna, I remember her last name, but those three, they're really well known individuals on the North Shore. They started a GoFundMe page. It raised over $260,000 in funds so far. And who's that for? Who is that for? Who is the GoFundMe page for? It's for the Hanalei and Hainan community. So if you go to GoFundMe and you just type in the name Coral with a K, K-O-R-A-L, their page talks up first. It's a first. The Hanalei, Hainan community, something along those lines. I also noticed the Hawaii Bar Association suggested the Kauai Food Bank also. Yes, yes, definitely. As far as good places to donate, kind of taking a detour here. Yes, Kauai Food Bank is a great spot. They've been delivering, they've been doing a great job providing food and resources for people. Community Foundation, I think is a great place to donate because I see them as having the infrastructure and the organization necessary to really help with the rebuilding process. Also, AHA, that's a good organization in Kilauea as well. And then also Malama Kauai, they've been a really good resource also providing, coordinating a lot of the donations and receiving a lot of monetary donations, helping to support all that. So anyway, some of the GoFundMe, some of these donors are looking at possible tax implications. Sorry, some of the organizers are saying of receiving $250,000 in GoFundMe funds, there are some tax implications that there may be ways around it. I don't really know, I'm not a tax guy, but I've heard that those are some issues that people are feeling there. And then going forward in the long term, this actually could be an opportunity to kind of rebuild this area in a way that improves the community and the economic viability of that area long term. And when I say that, I mean, I'm hoping that through this rebuilding process, a big emphasis is put on supporting entrepreneurs in that area so we can build some good businesses. The tourism industry is always going to be there, so obviously we've got to rebuild that. But it'd be a good opportunity to not just focus on that, but let's focus on agriculture, let's focus on other small businesses and really rebuild this area into what it was and hopefully something even better, I think. So those are some of the hot topics we see. Sorry, just one other issue too is people are going to need advice about avoiding the negative element out there. We haven't seen much of a negative element so far, but in the past people have been worried about fraud. Maybe I need an appraiser and I go hire an appraiser, but this person actually wasn't a certified appraiser, so I ended up paying money to this person who I shouldn't have, I should have gone through the correct panel. Things like that are going to be issues also. Hopefully not, but that's something we're anticipating, possibly having to advise people. So those are kind of some of the relevant areas that we see as meeting some competent individuals to help advise people as they navigate this process going forward. So it seems to me that we can't escape lawyers. We need lawyers and lawyers are helping. They're doing positive things, looking for ways to assist the community. And it's important to have a good lawyer, somebody you can rely on and somebody that can help you through these many type of issues. And it sounds to me like the Kauai bar is geared up to help. We have about a minute left and I'd like you to tell me what have you learned? What have you learned about all this experience on Kauai as a Kauai lawyer going through these these stormy days? You know you always hear this that you got to be prepared at any at any point and it's really true. A lot of times when we're thinking about disasters in the island we're thinking at least myself I was thinking about you know probably a tsunami or a hurricane is what I got to worry about. I didn't think about I just need to worry about a heavy rainstorm that might cause some kind of major disaster and flooding. So being prepared is all time not just during hurricane season or something like that it's really something that I learned. And then really being involved in the community not just when a disaster hit but on a regular basis really helps build these tight knit communities that we've been seeing. I think a lot of people are involved in things and they're not just they're not just living their own lives and so that that's some kind that's something that I've learned that this community really is you know we're not just a community when it's easy but we're a community when it's hard to and and that's something that I'm really proud of and I'm glad that Kauai is doing a good job in that respect. Well I appreciate your time today Kai and if I guess if if anybody has any questions they could contact you on Kauai and if there's anybody would like to help and they are need some suggestions you could provide it to them. Is that right? Yeah no problem definitely. Okay all right Kai thank you very much we look forward to recovery over in Kauai and the beautiful place my brother and his family live there and hope to go see them soon. So Aloha. Aloha Kai thank you very much. Thank you Mark I appreciate it.