A tall old coconut palm tree just a few houses down the street snapped in the wind, becoming the first known casualty on our block. It’s one of a cluster of old trees that surround a large house on the corner of Kealaolu and Aukai Avenues. I would guess these trees are more than 60 years old, and have survived several tropical storms in the past. This was the only visible damage that we saw when we walked down to the beach park this morning.

For those interested in conditions here. Yes, it’s windy this morning, and was windy overnight. But it’s not scary windy. At least not yet. We’ll see what happens later today and into this evening. And we’ve had very little rain, although that could change soon, unlike the islands of Maui and Hawaii, which have had generous amounts of rain.

When Hurricane Iniki hit Kauai, we were living in Kaaawa and were hit with the outer winds from the hurricane. Our house would groan, creak, and shudder with every major gust that rolled down the valley or swept in off the ocean. When we rebuilt my parents’ house and moved back to Kahala, the house was brought up to the current building code. So far, it’s rock solid. I haven’t heard a single groan or rattle.

One interesting note. When we got to the beach and walked out onto the sand, the wind was a lot stronger than it was at our house, which is about a quarter-mile inland, although you can’t really tell from this photo.