Quick update on the situation for the Road to Hana on Maui, where FEMA and county officials have closed bridges on either side of the Kipahulu District Area in Haleakala National Park, the home to an extremely popular hike (the Pipiwai Trail) and the waterfalls and pools at Ohelo Gulch (aka Seven Sacred Pools). The Kipahulu entrance will be closed indefinitely. The Kaupo entrance to the south of the pools is open but you can't get there, either, because a bridge on the Kaupo side was also damaged. That road is, no doubt, quite dicey, regardless. So when will the bridges be fixed and the park reopened to the hundreds of thousands of visitors who go there each year? Maui County is going to move as quickly as possible to get a replacement bridge up but that will likely take a month or more.. Initial damage assessments have not been done yet. Equally troubling is the presence of rocks "the size of small houses" precariously perched along the road between Kaupo and Kipahulu. In other words, additional heavy rainfall could cause further damage by loosing one of these mega-pebbles.

—Alex, 10/25/06