This web site was published on the web for the first time in
June of 1994. In late November of 1998, a box of photos turned up that
had been sealed since the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Iniki in 1992.
While I can happily report that the effects of Iniki are now pretty much
relegated to the memory phase, there is one thing that these photos assist
in confirming that has been debated because of what I published on this
web site.
While in the Prince Golf and Country Club on September 11, 1992, I witnessed
an implosion directly related to the doors and windows in this building
being sealed and not cracked. The lethal dose of low pressure caused by
the worst gusts of the hurricane late in the afternoon
caused the entire room to collapse upon itself.
In 1997, I was questioned on this observation by iinsurance appraisers
surfing this web site from Florida. They said that my version was not accurate.
Having seen it with my own eyes, I of course I didn't take these "expert"
opinions very seriously. Their grandparents probably deemed Titanic unsinkable.
At any rate, these photos provide very strong evidence to the implosion
that occured there at about 5:30 pm the day of Hurricane Iniki. Much more
importantly, they help support the need to crack windows in a catastrophic
wind event.
This photo was taken at about 5:15 pm September 11, 1992. This is from
the main lobby of the Prince Golf and Country Club looking across to the
Banquet Room fixed up for a Wedding. You can notice that the tiles on the
roof were beginning to peel off and fly at this point in the storm. You
can also notice that the banquet room is perfectly calm and there are no
windows broken. The white table cloths are still in place and perfectly
still. Every window was in tact at this point.
This is the same room from outside at about 6:15 pm the same day September
11, 1992. Less than two hours after the above photo was taken, every single
window had been vaporized. Further dramatizing the effects of the implosion,
the windows on the restaurant below are relatively undisturbed. The windows
upstairs were pressurized hurricane resistant glass, tested to withstand
up to 200 MPH winds. The surviving windows downstairs are regular thin
glass panes. The difference is that the doors were closed upstairs and
the resulting implosion disintegrated the room. For what it is worth, in
the rest of the Princeville resort, only a few hurricane proof windows
did not survive. Seemingly, in every event, they were shattered by the
same flying debris, Spanish roof tiles.
As the only eye witness to this little sub disaster within Iniki, I
never doubted what happened. Of course for the purposes of this story,
I am discounting all of the stories circulating on the North Shore that
the Prince Golf and Country Club is haunted. I certainly believe the Hawaiian
ghosts are still around, but on September 11, 1992, the above damage was
caused by a hurricane induced implosion.
