FlyinHawaiian

Aloha, all:

Inspired by the following thread and previous posts that many have made describing the personal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, slippahs and I would like to start one for the members of the Hawaii Forum: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/omni...d-cv-19-a.html

In doing so, we hope that this thread will be a good source of information for members who are interested in visiting Hawai`i (when it is safe to do so and travel restrictions permit) and want to know what to expect based on the reports and experiences from residents. More importantly, we also want to show our kokua for the kama`aina members and make sure there's a place in this forum for their experiences and direct impacts to be shared and heard.

As with the OMNI thread, we kindly ask that discussions about politicians and political ideology take place outside of this forum. The same holds true for meta-topics such as mask-wearing, COVID testing, and comparative discussions of how other states/countries are responding to the pandemic. We will try and keep these requirements to a minimum and only step in when needed.

Mahalo,

slippahs and FlyinHawaiian, Co-Moderators
Hawaii (Travel) Forum

747FC

Thankfully nothing medically dramatic for our family, so the rest is just a PIA:

We used to dine out around 4-5 days a week, and had our long-term favorite places where the owners/managers/bartenders/waitstaff knew us and warmly greeted us with robust handshakes, hugs, or kisses. We knew about their lives, and they knew about ours. All of this is gone now. We confine ourselves to take-out whereby the food is put in our car trunk. The folks bringing us the food are not known to us, so we believe that many of them have been terminated or left town. This makes us sad for them.

As we are in an age range where our friends are as medically at-risk as are we, our in-person social contacts have been limited to exactly one outdoor dining experience. That was not at all comfortable as the waiter kept closely kneeling down to get at eye-level to talk to us.

We worked out at a very large gym which has been closed for months. Our muscle tone has very much degraded, which is not good for our health. We have a few barbells at home, but our muscle bulk has decreased.

We are thankful that our financial means are robust and we are not affected in this way. We have greatly increased our charitable contributions to local COVID-19 charities/Foodbank. We feel terrible for those who are suffering financially/medically.

hawaii-bound

Our life has not changed too much since the stay at home order. We retired on the Big Island in 2006. We have been walking in our neighborhood as well as Mauna Lani / Fairmont Orchid beaches and roads. Our fitness center at the Westin Hapuna has been closed, but thanks to our wonderful trainer, we have been able to do private sessions and virtual sessions via zoom. One of the benefits of the zoom classes is that we get to "see" friends who live here part time and are back on the mainland.

One of the biggest downsides is the temporary closure of our local non-profit theatre for live music and dance. We miss not being able to go out once in awhile for breakfast, lunch or dinner. We have cancelled our September plans to visit family in California and Texas. We are also thankful that our financial situation does not affect us negatively.

We are still hoping that at some point in the future our family from NY and Texas will be able to come visit us. We did have a houseguest for 5 months who got stuck with the stay at home order and determined that if you have to quarantine, a 30 something would be best served here in Hawaii. They have finally headed back home to family on the east coast.

747FC

UHERO just published some information and analysis of Hawaii's unemployment picture:

https://uhero.hawaii.edu/unemploymen...bling-picture/

"Table 1 shows the sharp decline in employment between March and April, a decline of 167,000. Unemployment rose during the same period by 134,900 and the labor force declined by 32,000. The sharp rise in Hawaii’s unemployment rate from 2.4% in March to 23.8% in April would have been even more pronounced if the labor force had not declined by 32,000 persons. If the labor force did not fall, and the number of people unemployed increased by the full decline in employment, Hawaii’s unemployment rate would have been 27.5% in April instead of 23.8%."

They also looked at the Great Recession of 2007-09 for guidance:

"Even though the Great Recession of 2007-2009 lasted only 18 months in the U.S., employment in Hawaii did not return to the pre-recession level until 2014. And that’s without protracted travel quarantines, business shutdowns and stay-at-home orders. The number of involuntary part-time workers did not fall to the 2007 level until 2019. UHERO’s most recent (baseline) forecast envisions total employment not returning to its pre-pandemic level until 2029. Social safety net programs and job re-training and education programs all deserve more attention to avoid a lost decade for Hawaii’s underemployed."

Using history as a guide, Hawaii is likely to impacted for 5-9 years, even if this COVID-19 is magically cured tomorrow. Sad

LiquidHonesty

Changed greatly. I'm on Maui and I work in Hospitality, I'm thankful to still be employed but on a reduced work week/pay. However, 80% of my friends here have all been without jobs since March. They have finally all gotten their UE checks coming in but some of them it took months. The sad part is when they finally let us re-open, occupancy will be about 30% of what it was, which means they'll only call back 30% or less of the workforce. So many restaurants and stores have already gone out of business and will be gone for good.

The biggest problem for me is my wife and I can't go visit our families on the mainland without having to quarantine for two weeks on return. Financially we can't afford that, and wouldn't qualify for UE as we traveled knowing that would be required. We have never had "island fever" here before.......but now it's showing it's face.

The fallout from the shutdown in Hawaii will be MUCH worse than COVID could have been. People will die due to both, COVID isn't a guaranteed death sentence but shutdown is a guaranteed economy death sentence. Our Hawaiian "leaders" have been useless and have failed us. Sure we have low COVID numbers, but the cost is far too great. I realize I'll probably get blasted saying I just want people to die and I don't care about the kapuna. Realize that's NOT true at all, and the fact that someone thinks it's so black/white is sad.

COSPILOT

I’m the working class, and as much as I enjoyed the break from crowded roads and admittedly sometimes annoying tourists I want it back ASAP. Long conversation with a good friend last night, retired and wealthy enough that none of this financially impacts him and his wife. He is also begging for a return to normal just for sanity of open stores and restaurants. We can only drink so much whiskey and smoke cigars, wash and wax his fast car, we both want normal back.

Stopped by a clients house today to check on her, we spent over an hour talking about her family and mine, sharing pictures and the typical aloha spirit. Stay positive, we will survive this. She made my day asking about my wife and kids.

Bearcat06

I just back out here (third time... hopefully for good) in June and its pretty bizzare out here.

There is absolutely no traffic at all. If it ties up during the busy parts of the day, it quickly fades off. I drove from Waikiki to North Shore then around to Kahuku......then to Waimanalo....Hawaii Kai.... and back home. It took 2 hours or so with stops. Usually that would be a good 2-3 hours (at least)

On the work front, most of the military is still working from home and that sucks. At least I have high end cable and biz speed internet to keep me entertained.

I still haven't to visit with friends that have health issues as they are tending to stay put at home, the Elks Lodge and other places in town are at 1/2 capacity and I believe that's keeping a lot of folks from going out and enjoying themselves (the ones that can afford it).

What really kills me is no live music. Even though it was given the go ahead (finally) a few weeks ago, none of the clubs/restaurants seem like they are in a hurry to put it back due to being able to only fill the place at 50%. Chart House and Murphy's just adjusted hours agai to barely anything.

Vehicle registrations and DL renewals are taking forever as well and you can only sign-up online. No stand-bys...... not even to update military ID cards.

ExpatExp

If it helps there is live music at Duke's in Waikiki and at the Tommy Bahama bar. And the funny thing is, traffic now is much heavier than it was during the lockdown, at least here in Honolulu -- but not anywhere close to normal levels, of course.

HaleiwaFlyer

One type of traffic/congestion that has worsened due to COVID 19......the surf line up

inlanikai

Retired here on the windward side of Oahu. Golf is back to about 90% of scheduling capacity, but there are still some restrictions. The consumer help organization where I volunteer is still shut down as the company that provides us facilities is still restricting access to many of their own employees. I can only imagine the calls we would be getting for airline related issues. Costco no longer has lines outside to get in, at least when I go late morning and early afternoon although the Iwilei gas station is starting to back up again but not like it was before Covid. Definitely more people at the beaches and hiking trails and it is clear some, certainly not all, are tourists. There appears to be excellent mask compliance when in public spaces. Oh yeah, and I bought a new car in May at a very nice discount from the Subie dealer.

FlyinHawaiian

I hear the post offices on Maui are out of the Medium-sized Flat Rate mailing boxes, likely due to merchants sending purchased items for delivery and not enough incoming supply. Anyone seeing this on any of the other islands?

747FC

MPCC?

COSPILOT

I haven’t seen that yet, but I’m convinced it’s a personal pride thing to run out of product here.

Our golf course is packed, but no idea why as the trade winds are light and the heat is high. By noon I’m exhausted and look like a zombie.

While composing this I got distracted by a cockroach, I’m normally not concerned with spiders or frankly anything, but this guy missed my catch and release plan, found a path up my arm and got inside my shirt. So now it’s war and I think I’ve killed Him with my Locals, but he isn’t done, he is back to life and ready for round whatever. I think we are done after round 8 and he still starts again. By now I’ve done something I would never do and have furniture where it doesn’t belong and not gently.

Good news I won the war, and while I’m not sure he is dead, he is outside of my house.

If anyone is willing to drop a beer or two in West Maui I’ll take it.

inlanikai

747FC

LOL. For a moment, I had to bolster my powers of discernment and choose between the options that you were either joking, describing a true event in a humorous fashion, or suffering from COVID19 Isolation Psychosis