Trouble in Paradise!
Hurricane Iniki turned their dream wedding into a nightmare!
Craig & Nancy Jacob - Spring Lake, MI
My wife Nancy thought a wedding on the island of Kauai would be ideal, so we invited 20 family members and friends to share in our joy and headed for sunny Hawaii. The wedding was scheduled on September 12, 1992, in a beautiful gazebo on the grounds of the Coco Palms Hotel.
On September 11, Hurricane Iniki made a direct hit on the island. The hurricane was a category five, with winds clocked at 150 miles per hour. We had rented two condos on the cliffs of Princeville and decided that would be the best place to ride out the storm. We stuffed 15 people into one tiny bathroom, with toddlers inside the vanity, and the elderly in the bathtub. The rest of us sat in the hall just outside the bathroom.
The storm went on for over four hours. If you’ve never experienced the force of a hurricane, words cannot do justice to the awesome power. That evening was a joy; all our windows were blown out, everything was destroyed, there was water everywhere, and the mosquitoes came with a vengeance. We slept in our cars that night.
When daylight came, we were able to assess the damage. After two days of rationed groceries, showering in waterfalls, and little sleep, we were able to evacuate off the island to Oahu, which hadn’t sustained damage from the storm. Evacuation took eight hours. My wife and I were separated from the rest of our party when we arrived on Oahu. Most of them had seen enough of “paradise,” and decided to return stateside.
After five days, we still had not gotten married. On our last day, September 16, we went to the Honolulu City Courts and were married by a judge during his noon lunch hour. A man who was at the courthouse to answer for a traffic violation stood as our witness. For our reception, we grabbed a quick lunch at a local restaurant before catching our flight home. |
