September 3, 2026
A couple were about to open a bake stand and garden shop behind their three bedroom home in Kapaʻau, the vanilla orchids and avocado trees they had spent years cultivating finally ready for customers. Then Storm Lala came through North Kohala on August 15 with gusts they clocked at 96 miles per hour, and the corrugated metal roof peeled back like a lid and landed in the yard. Rain poured through the opening for hours before the couple could get out, and the ceilings came down after they left.
That story made regional news because it is dramatic. But if you are getting ready to list a home anywhere in North Kohala this fall, the detail that should stay with you is not the roof. It is what was still going wrong more than a week later, after the storm had dropped out of the forecast entirely: Hawi's water booster station was still running on a generator, and the county's own water engineer explained why in terms that go straight to a disclosure conversation.
By August 23, more than a week after Lala pulled away from the islands, the Hawaiʻi County Department of Water Supply reported that the Karpovich booster station in Hawi remained without Hawaiian Electric power and was still operating on generator. Customers were asked to limit water use to essential needs only. A follow-up update on August 26 put North Kohala in the same sentence as Kaʻū and upper Mountain View, the three areas the department singled out as still working through the most serious service problems, even as the county reached roughly 97 percent restoration island-wide.
That gap is not random. Keith Okamoto, the department's manager and chief engineer, told the county's Board of Water Supply that the electrical feed into North Kohala is essentially a "dead end," as Civil Beat reported. That is why his department keeps permanent backup generators at a well and two booster stations there. Every other district on this side of the island has more than one way to get power routed back in when a line goes down. North Kohala does not. The generators are permanent backup equipment maintained for this part of North Kohala.
For a seller, that distinction matters more than it sounds like it should. A downed tree and a temporary outage are the kind of thing you can honestly describe as storm damage and move past. A recurring vulnerability that the utility itself plans around with permanent equipment is closer to a property characteristic, and Hawaii's disclosure law does not let you draw a clean line between the two just because one sounds more temporary.
Under Hawaii Revised Statutes Chapter 508D, sellers of residential property complete a Seller's Real Property Disclosure Statement, generally delivered within ten days of an accepted purchase contract. The standard defines a material fact broadly: any fact, defect, or condition, past or present, that would be expected to measurably affect the value of the property to a reasonable buyer. It does not require the condition to be permanent or the damage to be visible on the day of the walkthrough.
Once the buyer receives the SRPDS, they get fifteen calendar days to review it and cancel the contract without losing their deposit if they choose. If a seller learns something new about the property after the form goes out, in Hawaii the obligation does not end there. Disclosure continues through escrow, which means a roof repair completed in September or a water interruption resolved in October still belongs on the form if it was known at any point during the transaction.
Roof damage from Lala's wind is straightforward to disclose. The harder question, and the one worth getting right, is how to describe a multi-week water interruption tied to the "essential needs only" notice and a booster station that ran on generator power for days. That is not cosmetic. It goes to whether the home had reliable water service, and the county's explanation gives buyers useful context about water service in the area.
Hawaii's Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs pushed the same message across every county in the days after Lala: file claims promptly, photograph everything before touching it, and hold off on permanent repairs until the insurer signs off. Sam Thomsen, the department's chief investigator, put it bluntly when he told reporters not to sit on a claim once damage is clearly beyond a deductible.
That guidance is aimed at homeowners recovering, not sellers preparing to list, but the two overlap in an inconvenient way. If a roof or water line was affected and the insurance claim has not settled, you are often not supposed to finish the repair yet. That leaves a seller choosing between listing with visible, unresolved damage or waiting for a claim that may take weeks. The state's insurance commissioner authorized temporary licenses for out-of-state adjusters to handle the volume, which tells you claims processing after Lala is not moving at pre-storm speed. Build that lag into your listing timeline rather than discovering it during a scheduled photo shoot.
Here is the part that changes how much any of this actually matters to your outcome. A market report covering the trailing twelve months, published in May 2026, put total sales across all of North Kohala at 22, spanning Hawi, Kapaʻau, Kohala Ranch, and the surrounding ranch land, at an average price of roughly $1.27 million. That is one or two closings a month for the entire district. The same report flagged North Kohala as the thinnest resale market on the island and noted that buyers here need patience and have to move fast when something usable actually appears.
In a market with hundreds of closings a year, a storm-repaired home disappears into the comps. Buyers compare it against a dozen similar recent sales and move on. North Kohala has fewer recent sales for comparison. With so few transactions, local agents and serious buyers may learn about storm damage from public reporting. Clear, accurate disclosure gives buyers a straightforward account of the damage and repairs during escrow.
The upside cuts the same direction. A seller who documents the repair thoroughly, keeps the insurance paperwork, and describes the water interruption accurately is not fighting a flood of competing inventory to prove the home is sound. There is very little competing inventory, period. Clear documentation does more work here than it would in a market where buyers have twenty other listings to compare it against.
If the roof is already repaired, do I still need to mention Storm Lala? Yes, if the damage or the repair would be a material fact to a reasonable buyer. A finished repair does not erase the history, and Hawaii's disclosure duty covers past conditions along with present ones.
Does a temporary water outage count as something I have to disclose? If the interruption was significant and tied to infrastructure specific to the property's location, such as the generator-dependent booster station serving Hawi, it is worth including rather than omitting. The safer test is whether a buyer would want to know before making an offer.
My insurance claim from Lala hasn't settled yet. Can I still list? You can, but say so plainly on the disclosure and be ready to update it once the claim resolves. Waiting until everything is finalized is not required, and in a market this thin, a well-documented open claim is more credible than a vague reference to storm damage.
If you are weighing when to list a North Kohala property this fall, or you want a second read on how a disclosure should describe storm-related repairs, Marc Shackman has spent years working this side of the island and can walk through the specifics with you before the packet goes to a buyer.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
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