Kip and Annette Williams are former Redding residents who built their dream home in Hawaii. Unfortunately, their home was recently destroyed by lava. Join me in welcoming Annette to aNewsCafe.com as she tells their story.
Kip and Annette Williams’ Hawaiian home, before being destroyed by lava flows.
First, Annette, thanks for taking the time to talk with me during what must be one of the most stressful times for you and Kip. For a little background, you and I were Shasta High School classmates, though we’d not been in touch for years. Would you mind sharing about you and Kip for those who don’t know you?
Aloha, Doni. Kip and I grew up in Redding, and Kip was born there. We’ve been married 34 years. I was an X-ray technician for 25 years, and am an aspiring artist and writer. Kip was a teacher at Nova High School, Shasta Community College, Central Valley High School and GEO Re-entry Services.
We started out in a small house in west Redding, and later built a house just west of town, and lived there 22 years. Both of our parents lived there and we have many good friends, and some family, still there. My dad, Don Sheely, and sister, Janet, are there, and so are Kip’s sister Penny Ingraham, and our niece and nephew, Morada and Christian Wohlfeil
Annette and Kip pose in front of their Hawaiian home, before their neighborhood was destroyed by lava.
So you have deep ties to the Redding area. What drew you to Hawaii?
I first went to Hawaii, Oahu, and the Big Island, with my family when I was fourteen. I loved it and hoped to return one day. I worked in Honolulu at Queen’s Hospital in the ’80s, and Kip and I spent our honeymoon in 1984 on Oahu and Kauai. Kip loved it, too, and said he thought he’d like to retire there someday. We loved the warm year-round climate, and the warm ocean for swimming. On our 25th wedding anniversary we returned to Kauai — the “garden island” — and decided it was time to work toward living there. Kauai was a little too small for us, the north shore of Oahu and Maui were both too expensive. We were attracted to the lush tropical side of the Big Island and fell in love with the Puna area. It was lightly populated, so traffic was low, and it felt like old Hawaii. We bought the property in 2010, and started building our tropical garden, followed by the house, a few years later.
The photos of your home and property are beautiful. No wonder you wanted to live there.
Here in the north state, we’ve been watching the news unfold about the earthquakes and volcano activity in Hawaii, but what the process like for you, in terms of warnings and evacuations?
When we returned from our vacation in Redding on April 30, we heard the lava had overflowed into the crater floor of the Kilauea volcano and the earthquakes started shortly thereafter. They were light at first, and eventually built to the 5.4 and 6.9 levels. The floor of the Pu’u O’o vent suddenly collapsed! We were out for dinner when the waitress asked, “Are you OK with the lava?” We rushed home and received a cellphone alert to evacuate immediately. There were helicopters circling and through a speaker they were telling people to evacuate. We got our dog, “Renoir” and a few clothes and went to the local Red Cross Pahoa evacuation center.
At what point did you first become aware that your home was in imminent danger?
We felt that we were in trouble with the increasing earthquakes. The earthquakes felt very different than any others, and there was a rolling motion, like being on top of a subway. But when Fissure 17 slowed and 20 and 22 opened up, we knew it was just a matter of time.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=A26U-BfVC8k%2520frameborder%3D0%2520allow%3Dautoplay%3B%2520encrypted-media%2520allowfullscreen
I cannot even imagine how difficult that was for you. Were you able to get out everything you wanted?
We only had about 15 minutes to get out with important papers, a couple of photo albums and a few essentials. We saved our wedding photos and our album that has our anniversary pictures. We take one each year and have 34 of them now. The one you see here is our most recent one.
Kip and Annette’s most recent wedding anniversary photo.
That’s a sweet tradition and a nice photo, Annette. Thank you for sharing.
Where did you stay during evacuations?
While we were in the center, our friends, Vaa and Debbie Tavui, in Kurtistown, a village 15 miles away, called us and invited us to come stay with them.
I know this must difficult to talk about, but what exactly happened with your house?
Lava fissures broke out in Leilani Estates — the next subdivision over — on Thurs., May 3, and a crack in a road near us revealed a broken water main. The electricity was taken out after that. The fissures were fountaining many feet high, and eventually joined together. It was spectacular, surreal and scary to see and to watch on our computer. The lava started flowing rapidly directly toward our house from the next street over. This lava flow was very fast and thinner than previous ones we had seen. (That’s another story.) About two weeks later, most of our neighborhood was covered by many feet of lava quickly cutting off all the access roads. Some people were caught off guard and had to be airlifted out.
Will you rebuild in Hawaii?
Unfortunately, we will not be able to rebuild. Basically, we were unable to get insurance, because our house wasn’t finaled after construction due to some paperwork problems. Ironically, we got an email from the county, on May 23rd, saying our house was now finaled. The irony is that as best we can tell, our house was covered by lava on the 18th. (It was finaled all right.)
It is funny, not funny “ha ha” – that on the mainland we had fire insurance for 30 years, lived in a potential fire area, and never had a problem or claim. We built our house here, primarily out of steel and cement, to be termite- and fire-resistant, but we never imagined this large of an event would occur so close.
How frightening! Where are you two putting all this right now … I mean, how do you wrap your heads around what’s happened?
We both try to keep positive and are grateful that we’re safe, have each other and our dog, Renoir.
Well, your attitudes are inspirational. I’m impressed. What now, Annette?
We will be coming back to Redding, and staying with Kip’s family, at least for a while. We should get our dog’s paperwork complete by the middle of June, and then we will be heading back.
Do you have any take-away thoughts about all this?
Kip feels like Garth Brooks sang in The Dance; he’s still glad he didn’t miss the dance. I feel peace now; that’s the way the lava flows.
Is there anything else you’d like to say?
People ask about all the hard work we did, but we both feel like we enjoyed the journey. It’s like climbing Mt. Shasta, swimming and sailing at Whiskeytown, or walking the river trail, it can be hard, but enjoyable at the same time. Looks like we may be doing some of that again soon.
Thank you so much for taking the time in the middle of your loss to report back to your home town. Is there anything we can do to help?
Quite a few people have offered help in one way or another, which we appreciate, but have politely declined. However, our good friends, Allen and Cheryl Mancasola, won’t take no for an answer, and are planning something. Kip grew up in the same neighborhood as Allen and has known him since kindergarten.
We appreciate everyone’s love, concern and aloha. We are looking forward to our new life and the continuation of our story.
Well, I hope that if Cheryl and Allen do organize something, they’ll let us know so we can help, too.
Until then, take care, Kip, Annette and Renoir. Be safe.
