HAWAI'I BRIEFS
Kapi'olani should reopen today
Advertiser Staff
City officials said it was hoped that Kapi'olani Boulevard between Ward Avenue and Kamake'e Street would be reopened about 3 a.m. this morning, after the road was closed for most of yesterday because of a broken water main.
The 12-inch-diameter pipe broke at 4:30 a.m. yesterday. Board of Water Supply crews replaced the ruptured pipe. Water service was restored about 6 p.m. to the five area businesses that were affected, board spokeswoman Wanda Yamane said.
BIG ISLAND
RIVER SEARCHED FOR WOMAN, 29
Fire department divers searched ponds in the Wailuku River yesterday, and a department helicopter crew followed the river downstream looking for sign of a 29-year-old woman who disappeared in the water Sunday.
Big Island Fire Department Battalion Chief Bob Bailey said the search would resume at first light today for the woman, who reportedly moved to Hilo a few days before she was last seen.
Bailey said about 10 fire rescue workers and another four firefighters from Kaumana Station searched yesterday, focusing mostly on the area just above Boiling Pots.
The woman, who has not been identified, was last seen entering the river about two blocks above Boiling Pots shortly before 5:34 p.m. Sunday.
MOTORCYCLE CRASH VICTIM IDENTIFIED
Police have identified a Waimea man who died in a motorcycle crash Sunday as Thad Dumas, 36.
South Kohala patrol officers who responded to an 11:29 p.m. call reporting the crash learned Dumas was riding a 1978 Suzuki motorcycle south on the Mamalahoa Highway near the Parker Ranch racetrack when he ran off the right side of the road and struck a sign.
Dumas, who was not wearing a helmet, was pronounced dead at North Hawai'i Community Hospital at 12:07 a.m., police said.
Traffic investigators believe alcohol was a factor in this crash, and an autopsy has been ordered, police said.
Dumas' death is the fourth traffic fatality on the Big Island this year, compared with five at the same time last year.
MAUNA KEA LIVES UP TO ITS NAME
Big Islanders awoke to clear views of a white-crested Mauna Kea yesterday after last week's storms dumped about a foot of snow on Hawai'i's tallest peak.
Hilo residents could see the white cap that gave the dormant volcano its name — "white mountain" — for most of the morning until clouds gathered.
"Once or twice a year, we'll have one of those weeklong cloudy weeks. And when they get those, they have the potential for a foot (of snow)," said Nezette Rydell, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Honolulu office. "It's a pretty nice winter storm."
WAIPAHU
BOARD ELECTS NEW CHAIRMAN
George Yakowenko has been elected chairman of the Waipahu Neighborhood Board, succeeding the late C.O. "Andy" Anderson.
At its January meeting last Thursday, the board also elected Rito Saniatan to fill Anderson's at-large seat.
Yakowenko will serve as chairman through May, when Anderson's term expires.
WAHIAWA
WITNESS: MAN BROKE IN, SHOT DOG
Police arrested a 51-year-old Wahiawa man Sunday after he allegedly entered a neighbor's home without permission and shot and killed a dog that had bitten him earlier.
No one was home at the time of the incident, but another neighbor saw what happened and called police, who arrested the suspect about 5:30 p.m. on suspicion of burglary.
KAUA'I
MAN RELEASED IN KILLING OF WOMAN
A 34-year-old Lawa'i man detained last week for investigation in the killing of a 27-year-old mother of two has been released from custody but continues to be a "person of interest" in the case, police Lt. Roy Asher said yesterday.
Neighbors found Sandra Galas, 27, dead in her car Wednesday afternoon, near her 'Ele'ele Nani home. While autopsy results have not been released, Asher said she had suffered injuries that indicated she had been murdered. Her two boys, ages 3 and 5, are being cared for by their grandparents.
