WAINIHA, Kauai — Contracted debris crews arrived Thursday to begin clearing Wainiha Powerhouse Road for the first time since Hurricane Lowell, focusing on clearing vegetation from tangled utility lines.

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The state Department of Transportation and Kauai County said the compromised double bridge, Wainiha River Bridge No. 3, was the main barrier to responding to the road, with the bridge only able to support 5 tons when it typically could support 15 tons.

But DOT officials announced late Thursday that they had reopened the key North Shore bridge to 15-ton traffic, ahead of the scheduled Monday reopening.

The reopening was welcome news for the hard-hit area where residents are still digging out from Lowell’s wrath.

A crew member told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the area was the worst he had seen on the island, including the heavily impacted areas of Waimea and Kekaha. As of Thursday, the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative had restored power for more than 91% of its customers. More than 3,300 remained without power, the majority of them along the island’s North Shore.

KIUC, Premium Utility Contractor and Hawaiian Electric Co. crews continued to work on restoring power from Moloaa to Hanalei, with a focus on Hanalei, Prince­ville and Kilauea, KIUC said in a news release.

Crews also prepared Wainiha and Haena for repairs, focusing on debris removal and vegetation management in the area, KIUC said. HDOT, Kauai County’s Department of Public Works, Earthworks Pacific and Goodfellow Bros. LLC all contributed to the effort, KIUC said. Remaining outages from Anahola to Kekaha and restoration planning in Kokee also continued Thursday.

Residents served by the Haena-Wainiha, Anini and Kilauea water systems remain under water conservation notices, with some water systems running on emergency generators. Hurricane resource centers operate at the Hanalei and Koloa neighborhood centers to allow residents to meet with nonprofits and agency staff in person.

The entire state was under a flood watch Thursday, with remnants of Tropical Storm Norbert bringing locally heavy rain and possible thunderstorms into this morning.

Windward and mauka areas of Kauai are especially at risk for storm runoff and flash flooding.

Meanwhile, residents continued their own recovery efforts. The area was going on its 10th day without power, and living within the disaster area became more of a routine.

Gil Nieto arrived at the Wainiha Country Market around 10 a.m., pulling three gas cans out of his truck bed. The store has been one of two main resilience hubs, collecting and distributing donations as well as filling residents’ gas cans with fuel through a drop-off and pickup program.

Nieto was getting ready to clean his home for the first time, too. He’d spent the past nine days helping his neighbors and living in his landlord’s unoccupied home on the same property.

He lost everything in the hurricane.

The first hour of the storm was spent hastily placing pots and pans underneath various leaks inside the home. He stood for a moment of reprieve — then the kitchen window of his 25-by-25-foot cottage blew open. Around 15 seconds later, his bedroom window also blew open.

“I was standing in the middle of the place and it was like a tornado inside the house,” Nieto said. “It was calm. It was going around me.”

He was surrounded by flying papers and photos of his kids when he decided to flee to his friend’s house. It was 10:30 p.m. — the thick of the storm — and he was on a 250-yard mission.

“Trees were flying everywhere, leaves and branches flying everywhere and there were chickens flying by,” he said. “That was the trippiest thing I saw.”

It was around 11:15 p.m. Nieto had just put on dry clothes. Then his phone rang.

It was his son.

“I was able to talk to him for about an hour during a full-blown hurricane,” Nieto said, choking up. Wainiha is notorious for having spotty cellphone service even in blue-sky conditions, so the ability to talk with his son felt like a miracle.

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The next day, Nieto and his neighbors used chain saws to clear Kuhio Highway so residents could get supplies and crews could come in.

“The first week, we didn’t see the county, we didn’t see the state, we didn’t see the government. We didn’t see FEMA,” he said.

The response was different from Iniki, he said, when Federal Emergency Management Agency helicopters were dropping water to communities across the island.

“We went a week without water (after Lowell),” he said. “We were bathing in the stream, and we opened the road ourselves. Then the tourists came in.”

Tourists were filming residents as they did laundry and were bathing in streams, he said, which was especially troubling given the trauma the community already had gone through.

Since then, residents posted a sign in front of the country market to deter anyone who didn’t live there from visiting. Most residents agree that tourists aren’t necessarily bad — many of their businesses depend on tourism — but the community needs to heal and replenish resources before they can be welcomed back.

Kauai County Mayor Derek Kawakami said the island is thankful for visitors and encouraged them to spend money at local businesses, but added that tourists should avoid the Wainiha and Haena areas at this time.

Nieto said most residents in Wainiha and Haena know how to take care of themselves. They know they are isolated and they like it that way, he said.

But, he added, pre-­positioning generators, water and internet access would help the community greatly in future disasters.

The experience made him have a new appreciation for water — and his neighbors. He regularly checks on his 83-year-old landlord and takes her devices to charging stations, he said. While losing most of his personal items is difficult, he said, it’s just “stuff.”

“I got what’s important to me,” he said. “My friend and my neighbors.”

Michael Olanolan’s father’s home also was severely damaged during the hurricane with Lowell tearing off the roof.

Olanolan grew up there — and is now his dad’s neighbor.

But, he said, he and his family are doing fine. The house is tarped and dry now.

The first day after the storm, he took his chain saw and excavator out and began clearing Kuhio Highway.

“We’re not waiting for nobody. We’re just stepping up and getting it clean.” he said. “If we don’t do anything, it’ll sit here.”

Olanolan and his neighbors worked together to push debris to the side and make the road passable. On Thursday, he was using his excavator to transfer the debris piles on the sides of the highway into a truck bed headed for green waste drop-off. Other neighbors with trucks are collecting trash bags to haul to the dump, he said.

“This is a time to help each other,” he said.

As of Thursday, the county had received 830 resident damage assessment reports — 100 suffering major damage and 18 completely destroyed. Kawakami encourages all residents take photos of damage and submit reports to bit.ly/kauaidamage. Business can submit reports at bit.ly/lowelldamage.

The reports quantify how much of Kauai was hit and help qualify the island for potential state and federal funding. The state asked the federal government for a fast-tracked presidential disaster declaration.

Residents still should file separate claims with their insurance companies.

KIUC customers who were financially affected by Lowell and are worried about paying bills can apply for payment assistance at kiuc.coop/payment-assistance. More resources also can be found at kauairecovers.org.

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