Officials Let Hawaii’s Waterfront Homeowners Damage Public Beaches Again and Again ProPublica 12/31/2020
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This story was co-published with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network.
In the winter of 2013, 45-foot waves barreled toward Oahu’s North Shore. The storm surge sent water gushing up a public walkway between Dean Hanzawa’s two beachfront homes. The ocean sucked sand and soil away from the yards and pulled a wall fronting one of the homes into a 45-degree angle toward the ocean, causing the property’s yard to split in half.