π π SUNRISE REVEALS THE EXTENT OF THE DAMAGE ON KAUAI β PIER DESTROYED AS TENS OF THOUSANDS LOSE POWER
As the first light of sunrise appeared over Kauai, it revealed a heartbreaking scene that had been hidden by the darkness.
What residents could only hear and feel through the night became much clearer with daylight: significant damage had been left behind, including the destruction of Waimea Pier and a mα΄ssive power outage affecting almost the entire county.
The scale of the disruption is staggering.
According to the latest figures provided, approximately 33,000 of Kauai Countyβs 37,000 customers were without electricity.
That means the overwhelming majority of customers across the county were suddenly facing a night β and now a morning β without normal power service.
For many residents, sunrise did not bring immediate relief.
Instead, it brought the first full view of what had happened.
π WAIMEA PIER DESTROYED
Among the most striking signs of damage is Waimea Pier, which has reportedly been destroyed.
For a community, a pier can be much more than a structure extending into the ocean.
It can be a familiar landmark.
A place where people gather.
A part of the coastline’s idenΡΞΉΡy.
And something that residents may have seen countless times throughout their lives.
Seeing that structure destroyed can therefore make the scale of the event feel painfully real.
Under the cover of darkness, residents may have known that powerful conditions were affecting the coastline.
But daylight changes everything.
The outlines of damaged structures become visible.
Debris can be seen more clearly.
The coastline itself may look different.
And places that once appeared permanent suddenly reveal just how vulnerable they can be when confronted by powerful natural forces.
The destruction of Waimea Pier is now one of the clearest visual reminders of the damage Kauai has endured.
π‘ 33,000 WITHOUT POWER
The power outage may be an even broader concern.
Of approximately 37,000 customers in Kauai County, around 33,000 are reportedly without power.
That is an extraordinary proportion of the county.
For households, losing electricity affects almost every part of daily life.
Lights go dark.
Refrigerators and freezers stop operating normally.
Internet connections may become unavailable.
Electric appliances cannot be used.
Charging phones becomes more difficult.
And for residents who depend on electrically powered equipment, an extended outage can create additional challenges.
The situation can become especially difficult overnight, when darkness limits visibility and makes it harder for residents to α΄ssess conditions around their homes.
Now that daylight has arrived, residents and emergency crews can begin getting a clearer picture of the situation.
But restoring power after a major event is not always as simple as switching electricity back on.
Crews may need to inspect lines, poles, substations, transformers, and other infrastructure before service can safely return.
If equipment has been damaged, repairs may require time, specialized crews, and access to affected areas.
That means some residents could remain without electricity while restoration efforts continue.
π A DIFFERENT KIND OF SUNRISE
There is something deeply emotional about seeing the first sunrise after a destructive night.
Sunrise normally represents a new beginning.
A fresh day.
A return to normal life.
But for residents of Kauai, this sunrise instead revealed the aftermath.
The darkness had hidden the full extent of the destruction.
As the sky brightened, the reality became impossible to ignore.
A familiar pier was gone.
Thousands of homes and businesses remained without electricity.
And communities were beginning the difficult process of determining what had been damaged and what would happen next.
For some residents, the first priority will simply be checking on family, friends, neighbors, homes, and businesses.
For emergency workers, the morning brings another critical phase of the response.
Daylight allows crews to α΄ssess damage more effectively, identify hazards, inspect infrastructure, and determine which areas require immediate attention.
π NO WORD ON INJURIES OR CASUALTIES
At the time of the information provided, there was no word on injuries or casualties.
That remains one of the most important unanswered questions.
Property damage can be measured.
Power outages can be counted.
A destroyed pier can be pHΰΉΟographed.
But the human impact is far more difficult to understand in the immediate aftermath.
Until authorities provide confirmed information, it is important not to speculate about injuries or deaths.
The absence of reported casualties at this stage should not be interpreted as a final α΄ssessment.
Emergency crews may still be surveying affected areas, checking communities, and responding to calls for α΄ssistance.
The situation can continue developing as authorities gain access to areas that may have been difficult to reach during the night.
ποΈ KAUAI FACES THE LONG ROAD AHEAD
The immediate emergency may eventually give way to a much longer recovery.
A damaged or destroyed coastal structure can take significant time to α΄ssess, repair, or rebuild.
The power system will also require careful inspection and restoration.
For the tens of thousands of customers without electricity, the focus will be on when service can safely return.
For businesses, an extended outage can create financial pressure.
For families, it can interrupt work, school, communication, food storage, and everyday routines.
And for the broader community, the recovery process may require coordination between emergency officials, utility crews, local authorities, residents, and other organizations.
The first few hours are about safety.
The following days are about recovery.
π THE COASTLINE TELLS THE STORY
Perhaps the most powerful image is the coastline itself.
The ocean can appear beautiful and peaceful from a distance.
But when powerful conditions strike, that same ocean can become an overwhelming force.
Structures built along the shoreline are exposed to waves, currents, wind, and changing water levels.
When conditions become extreme, even familiar coastal landmarks can be damaged or destroyed.
Waimea Pier now stands as a stark symbol of that vulnerability.
Its destruction is not simply a piece of infrastructure being lost.
It is a visible change to a place that residents recognize.
A landmark has disappeared from the landscape.
And the sunrise has made that reality impossible to miss.
π COMMUNITIES BEGIN TO α΄ssESS THE DAMAGE
As residents emerge into daylight, many will be seeing their surroundings differently for the first time.
Some may find fallen debris.
Others may discover damage to homes, vehicles, roads, businesses, or public infrastructure.
And many will simply be trying to understand how widespread the disruption is.
The most important step during this phase is to remain cautious.
Damage that looks minor can conceal electrical hazards, unstable structures, broken utility equipment, or other dangers.
Residents should follow instructions from local officials and utility authorities and avoid entering damaged areas unless it is safe to do so.
The desire to see the damage firsthand is understandable.
But safety must come first.
π A MORNING OF UNCERTAINTY
For now, Kauai is waking up to a difficult reality.
Waimea Pier has been destroyed.
Approximately 33,000 out of 37,000 customers in Kauai County are without power.
And there is still no confirmed word on injuries or casualties in the information currently available.
Those numbers tell an important story, but they do not capture the emotions of the people experiencing the aftermath.
They do not show the families sitting in dark homes.
They do not show residents checking on loved ones.
They do not show utility crews preparing to begin restoration work.
And they cannot capture what it feels like to watch a familiar part of the coastline disappear.
π The sun has risen over Kauai, but for thousands of residents, the difficult work is only beginning.
Daylight may reveal the damage, but it also brings an opportunity to α΄ssess, respond, reconnect, and begin rebuilding.
Communities will now turn toward the questions that matter most:
When will electricity return?
How extensive is the damage?
What infrastructure needs to be repaired?
And most importantly, is everyone safe?
π For now, Kauai faces a morning of uncertainty, resilience, and hope.
As crews α΄ssess the destruction and residents begin checking on one another, the first light of day serves as a powerful reminder:
Even after a devastating night, recovery begins with the arrival of a new day. π π
π STELLA PARTON BREAKS HER SILENCE β What She Said About Dollyβs Health Has Fans Looking Back
Dolly Partonβs Sister Breaks Silence What Really Happened - GMT - G1
Stella Parton was born May 4, 1949, the sixth of twelve children raised by Robert Lee and Avie Lee Parton in Sevierville, Tennessee β a household defined by noise, limited money, and almost no privacy, the kind of environment that produced strong, determined personalities.
Stella was one of them.
By seven, she was appearing alongside her older sister Dolly on a Knoxville television program; by her teens, she was writing her own songs, though marriage and motherhood pulled music to the margins of her life for a stretch.
The dream never fully disappeared.
In 1967, she recorded a gospel album with her mother and sisters, and later worked clubs in Washington, D.C., before founding her own record label in 1975 and releasing βI Want to Hold You in My Dreams Tonight,β which climbed to number nine on the country charts.
Long before any of that commercial success, Stella had already shown a willingness to take positions others avoided.
At 26, amid backlash against Australian singer Olivia Newton-John for winning recognition in country music, Stella recorded βOde to Oliviaβ in her defense β a stand that offered her no career benefit and real risk of criticism, but one she took anyway simply because she believed staying silent was the wrong choice.
That instinct defined the rest of her career: hits like βThe Danger of a Strangerβ and βSteady as the Rainβ (written by Dolly) built a genuine, independent following, including in the U.K., while Stella also worked in New York theater and spoke openly, often controversially, about poverty, domestic violence, and the treatment of women in the music industry.
She was named the Christian Country Music Associationβs Female Vocalist of the Year in 2004.
Through all of it, she remained defined publicly, more often than not, as simply βDollyβs little sisterβ β a label she spent five decades quietly proving didnβt tell the full story.
That same directness is why her comments in the fall of 2025 carried real weight.
Stella had never positioned herself as the familyβs image manager or spokesperson; she was, by reputation, someone who believed difficult truths shouldnβt stay hidden indefinitely.
What she described wasnβt dramatic or accusatory β it was a portrait of a woman who had spent years prioritizing everyone elseβs needs over her own.
The context mattered.
Carl Dean, Dollyβs husband of nearly sixty years, died in March 2025 at 82, after a long illness during which Dolly had devoted herself almost entirely to his care.
She later acknowledged that in the process, sheβd neglected her own health significantly.
The loss reverberated through the whole extended family β the Partons had lost three brothers in the years surrounding this period, compounding grief that, for a family that had once crowded twelve children into a single small home, meant losing pieces of a shared childhood one after another.
Stella herself went seven years without releasing new music during this stretch, later describing the period simply as one shaped by sorrow, while still speaking about the importance of finding moments of laughter within it.
Looking back, one moment reads very differently in hindsight than it did at the time: in late September 2025, Dolly postponed her planned Las Vegas residency, citing health challenges β a rare cancellation for a performer whose six-decade career had included very few of them.
At the time, most fans treated it as a minor, temporary setback.
Stellaβs later reflections suggested the signs had actually been building for some time, visible to family in ways the public smile made easy to miss.
That concern crystallized publicly not long after, when Dollyβs younger sister Frieda posted a simple request on Facebook asking fans to pray for Dolly.
What looked at first like an ordinary, well-meaning gesture spread rapidly, sparking widespread speculation about how serious Dollyβs condition actually was.
Dolly herself responded directly within days, appearing in a video from a Grand Ole Opry commercial shoot, insisting with her familiar humor that she wasnβt finished yet β the now widely remembered βI ainβt dead yetβ moment that briefly quieted public concern.
In the months that followed, the pattern repeated: reassuring updates about kidney stones, dehydration, and treatment, paired with continued work on new projects, right up until Dolly Partonβs death on August 25, 2026, at 80.
Looking back across that full timeline β the postponed residency, the familyβs public worry, Stellaβs own account of a sister who consistently deprioritized her own wellbeing β it becomes easier to see what the people closest to Dolly understood well before the rest of the world did: that the warmth and resilience the public saw every time she appeared on camera came at a real, largely invisible cost.
