Boulder nearly smashes into living room

Nov 15,2007 00:00 by UPI

HONOLULU -- A 2-ton boulder crashed down a hillside in Hawaii Tuesday night, coming to rest just outside a town house.

Residents of Honolulu's Lalea at Hawaii Kai complex said it was fortunate no one was hurt when the 4-foot boulder rolled down the hillside, bounced 30 feet onto a road, then turned and continued another 30 feet until stopping just feet from one town home's living room, KITV-TV in Honolulu said Wednesday.

"The way the rock bounced is ... lucky. It bounced to the left, you know. If it bounced straight, who knows?" Lalea site manager Joe Ornellas said.

Falling boulders forced the evacuation of nearly two dozen families in 2002, the television station reported. An attorney for the residents said the landowner and developer have made an "astonishing lack of progress" in fixing the rock slide problem.

Kamehameha Schools and developer Castle and Cooke paid about $3 million to clear part of the hillside of rocks and debris and install wire fencing after two large boulders crashed into parked cars during heavy rains in November 2002.