NAALEHU — Fire-rescuers searching for a 48-year-old fisherman missing in waters off Ka‘u Wednesday expressed their admiration for the 10-year-old grandson of the missing man, who saw his grandfather disappear after falling into the ocean early Monday evening.
Police said Shane Romena of Ocean View was fishing at Waikapuna and Kamilo with his grandson, Keaka McDonnell.
Romena was trying to fill a cooler with ocean water with live bait when he fell off a cliff into the ocean. McDonnell lost sight of his grandfather about 100 feet off the shoreline.
Police said McDonnell immediately called 911. Fire Rescue Engine 11 and both county helicopters responded to the scene in response to the 5:26 p.m. alarm.
“It’s amazing how the kid had the state of mind to call 911 and direct everybody right there. He gave us Kaalualu, which is farther south, so we were there looking. So then he gave us directions to where we’re searching,” Paul Darryl, pilot of Hawaii Fire Department’s Chopper 1, said Wednesday at Naalehu Park, the staging area for the ongoing search.
Nine units, including Chopper 1, Fire Rescue Engine 11 and Medic 11, were joined in the search Tuesday and Wednesday by the Coast Guard, which deployed a cutter, a C-130 airplane and a MH-65 Dolphin helicopter.
The county is searching within three miles of the coastline, while the Coast Guard is searching the ocean more than three miles offshore.
A written Fire Department statement described the area as “rugged coastline cliffs with limited 4×4 vehicle access.”
“When you get to the shoreline, it’s rocky. Even our four-wheel drive had a hard time today,” said Capt. Brent Matsuda of Waiakea Fire Station, the incident commander. “There was a lot of wind swell, and according to the weather report, the seas were about nine feet. Today’s a little bit better. It’s still windy.”
“(Tuesday) and the day before, the winds were, like, 25 miles an hour,” added Darryl.
According to Romena’s Facebook page, he is from Pukalani, Maui. It’s unclear when he came to Hawaii Island.
No sign of Romena had been reported by press time Wednesday. Matsuda said rescuers will likely search again today at first light.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.