The Atlantic Hurricanes are treated as if they are something special and can't be stopped. Yet Hawaii stops hurricanes so well that it wasn't until recently that people even realized that a storm was more unusual than others. If you go to the Wikipedia page for Hawaii Hurricanes you will see a very long list of hurricanes that died when they approached Hawaii.
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hawaii_hurricanes
The only ones to hit and do wind damage of any significance hit Kauai.
What is going on in Hawaii is the mean height of the State of Hawaii is 3030 feet above sea level. The front line defending islands are much taller. Two of the three huge volcanoes standing guard are so tall that storms deposit snow on their summits. Every lb of snow that falls on hundreds of square miles of high plains of Hawaii removes 12,000 BTU from the storm Snow appears to be only one of two factors. The second factor is the volcanoes deflect wind from a hurricane and send it high up into the air where the jet stream grabs it and zips it away from the hurricane.
You can see this in a video on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_rxu0fJ2h8
Hawaii's system works so well that there hasn't been any measurable damage from high winds on any of the islands except Kauai. So what is wrong with Kauai. Well it appears to be too far back behind the front line to get protection. It also doesn't have tall peaks of it's own.
Philip Maise
Pahoa Hawaii