In the aftermath of a Kona low storm system that caused catastrophic flash floods in parts of Waialua and Haleʻiwa, community members, government officials and private entities came together to help clean up the mess.

More than 4,500 tons of debris were removed by Wednesday afternoon, according to the city. Many more will follow. Such a herculean effort requires big machinery and people who know how to use it. 

Otake Camp, the neighborhood of plantation-era houses behind the grocery store T. Otake and Sons, experienced some of the worst effects, with lopsided houses and wrecked cars left behind in a sea of mud. Sitting next to Kaukonahua Stream, the neighborhood is usually one of the first areas to experience flooding. Three evacuation orders were issued there in the span of a month. 

Community leader and rancher Levi Rita came to Otake Camp early Wednesday morning to help coordinate the cleanup. 

“Everybody’s going to be coming in for work,” he told Civil Beat. “So you guys can see who shows up.”

Construction workers whose jobsites had been rained out volunteered their time and expertise to help. One of them, Michael Cruz of Royal Contracting, said he’s been in the field for about 35 years. He lives around the corner, just past the muddy Kaukonahua Stream.

“When I was growing up we used to swim in there,” he said.

Fifty years ago, he said, the water was crystal clear. Wednesday morning, it was somewhere between light brown and dark orange. 

After the floods, he helped smooth out Kaupē Road, the road that leads to Otake Camp which had become messy with mud and rocks. 

Trucks and construction equipment came through on Wednesday to remove debris and dredge the stream. Looking down at the water from the bridge, Haleʻiwa resident Kekoa Herron marveled at the amount of mud deposited on its bank. 

“All of this is one river before,” he said. “All of this is a river. It’s supposed to flow.” 

Directly next to the bridge, Jennifer Piltz and Jeffrey Ramos of Kaʻala Healing Arts were assessing their business’s extensive damage. The two opened the center in 2002 as a husband and wife team, and even though they’re divorced now, they still work together.

Their business offered services such as massages, acupuncture and counseling. 

“We used to get a lot of compliments on how nice it looked inside,” Ramos said. One office, operated by esthetician Sarah Matthews, was painted a soft gray color called Quiet Time.

“I had stuff from our home here, and now it’s all just gone,” Piltz said.

A stack of books her children used to read – Eyewitness Books about birds and explorers, a Minecraft guidebook, a coloring book with Christmas doodles – sat a few feet away from her stained with mud.

Piltz said she left her office on the day of the storm without any inkling there would be a flood. If she had known, she said, she wouldn’t have left behind her family’s books and photo albums.

“I’m mystified as to how we got such bad information about the intensity of this storm,” she said. 

More construction equipment could be on the way.

On Wednesday, two representatives from Hawthorne Cat, the construction equipment supplier, came to Otake Camp to assess the community’s needs. The idea is to help the cleanup effort by donating rental equipment for short periods of a few days and offering a 50% discount for longer periods of a month or two, rental representative Mark Krause said.

Rita, the community leader, felt that government officials had been absent as neighbors rescued each other from floodwaters and cleaned up their own community. He and Mayor Rick Blangiardi verbally sparred at a neighborhood board meeting Tuesday night as Rita demanded an apology and Blangiardi defended his team, saying they had put in a lot of work during the previous four days.

One of the only government officials who had stepped up, Rita said Wednesday morning, was state Department of Transportation director Ed Sniffen, who had arrived on scene a few times in the previous days to help coordinate the cleanup.

“He’s been awesome,” Rita said.

Other government workers came Wednesday, too. Warren Mamizuka, deputy director of the city Department of Facility Maintenance, brought a giant city dump truck to help remove debris. Police officers and members of the U.S. Army helped remove rubbish from people’s yards.

A city press release Friday said 15 city dump trucks are currently hauling out debris from Waialua, and a vacuum truck is clearing storm drains. These efforts will continue through the weekend. As of Friday afternoon, almost 5,500 tons of debris have been removed, at a pace of about 500 tons per day.