Honolulu emergency officials warned residents Friday morning that failure of the Wahiawā Dam was imminent, putting up to 2,500 lives in jeopardy as people were already evacuating downstream.

Water levels in the dam were above 85 feet as of 9 a.m. The crest of the dam is 88 feet.

On a fever chart, that was the peak. Water had first passed the spillway level of 80 feet early Friday morning, releasing 1,500 gallons per second, then continued rising as rainfall high in the mountains increased. By late afternoon, the trend was headed in the opposite direction — trending back down to 82.6 feet — although officials noted that more rain was expected through the weekend.

Shortly after noon, Mayor Rick Blangiardi said he hoped the worst was over.

“Right now, we don’t feel like we’re in immediate danger,” he said at a virtual news conference. “But it’s the unpredictability” that makes the county want people to err on the side of caution and stay out of the North Shore flood evacuation zones, which stretch along the coast from Kaena Point to Haleʻiwa and Waialua.

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The water levels in three other reservoirs across the state had surpassed watch levels Friday morning, according to data from the University of Hawaiʻi. Those include Nuʻuanu No. 4 on Oʻahu, and the Alexander and Halenanahu reservoirs on Kauaʻi.

Haleʻiwa resident Zaz Dahlin heard the warning sirens at about 8:40 a.m. but was trying to refresh the NOAA website to see the Wahiawā reservoir level. There had been mixed messages from the city, Dole and old farmers, she said, who believed it would fail at some point between 84 and 90.

“This could wipe out the entire fucking town with billions of gallons in there,” Dahlin said, while loading her dogs and things into her pick up truck.

Gov. Josh Green had signaled early Friday that officials were concerned about what would happen if the water topped the dam.

“You can compromise the structure of the dam, you can start losing material, and that we can’t have, or at least we certainly can’t have that with any people in the region,” Green told Hawaiʻi News Now.

But the water didn’t need to go over the top of the dam for the situation to become dire.

Dole had installed a portable barrier extending the crest of the dam to 90 feet. If it fails, the aged structure will spill billions of gallons of water into low lying areas already sheltering from ongoing floods.

The state has told dam owners, including Dole, repeatedly that its spillway and dam do not meet modern safety standards, a Civil Beat investigation published Friday found. The company has refused to make those repairs, citing a lack of money.

In recent days, Dole officials have sought to downplay the severity of the danger their dam posed to the community.

“It’s a good, strong dam. It’s very functional,” Dole general manager Dan Nellis said last week.

Mid-morning Friday, the company released a statement: “Dole is working closely with authorities and continues to monitor the reservoirs including Lake Wilson, with public safety as our top priority. The dam continues to operate as designed with no indications of damage. We encourage all to follow instructions from local and state authorities and stay vigilant during this storm.”

Farmer Max Breen, who runs an orchard in the hills of Mokulēʻia, considered the the potential path of water.

“I don’t know if it will force a wave just through town through the path of least resistance or if it will also rush through the ditch system and destroy everything in that path as well,” he said.

The City and County of Honolulu was taking no chances, re-evacuating 186 people and 45 dogs who had taken shelter at Waialua High School to higher ground in Wahiawā.

The last time a dam breached in Hawaiʻi was in 2006 when the Ka Loko dam on Kauaʻi collapsed, killing seven people and destroying several homes.

Jimmy Pfleuger, a car dealer and that dam’s owner, faced seven counts of manslaughter. He pleaded no contest in 2014 to one count of reckless endangering and was sentenced to seven months in jail.