Storm Batters Hawaiʻi Causing Floods, Prolonged Outages And Toppled Trees
HECO outages rankled Oʻahu Friday, with outages possibly extending into Saturday for East Honolulu and Hawaiʻi Kai. Flash flood warnings were issued elsewhere.
As the Kona low storm rumbled through the islands, four people and a dog living under a Honolulu bridge watched the water rise on Friday morning. Brown and full of debris, it moved fast. And faster.
Soon, they found themselves trapped on pillar platforms of the bridge near Kaimukī High School, according to witnesses who called 911.
Honolulu firefighters responded after 11:30 a.m. Fire Capt. Keopele Gowan described the scene that unfolded: As rain pelted them, rescuers in red helmets and lifejackets clambered down the muddy banks and climbed down a ladder to reach the two women and two men stranded below.
They tethered the people with ropes for safety, then helped them up the ladder, Gowan said. The dog, too, was tethered — and hoisted up. Everyone made it out OK.
After the group made it to safety, the city’s CORE team, a division of emergency services that focuses on homeless individuals, offered to take them to shelters. They declined, the fire department said, and walked away.
On Friday evening, Gov. Josh Green said his biggest concern was the Wahiawā Dam, which just after 6 p.m. was nearing a critical level of water. The dam can fail when levels reach 90 feet, and at that point they had reached 82.8 feet, he said during a press conference. Evacuation notices for residents of Waialua and Haleʻiwa typically go out when levels reach about 84 feet.
Just before 7 p.m., the Honolulu Department of Emergency Management issued a “prepare to evacuate” warning for all of Haleʻiwa between Puʻuiki Street and Kamehameha Highway, as well as areas of Waialua between Kukea Circle to Otake Camp.
The city said residents in those areas should have go bags ready and be prepared to leave. They encouraged anyone who may need extra time to evacuate immediately.
In a Civil Beat story from two years ago, the state estimated that if that dam were to fail, 2,492 people, two schools, one fire station and 865 parcels of land would be in the direct path of the water’s flow.
Many emergencies sent sirens blaring across the islands on Friday.
Two out of the three transmission lines that bring power over the ridge to Hawaiʻi Kai and East Honolulu were damaged in the deluge, cutting power to neighborhoods that Hawaiian Electric Co. warned could remain out overnight or longer. The lines run along the base of the Koʻolau range near Waimanalo before crossing into Hawaiʻi Kai.
HECO spokesman Darren Pai said the cause of the damage had not been determined but he noted that most of the outages on Oʻahu were caused by trees and debris bringing down lines in high winds. One power pole had been struck by lightning, he said
The dangerous weather conditions and steep and remote terrain delayed crews trying to reach the damaged transmission lines to repair them and restore service.
As of 3:30 p.m., more than 115,000 Oʻahu residents, 4,500 Maui residents and 3,400 Hawaiʻi island residents found themselves without power as the powerful storm system continued to make its way across the island chain.
Around 8:30 p.m., HECO announced that areas blacked out because of the transmission lines had been restored, estimating that about 29,000 Oʻahu residents had reentered the modern era.
Winds on Oʻahu were gusting up to 38 mph according to the National Weather Service. In other parts of the state, those gusts could reach 60 mph.
The power outages also caused the temporary suspension of Skyline service between East Kapolei Station and the Pouhala Waipahu Transit Center Station. Other stations were running on backup power, the county said.
Several flash flood warnings also were issued for parts of Oʻahu on Friday as runoff from heavy rainfall threatened to overflow drainage ditches and culverts onto low-lying areas and streets.
Residents of Otake Camp in Waialua on the island’s North Shore were ordered to evacuate by the county officials at 2.30 p.m. because of rising water levels and move to a staffed evacuation shelter at Waialua High and Intermediate School. It was the area’s second evacuation in three weeks. In February, they were allowed back a few hours later.
On neighbor islands, parts of the Hana Highway were blocked by downed trees early Friday afternoon, the Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation reported.
On Kauaʻi, debris was blocking part of the Kūhiō Highway on Friday and the intersection of Hoʻone Road and Kuai Road in Poʻipū were closed due to flooding.
Hawaiʻi County’s social media account said that flooding was likely in the Puna and Ka’u Districts and the county issued a high wind warning and flood advisory, with rain falling at a clip of 0.5 to 1.5 inches per hour.
Mount Waiʻaleʻale on Kauaʻi — one of the wettest places on Earth — has gotten more than 10 inches of rain in the last 24 hours. But even normally drier places on the Garden Isle are seeing staggering precipitation. Poʻipū attracts tourists to its famed sunshine but in the last day the area has seen almost 7 inches of rain.
On Oʻahu, areas in and around Mililani and Schofield Barracks had gotten more than 7 inches of rain. Some regions of the state have seen relatively less rain in the last 24 hours, with the airport in Hilo on the Big Island and Kīhei on Maui both logging only about a quarter of an inch.
Maui County said it would end all of its bus routes by 7 p.m. Friday because of road closures, flooding and low driver visibility. A flood watch was in effect for Maui County through Sunday night and a high wind watch through Sunday morning.
Green said Kauaʻi and Oʻahu residents should expect weather conditions to get worse overnight. As the storm moves east, residents of Maui and Hawaiʻi island will start to feel more effects late Saturday and into Sunday.
Contributing: Civil Beat reporter Noelle Fujii
