Storm damage reports collected by the Honolulu Department of Emergency Management show serious destruction from the March Kona low storms on Oʻahu was more widespread than initially thought.

At least 260 homes, or 17% of all homes damaged during record rainfall and flooding, were deemed uninhabitable without major repairs, based on reports from residents verified by the county.

And the damage wasn’t just confined to the North Shore where at least 20 properties were reported as total losses, mainly in Waialua and Mokuleia.

Hundreds of homes were also left uninhabitable down the Windward Coast and into leeward Mānoa and Nuʻuanu based on verified accounts.

At least 22 homes in Haleʻiwa were immediately unlivable after the floods, but five properties in Kāneʻohe also suffered major damage and two — on Okana Place and Waiāhole Valley N. Branch Road — were verified as total losses.

“One of the surprises for me was just the extent of significant impacts in almost all communities around the island,” Jennifer Walterd, deputy director of emergency management, said on Thursday.

“The bulk of the damage was on the North Shore, but the Windward side, especially Lāʻie, was heavily impacted. And then you had pockets on the Waiʻanae side, and even in town, there were flood and wind impacts reported. So it was certainly an island-wide event.”

The 1,600 voluntary survey responses underrepresent the damage since not all impacted residents filed reports with the city, Walter said.

Lāʻie resident Tania Mahoni said her home flooded incredibly quickly on March 20.

“We were fine, and then 10 minutes later the water was halfway up our calves,” she said. “It was just like a tidal wave that came straight through.”

She said a family emergency distracted her from doing a county report, and to her knowledge, many other people in the working-class community didn’t complete one either.

“There were so many forms flying about,” she said, and people were still trying to process what had happened. She has completed an application for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

There were serious levels of damage on low-lying homes that took out floors and drywall, and residents focused on clearing up debris and sourcing replacement bedding, furniture and supplies.

The cleanup was so rapid that two days after on the Sunday “You would have walked down the street and thought the damage doesn’t look too bad,” she said.

Mahoni said many families didn’t have insurance, and are still weeks or months away from getting back in their homes.

The reports contain vivid details of the disaster with 110 people reporting more than a foot of floodwater in residential living spaces like bedrooms and kitchens, and two-thirds of all properties experienced flooding of between 1 inch and 11 inches.

Even intact homes could require overhauling from floor to roof.

One resident on Kekio Road in Kaʻaʻawa reported over a foot of water throughout the home and listed repairs that would be needed for the entire property, including the electrical system, the foundation, all living spaces, fencing, outside retaining walls, a lanai, the garden shed and the septic system.

A Kailua house had similar flooding and major property damage throughout the building and was overwhelmed by mud and debris, the resident said.

Another 445 properties suffered non-structural damage that required lower levels of repair and were habitable, respondents said.

Another 443 residents reported damage at the nuisance or cosmetic level, and a handful reported their homes were unaffected.

The reports don’t reflect damage to public or commercial buildings.

Reports Key To Unlocking Federal Assistance

On March 25, the city asked residents to report storm-related damage, and has been updating some of this information on online dashboards, supplemented by assessments from emergency management personnel.

The reports asked residents for details of the structure affected, whether they rented or owned, whether it was their primary residence and information about insurance coverage. They then completed a checklist of the physical damage.

Those details then put the damage into specific categories that align with federal designations.

• Affected: Nuisance or cosmetic damage only; cleanup needed but property is safe to live in,
• Minor: Property has non-structural damage and needs repair but is currently safe to live in,
• Major: Property requires extensive repairs; not safe to occupy without repairs.
• Destroyed: Property is a total loss. Cannot be repaired.

It was essential to compile an inventory of damage quickly, Walter said, to reach the critical threshold for unlocking potential federal assistance from Federal Emergency Management Agency and other programs.

On the city side, the budget and fiscal services department has been using the information to help provide some property tax relief and the Department of Planning and Permitting has been using the data to expedite emergency repair permits.

The public reports supplement the work of county teams on the ground, she said, and “one of the things we tell them is that for every person that reported, there’s probably neighbors that did not.”

“Our instructions to them are to walk around the whole area and talk to people because a lot of times flood damage isn’t always visible, especially if people have cleaned up quickly,” Walter said. “You’re looking for things like mattresses or sofas out by the trash can that were damaged by debris or water marks.”

The storm damage reports themselves are not an application for assistance, and Walter said Thursday the county was soon going to turn the self-reporting tool off and direct people to apply for the federal programs available from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Small Business Administration.

The deadline for those applications is June 14, and require additional inspections by FEMA and others.

Some households might still qualify for up to $750 cash sooner from FEMA’s Serious Needs Assistance program but need to apply now and preferably in-person, she said.

But the information collected has already been valuable to help inform local partners like the American Red Cross where to direct their support.

“For instance, The Salvation Army was delivering some services, and they wanted to make sure it went to people who had addresses with some level of verified damage,” she said.

The department provided Civil Beat with 900 verified entries documenting the damage reported by the public, two-thirds of all the reports.

The records were anonymized to protect privacy but include zip codes to enable comparisons of damage levels and concentration in different locations.

The highest number of reports that cited the need for roof repairs were in the Kāneʻohe area, ranging from collapsed roofs to missing shingles.

Damage to electrical systems was widely reported across 20 different zip code areas, but the highest concentration was reported in Haleʻiwa, followed by Lāʻie and Waialua.

Damage to non-living/outdoor areas was reported in 270 of the incidents in all locations.

“Data Dive” is supported in part by the Will J. Reid Foundation.

Are you able to share any details about the damage you experienced in the March Kona low storms to assist our reporting?