HONOLULU (AP) — The worst flooding to hit Hawaii in two decades has swept homes off their foundations, floated cars out of driveways and left floors, walls and counters covered in thick, reddish volcanic mud.
Authorities said hundreds of homes had been damaged, along with some schools and a hospital. On Monday, new downpours set off a fresh round of flooding on Oahu’s south side while residents on the island’s North Shore cleaned up and assessed the destruction from last week’s torrents.
No deaths have been reported, but more than 230 people had to be rescued. The National Weather Service said showers and thunderstorms were expected to wane but the Big Island remained under a flash flood watch.
Here’s what to know about the heavy rains battering Hawaii:
This was Hawaii’s worst flooding since 2004
Gov. Josh Green said the cost of the storm could top $1 billion, including damage to airports, schools, roads, homes and a Maui hospital in Kula. He called it the state’s most serious since flooding since 2004, when floods in Manoa inundated homes and a University of Hawaii library.
On Oahu’s North Shore, famed for big wave surfing, the waters rose quickly after midnight Friday as heavy rains fell on soil already saturated by downpours from a winter storm a week earlier. Raging waters lifted homes and cars. The storm prompted evacuation orders for 5,500 people north of Honolulu — though they were later lifted — and more than 230 people were rescued from the rising waters.
Some residents fled on surfboards as water reached waist or chest high.
Farms around the state reported more than $9.4 million worth of damage as of Monday, according to a survey conducted by Agriculture Stewardship Hawaii, the Hawaii Farm Bureau and other organizations. Oahu farmers reported more than $2.7 million in crop damage.
Street becomes a river
An intense band of showers passed over Oahu’s south side Monday afternoon, lifting stream levels and transforming a road in the university neighborhood of Manoa into a river.
Natalie Aczon had gone to the drugstore to pick up some medication for her mother. By the time she left the store some 15 minutes later water was roaring down the street next to the shopping center.
“People came running out from Longs and one of the guys actually said, ‘That’s my white car.’ And it had elevated,” she said.
Stream gauges rapidly surged into flood stage status, said Molly Pierce, a spokesperson for the Oahu Emergency Management Agency.
“That speaks to the amount of water that was falling and also the sheer saturation that we’re seeing where there’s just no absorption anymore,” she said. “All the water just flows.”
Manoa stream, which overflowed its banks in 2004, did so again Pierce said, but the water receded quickly.
Officials do not know how many homes and structures were affected, Pierce said.
Trapped by rising water
Michael McEwan and his wife Heather Nakahara returned to their home in Waialua on Oahu’s North Shore over the weekend to find their kitchen counters covered in red silt. Piled-up furniture blocked a hallway and a folding table they don’t own was lodged under a heavy sleeper sofa. There were two other mystery tables in their backyard.
The rushing water trapped the couple in a bedroom closet for eight hours with their two small terriers and three parrots until daybreak on Friday when McEwan was able to flag down firefighters driving down their road. The rescuers tied a rope to a tree next to their bedroom, which guided them through a narrow channel of flowing water.
They likely will have permanent reminders of the flooding in their house because of the red volcanic mud permeating everything.
“It’s full of iron, so it stains everything brownish-yellow,” McEwan said.
Winter storm systems brought severe deluges
Officials blamed some of the devastation on the large volumes of rain that fell in a short amount of time.
Parts of Oahu received 8 to 12 inches (20 to 30 centimeters), the National Weather Service said. That was on top of another recent storm that had dumped vast amounts days earlier. Kaala, the island’s highest peak, got nearly 16 inches (40 centimeters) late last week, on top of 26.6 inches (67.6 centimeters) between March 10 and 16.
Winter storm systems known as “Kona lows,” which feature southerly or southwesterly winds that bring in moisture-laden air, have been responsible for the deluges in the past two weeks. The intensity and frequency of heavy rains in Hawaii have increased amid human-caused global warming, experts say.
Volunteers show up to clean debris and thick, red mud
In some neighborhoods on the North Shore, residents have had to tramp through silt up to their knees or deeper to reach their properties, she said.
Along with its consistency, the rusty hue of the mud makes it a nightmare to clean up.
“When it’s dry, the dust stains, and when it’s wet, the mud clings,” Pierce said Monday. She compared it to heavy, wet snow.
Volunteers have been showing up from across Oahu and even from other islands to help clear away muck and debris, Pierce said.
Oahu Emergency Management received more than 400 reports of damaged or destroyed homes from Friday’s floods, Pierce said.
Residents and officials fret over an aging dam
As the waters rose Friday, officials warned that the 120-year-old Wahiawa dam, north of Honolulu, was “at risk of imminent failure.” The dam has long been vulnerable, but worries eased as the water subsided.
The earthen structure was built in 1906 to increase sugar production for the Waialua Agricultural Co., which eventually became a subsidiary of Dole Food Co. It was reconstructed following a collapse in 1921.
The state has said Wahiawa dam has “high hazard potential” and a failure “will result in probable loss of human life.”
It has sent Dole four notices of deficiency about the dam since 2009, and five years ago it fined the company $20,000 for failing to address safety deficiencies on time, according to records.
Afterward, Dole proposed to donate the dam, reservoir and ditch system to the state in exchange for an agreement to repair the spillway to meet and maintain dam safety standards.
“The dam continues to operate as designed with no indications of damage,” Dole said in a statement.
Groups are raising funds for those affected
Green on Sunday recommended that those wanting to support impacted households donate to the Hawaii Community Foundation, which has activated its Stronger Hawaii Fund. The nonprofit Hawaiian Council launched the Kako’o Oahu initiative for help with housing and other needs.
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Johnson reported from Seattle. Associated Press writers Mark Thiessen in Anchorage, Alaska, and Gabriela Aoun Angueira in San Diego contributed to this report.