Rainy weather 'pretty much done'
By Karen Blakeman and Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writers
Trade winds and fair weather returned over O'ahu yesterday as some homeowners and businesses waded through ankle-deep mud and cleaned up the mess left by Sunday's brief but fierce downpour.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
Parts of O'ahu got hit by as much as 11 inches of rain in a 24-hour period, causing road closures as motorists abandoned cars stalled in door-high water Sunday.
Ron Uemura, owner of Ron's Auto Parts & Performance, found his Mapunapuna store flooded by knee-deep water.
"The trade winds are back, things have settled down, and it looks like it is pretty much done," Robert Ballard of the National Weather Service said yesterday.
Central parts of the island were still seeing some rain yesterday, a trend that could continue through Thursday, Ballard said. But the rain was lighter and less stationary than the downpours seen Sunday, and is likely to remain comparatively light.
"It looks like we're in for a pretty normal period, right through (next) Monday," he said.
Flash-flood warnings and watches were canceled early yesterday morning.
The exceptionally wet weather was caused by a low-pressure, upper atmosphere center several hundred miles west of the state that held back the trade winds and allowed the rain to stall in place, said Jonathan Hoag, forecaster for the National Weather Service.
The eastern portion of Schofield Barracks was pelted by 11.1 inches in the 24 hours ending at 5 a.m. yesterday, the weather service said. Mililani received 8.3 inches of rain in that period.
On the Windward side, more than 7.5 inches of rain fell in the 24 hours ending at 8 a.m. yesterday at the Waihe'e pump. Five inches fell at the Wilson Tunnel during the same period.
State road crews were working to clear mudslides yesterday and repaired a giant pothole in the westbound lanes of H-1, near Sears' distribution center.
Meanwhile, Verizon repair crews responded to 2,600 O'ahu residents who were without telephone service along the Windward coast from La'ie to Waimanalo and in Pearl Ridge, Halawa, 'Aiea and Mililani, said Darcie Scharfenstein, a Verizon spokeswoman.
Repair crews were telling customers to expect service to be restored in 24 to 48 hours, she said.
Firefighters were kept busy Sunday with 80 weather-related emergency calls between 6 p.m. and midnight. They worked alongside police and Good Samaritans to help free motorists trapped in their cars by water spilling from Moanalua Stream.
"One lady was on the freeway by the Shafter off-ramp, and she called for help," said Capt. Kenison Tejada, spokesman for the Honolulu Fire Department. "People just couldn't get out of their cars."
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
Employees at Plywood Hawai'i on Kikowaena Place, which backs onto Moanalua Stream, arrived at work at 7 a.m. yesterday and found plywood floating in two feet of water inside the warehouse and five inches of mud in the parking lot, said owner Fred Smales.
P.J. Gerhardt surveys damage to his Mea'ala Street home from mudslides and falling boulders. One boulder landed near his son's bedroom, Gerhardt says.
"It got into our office and into our computers, which are on the floor, of course," Smales said.
In 'Aiea Heights, a homeowner was trying to figure out what to do with five feet of mud that had slammed into the back of his home. Boulders also crashed through his eaves.
"Mud is seeping into the bathroom," said P.J. Gerhardt, who stayed up all night at his Mea'ala Street home wondering if the slope above the house would send more debris.
Houses also flooded or were threatened by flood-weakened rocks and soil along Nu'uanu Stream, across from the pineapple fields on Kamehameha Highway, and in Kalihi, said Danny Tengan, disaster relief coordinator for the American Red Cross.
Department of Transportation spokesman Scott Ishikawa said crews were busy removing dirt and debris from highways.
A number of streams flooded Sunday, said National Weather Service hydrologist Kevin Komana.
During the evening hours, Moanalua Stream topped its banks near Moanalua Gardens and spilled onto Moanalua Freeway.
"It isn't the first time," Komana said. He said flood measures that kept some swollen waterways within their banks aren't in place in the lowland areas near Moanalua Gardens.
Police took to calling the Moanalua Freeway "the big swimming pool" after the flooding Sunday night, said Michelle Yu, an HPD spokeswoman.
The highway was closed from about 11 p.m. Sunday to 1:30 a.m. yesterday after all six lanes of the freeway were flooded and about 15 cars stalled in the resulting lake, she said.
Parts of Pali near upper Nu'uanu and Kamehameha Highway near the Dole Plantation and the bridge at Wahiawa also were closed late Sunday, Yu said.
Reach Karen Blakeman at 535-2430 or kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com, and Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8012.
