Residents begin cleanup as high surf subsides

By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer

After two days of huge waves pounding their homes, Windward O'ahu residents from Hau'ula to Kailua faced a common problem yesterday:

Isaiah Tuifua, 14, and his brother, Pate, 6, lead their dog, Fear, across their back yard in Hau'ula, which was flooded by high surf. The large waves pushed sand under a Kamehameha Highway bridge, which cut off drainage. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

"The high surf tore up the deck of my house," said Matthew Hanks, 29, of Punalu'u. "For two days, every time I get one thing fixed, another wave comes in and something else breaks."

Anthony Borge of Hau'ula opted to take his chances and just clean up. Borge said he thought the worst was over — a conclusion backed by the National Weather Service, which reported the high surf would subside today to 12 feet to 18 feet. But a high surf warning remained in effect last night.

Sightseers continued to flock to beaches to see the unusual windward big waves, but no significant new damage was reported yesterday. Road closures were intermittent, if at all, and the emphasis yesterday seemed to be on mopping up.

"I've lived here 14 years and this is the worst I've ever seen as far as the sea waves across the Kamehameha Highway," Borge said as he stood on his roof and wiped salt water off his upstairs windows. "Cleaning the debris off the drive will be the big thing. I've got plenty of chores to do."

Borge said the swell at 2:30 a.m. yesterday was so powerful it shook the ground and rumbled like thunder.

"I don't think we got it as bad as some did down the road, though," he said.

One person who got it bad was Tom Coffey, 61, who spent yesterday scooping sand, seaweed and ocean debris from inside his home at the end of Kaimalino Street near 'Aikahi Park. On Friday Coffey stood by helplessly as a 6-foot wave blasted through the back of his house and surged all the way out the front garage.

"I just had wave after wave coming through my house," said Coffey, who has lived there for 15 years.

The waves that smacked his house again yesterday morning may have been even larger, he said, but by that time Coffey had stacked sand bags between his house and the sea, and securely boarded up the large hole that had previously been his back door.

Even with all that the ocean reached the inside of his house two more times.

Like most who watched the wild wave patterns, Coffey said he had never seen anything quite like it.

"It was like a tidal wave," said William Kanakanui, 57, who has an oceanfront lot on Kamehameha Highway between Punalu'u and Hau'ula. "I was born and raised in Hau'ula, and I've never seen anything like this. The waves went completely over my roof. How'd I keep the water out of my house? I didn't."

Tim Craig, National Weather Service lead forecaster, said the unusual weather conditions along the windward shores were the result of two giant pressure systems that bumped into each other about 1,000 miles from here.

"We had a large high-pressure system to our north and a large low-pressure system to our northeast," Craig said. "Between the two systems were very strong north and northeast winds. And those winds worked on the ocean and made it extremely rough."

The result was uncharacteristically large sea swells that rolled straight toward the east-facing shores of all islands, which rarely see surf so high, Craig said.

According to Doug Aton, O'ahu Civil Defense administrator, most of the high surf damage was to personal property. Consequently, he said it was too soon to estimate a dollar amount. Aton said the cost to taxpayers would probably be minimal because the majority of it went to road cleanup.

Scott Ishikawa, state Transportation Department spokesman, said Kamehameha Highway from Kualoa to Punalu'u was closed from midnight to 3 a.m. yesterday because of slippery conditions and debris. After that, one lane was opened until shortly after 8 a.m., when both lanes of the road were opened for the first time since 6 a.m. Friday.

Some residents voluntarily gave crews a helping hand.

Kenneth Hee of Hau'ula was one of about 15 from the Pokiwai neighborhood who spent much of the night feverishly trying to dig a tunnel beneath the Waimanana Bridge with picks and shovels.

Because the area beneath the bridge had become clogged with a wall of sand, Hee said there was no outlet for the rising stream behind their homes. The neighborhood was faced with flooding from the ocean and the stream.

"The water was backing up all the way," Hee said. "We tried to dig a tunnel under the bridge so the stream would have an outlet. We didn't succeed. It kept caving in towards the middle."

By yesterday morning, just as Hee had feared, many of the neighborhood yards were flooded.

Hee's wife, Germaine, was stoic.

"This was a yard," she said, pointing to what had turned into a small lake. "There was a dog swimming in it earlier. But, everyone in this neighborhood is really close. We all help everyone else. We'll make out."

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8038.