Downpours soak windward O'ahu
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer
Heavy rains clobbered parts of eastern O'ahu yesterday afternoon, causing minor rockslides, road closures and sporadic flooding of streams into homes and other buildings.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
The National Weather Service issued a flood warning throughout the afternoon but it was downgraded to an advisory at 5:30 p.m. after the rains subsided. Later the warning was back in effect, but then downgraded again at about 9:30 p.m.
This is what it looked like at the intersection of O'ahu Avenue and East Manoa Road yesterday.
"Some spots over the Ko'olau Mountains have picked up radar estimates of from 6 to 8 inches of rain, most of that falling within a few hours this afternoon," said acting lead forecaster Robert Ballard at the weather agency.
"Most of the rains have been falling over the mountain slopes, but the rains are running off onto the north and east shores where we're expecting there could be problems," he said.
The rain was expected to taper off today.
There was also a high surf warning in effect for the windward shores of O'ahu, and an advisory was in effect for the northern shores of the Neighbor Islands.
On Moloka'i, late-afternoon downpours in the mountains on the eastern part of the island sent flash floods down several streams already swollen from daylong rain. Mud, high water and debris rendered Kamehameha V Highway impassable for several miles.
Low-lying properties were flooded along the east Moloka'i coastline, east of Kamalo. Normally dry streams overflowed their banks, smashed over bridge railings and dumped tons of boulders, logs, mud and debris onto the highway.
On O'ahu, Kamehameha Highway was shut down briefly between Waiahole Valley Road and Waikane Valley Road because of flooding, and at Malaekahana State Park because of a downed utility pole. Shortly after 4:30 p.m., a small amount of rocks spilled across the pavement at 1005 Kailua Road, causing traffic to be slowed while two wheelbarrow loads of debris were carted away.
Honolulu Fire Department Capt. Emmet Kane said flood assistance calls started coming in around 3 p.m. and increased rapidly.
"Beginning at about 3:15 p.m. we had 16 calls for assistance due to flooded conditions in just about a 45-minute period," Kane said.
"Most of the calls seemed to be back yards that were overflowing and water was coming into people's homes."
Kane said that in most instances firefighters were able to divert the water and vacuum up or push off the excess. In a couple of instances, they pumped floodwaters out of homes and yards.
Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser
Kenneth Hee of Hau'ula said that when the rains came down hard in the mountains behind his home, the stream between his house and the hills began to rise.
Windward O'ahu took much of the brunt of yesterday's wet weather. John Umstead, left, of Sunset Beach, and Kailua resident Brian Lewis found shelter from the rain as they waited for a bus on Kailua Road.
"We're getting slammed from the upland side this time," said Hee, who only last weekend watched high surf from the ocean cause a small mountain of sand to clog the Kamehameha Highway bridge by his home. That blockage made the stream rise and flood his back yard.
The same thing happened yesterday — only it was the mountain runoff that clogged the bridge underpass with sand.
Up the road at the Greater Mt. Zion Holiness Church, caretaker Dennis Welch said the stream rose so high that floodwaters entered the church's hallway.
"It was pretty high," Welch said. "But the hallway is concrete, and that's all the farther it went, so everything is all right."
Welch said that later in the day, workers apparently were able to clear enough sand from beneath the bridge to allow the water buildup to run into the ocean. That in turn caused the water to recede from the church.
Customers in three parts of town suffered power failures yesterday, said HECO spokesman Jose Dizon. The first one in Waikiki, from 10:16 a.m. to 11:22 a.m., affected about 500 customers. At 12:47 p.m., power failed for about an hour and 10 minutes for 3,700 customers near Ward Avenue and Prospect Street. HECO crews were working late last night to restore power in Temple Valley. That failure, which began at about 3:30 p.m., affected about 2,000 customers, including the shopping center and movie theater.
Staff writers Jan TenBruggencate and Karen Blakeman contributed to this report. Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8038.
