No repeat of heavy rains expected

By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer

Those brief but heavy rains of yesterday probably won't return for a while, but the clouds and light showers will stick around, said Bob Farrell, lead forecaster for the National Weather Service.

Richard Fife, his wife, Lisa, and their daughter, Karenna, 3, tried to stay dry as they walked down Kapi'olani Boulevard during yesterday morning's rain. Light showers and more clouds are expected today. Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser

Farrell said the intense showers yesterday morning were brought in by a band of converging winds moving from the northeast to southwest. That band has traveled east of O'ahu and dissipated, although some of the moisture will remain.

Farrell said Kaua'i took the brunt of Saturday's storm, receiving 3 to 4 inches of rain in some places. O'ahu, by contrast, only got about a half-inch of rain.

But that was enough to cause some problems in scattered locations on O'ahu, which has been hit hard by heavy rain several times this year. HFD Capt. Kenison Tejada said firefighters were called to about a half a dozen homes yesterday.

"Those were for flooding conditions, but that could be anything from, say, an inch of water in the house to two feet in the basement," Tejada said.

One such call came from Lynn and Paul Toma, whose one-story house at 1519 Oliver Street in lower Manoa took two feet of water in their downstairs storage area. Listed in the state historic register, the 4-bedroom plantation-style home was built in the early 1920s, Lynn Toma said.

"We've lived here since 1999, and nothing like this has ever happened before," she said. "We went downstairs and saw that a bunch of stuff was floating around."

Toma said the HFD responded and pumped the water out.

"They did a great job," she said.

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