More than 4 inches of rain funneled from the mountains above the school onto the campus, flooding some areas with 2 to 3 feet of water, said school principal Lisa DeLong. The school reopened this morning.

The problem isn't new. City, state and federal agencies have been working on it for more than a decade with some progress, including an announcement in 2003 that government agencies and the community had developed a plan that could once and for all end flooding in this rural town.

But the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says the project is undergoing a feasibility study that won't be completed for another three years. The plan calls for diverting water from the area of Kahuku Hospital to the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge. The Corps of Engineers would buy 800 acres of land from the Estate of James Campbell to expand the bird sanctuary at the refuge.

The $1 million feasibility study is scheduled for completion in September 2007, said Dino Buchanan, with the Army corps' media relations.

Don Hurlbut, a Ko'olauloa Neighborhood Board member representing Kahuku, said he was aware of the study and was not discouraged about the time frame, although others are complaining about the length of the process.

Hurlbut said the project will go through and will provide relief, "or I wouldn't be supporting it."

Kahuku has been described in a flood study as a "big mud puddle" that gathers storm water from streams and gulches from Kuilima to Malaekahana, a distance of four miles. The school is in the middle of that puddle and on Tuesday water covered the entire campus, DeLong said.

Kahuku High and Intermediate School Athletic Director Joe Whitford, with weight training equipment removed from a flooded room. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

Several projects are expected to relieve some of the flooding in the community, including a recently completed bridge outside Kahuku next to Malaekahana and a project to replace Ki'i Bridge and build an 85-foot drainage culvert crossing Kamehameha Highway near Kahuku Hospital.

The $7.1 million Ki'i Bridge and drainage culvert project should be done in spring of 2005, said Scott Ishikawa, state Department of Transportation spokesman.

A sidewalk and drainage project has reduced flooding from Kahuku Elementary to Kamehameha Highway, Hurlbut said.

"The trouble is the flooding from the mountain side is still going toward the school," he said.

DeLong said she believes that the projects have helped because the water drained from the campus more quickly than in the past. However, she said, the extra drainage won't be enough to stop flooding.

"Mother Nature is hard to control," she said. "That's why the ultimate solution is to move that quadrant of the campus elsewhere."

The high school has had plans on the books since before 2000 to move parts of the campus and turn the athletic field into a retention basin. But an initial proposal to purchase land above the school fell through because the land is in a federally designated flood zone, DeLong said.

The school is still trying to find suitable land, but has not identified any prospects, she said.

Parents say they worry about the flooding, having their children miss classes and walking in the muddy campus, and the damaging effects the water has on the facility.

"It's always been a problem, ever since I was in high school," said Kaimi Haiola, 46, who has two children attending the school.

Conrad Ho, 47, said he and his children just bear with the flooding that has ruined the gymnasium floor. Ho said he's not sure that a new bridge alone will resolve flooding.

"A whole bunch of town is under sea level, so it's always going to be a problem," he said.