City parks and golf courses are drenched from four days of storms, but Kapolei's Christmas parade will be held as scheduled today, as will tomorrow's 35th running of the Honolulu Marathon.

"We're on, rain or shine," said city spokesman Bill Brennan.

The Islands will have a little of both today — and tomorrow's forecast calls for a bit more shine than rain.

The pattern yesterday of intense showers followed by patches of blue sky followed by more showers seemed to have prevented storm drains and wastewater treatment plants from overflowing and spewing raw sewage into streets and beaches like they often do during unrelenting rain, Brennan said.

But as the low-pressure system that's hung around since Tuesday moves farther north this weekend, it will leave behind plenty of debris and areas soaked with water, which led the National Weather Service to call for a flash-flood watch through 6 a.m. today on all islands.

"The showers have been intense but short," said lead forecaster Tom Birchard. "So we're getting this nuisance ponding and flooding of roadways and parks, just not flooding to the point of threat to life and property. But the ground is so saturated that all it would take is a heavy shower anchored over an area to lead to flash flooding."

While the city's Department of Emergency Management reported no major new problems yesterday, there were plenty of storm-related headaches — especially for motorists.

LANDSLIDE JAMS TRAFFIC

Officials temporarily opened Kolekole Pass — located on military land — to give Leeward Coast residents an extra way into and out of their communities.

But a landslide hit the Lualualei side of the road about 2:30 p.m., forcing officials to close the road and inadvertently jam up traffic near Wilikina Drive and the H-2 Freeway. No one was injured from the slide.

Tim Haverly saw the subsequent traffic tie-up as he navigated from his home in Waialua to a company Christmas party in Waikiki yesterday afternoon.

"The traffic is way bad," he said. "Really, really bad. Way, way worse than I've ever seen."

It normally takes Haverly less than an hour to get from the North Shore to Waikiki in the afternoon. But not yesterday.

"I've already been on the road for an hour and a half," Haverly said via cell phone as he neared the backed-up Punahou off-ramp from the H-1 Freeway.

Power was restored to most customers on O'ahu, Maui and the Big Island yesterday, but crews continued to work on sporadic "pocket outages." About 800 customers remained without service as of 8 p.m. yesterday. Affected areas included more than a dozen communities from Hawai'i Kai to Waipahu.

"This is a full-court press and we are working to restore them as soon as we possibly can," said Lynne Unemori, Hawaiian Electric Co. vice president for corporate relations.

The company advised customers, some of whom have been without power for more than three days, to be cautious with perishable food that has not been refrigerated. They suggested that the food be thrown out if there was any concern it had spoiled.

HECO crews stopped work on Farrington Highway in Leeward O'ahu yesterday, allowing all four lanes in Nanakuli to be open for the afternoon rush hour. Crews had planned to return to two areas of the highway last night, and it was not known if all four lanes would be open today, said HECO spokesman Darren Pai.

On Maui, crews were still repairing major water line breaks in the Kula area, forcing some residents to line up at emergency water tankers. The county asked residents in Maui Meadows, Kula, Kihei and West Maui to conserve water until the problems could be fixed.

The Hawaii State Chapter of the American Red Cross reported last night that nearly 200 residents statewide have had their homes damaged or otherwise needed emergency service since the storm began hitting the state late Tuesday night.

Volunteers surveying heavily hit areas reported that four residents on Kaua'i, 53 on O'ahu, and 142 on Maui "have been impacted by this disaster." The agency said it hopes to complete damage assessments today in the Kula and Lahaina areas of Maui.

'RAIN IS GOOD' FOR RACE

Honolulu Marathon president Dr. Jim Barahal has never seen weather conditions like yesterday on race day, said race spokesman Pat Bigold.

"He would not cancel the race for something like that," Bigold said.

With the weather forecast calling for 40 percent chance of rain tomorrow, Bigold quoted Barahal as saying conditions should be good for the 27,022 runners who had registered by yesterday.

"All you need to do is see the guy in front of you," Bigold said. "It's not a bad thing to have rain when you're running a marathon because it cools your body. Rain is good."

The Ala Wai and West Loch municipal golf courses remained saturated and closed yesterday, city officials said. Ted Makalena and 'Ewa Villages courses were open for the back nine holes only. The Pali course was open but only cart paths could be used.

The Ala Wai may reopen today, city officials said, but West Loch will probably stay closed. Fields at Kapi'olani Park, Ala Wai Community Park and Central O'ahu Regional Park were also closed.

The CORP baseball and softball fields will probably be shuttered all weekend, city officials said, and the Waipi'o Soccer Complex also may have to close.

The city's swimming pool and weight room at Kailua District Park were also closed because of lack of electricity.

Several parks facilities that had been closed were reopened, including Manoa District Park's new gym, Booth and Salt Lake swimming pools and Wahiawa Gym, although the gym's parking lot was still closed because of a large fallen tree that blocked the entrance.

The state Department of Education also closed five public schools yesterday: Ka Waihona Elementary & Intermediate, a charter school in Wai'anae; Lahainaluna High (disruption of water service); Lana'i High and Elementary (flooding); Hale Kula Elementary in Wahiawa and Solomon Elementary in Wahiawa (fallen trees, blocked roadways and lack of electricity.)

Twenty-seven schools state-wide were closed Thursday.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com and Mike Leidemann at mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.