KAILUA — City officials will take steps to improve drainage at Kailua Beach Park to avoid the kind of flooding that swamped the park and flooded about 20 nearby homes last November.

Residents called it the worst flooding from the park in years after about 10 inches of rain overwhelmed drains in the park and on the street and sent a deluge toward homes on Kawailoa Road.

They blamed the flooding on a number of changes in the park, including city improvements.

After the November flood, city officials conducted a survey of the park, reviewed its renovation plan and spoke with people familiar with the area's history.

Although the survey on the flooding did not single out improvements performed about eight years ago, it did find that the park's natural drainage has been impeded.

To address the problem in the short term, city officials said, they will regrade a drainage swale along Alala Road and other high areas in the park to improve water flow, increase the size of the existing drain box and grate at the makai end of Alala, build berms along Kawailoa Road and explore drainage improvements along Kawailoa Road.

Robert Thurston, who lives opposite the park, said he was happy to hear about the improvements from City Councilwoman Barbara Marshall's office.

All of the measures should help, and he and neighbors are happy for the progress, Thurston said.

But, he said: "It's not going to totally take away our flooding. More needs to be done."

And the city says more will be done.

The short-term changes are intended to alleviate the problem until a permanent solution can be designed, said Russell Takara, deputy director of the city Department of Design and Construction. For the long-term improvements, design and construction wants to see if something can be done on Kawailoa Road to improve drainage, Takara said.

"We're looking at ways we can improve the system there that will allow water to at least flow toward Ka'elepulu," he said. "That's probably a more expensive project."

Thurston, 64, who grew up in the area, said two other problems affect flooding. Heavy rainfall on the hillside flows toward the park and homes. That water should be diverted, he said.

Secondly, Thurston said, newer homes surrounding his are impeding water flow, and that contributes to flooding. The city promised to look at it, he said.

Some of the improvements should fix problems created by the city when it renovated the park, Thurston said. For instance, the Lanikai end of the park used to act as a water storage area, but during the renovation, that area was filled with dirt, a bike path was installed and trees were planted, forcing excess water to collect in the middle of the park.

"They totally built up that end of the park where the water used to gather," he said. "Now it gathers across the street from us and comes into our property."

The parking lot across the street from Buzz's restaurant also flooded, but the water could only flow into the street and toward homes because curbs around the lot held the floodwater in and prevented it from flowing to the stream.

The result is that parts of the popular park, widely used for picnics and other gatherings on weekends, are rendered virtually unusable after heavy rains.

Takara said the work will be done by the Parks and Facility Maintenance departments. The plan also calls for the removal of some trees, he said.

Wil Ho, superintendent for Windward parks, said crews will add berms along Kawailoa Road to contain floodwater and channel it to Ka'elepulu Stream. Some of the sand berms along the stream may have to be reduced so water can flow easily to the stream, Ho said.

"The residents wanted us to take away the little berms on Kawailoa Road, but what the study shows is that we should put them back," Ho said. "What they want the water in the park to do is to go laterally down to the parking lot and into Ka'elepulu Stream."

Ho said he has no detailed plan about how the work will be done and doesn't know when the work would begin.

The Parks Department will build the berms, he said, adding that most likely the Department of Facility Maintenance would work on the drainage issue along Alala Road. He said he couldn't say what would be done there, but he said that a large keawe tree at the corner of Alala and Kawailoa would not be removed.