The worst flooding to hit Hawaii in two decades has swept homes off their foundations, floated cars out of driveways and left floors, walls and counters covered in thick, reddish volcanic mud.
Authorities said hundreds of homes had been damaged, along with some schools and a hospital. On Monday, new downpours set off a fresh round of flooding on Oahu’s south side while residents on the island’s North Shore cleaned up and assessed the destruction from last week’s torrents.
No deaths have been reported, but more than 230 people had to be rescued. The National Weather Service said showers and thunderstorms were expected to wane but the Big Island remained under a flash flood watch.
Here’s what to know about the heavy rains battering Hawaii:
This Was Hawaii’s Worst Flooding Since 2004
Gov. Josh Green said the cost of the storm could top $1 billion, including damage to airports, schools, roads, homes and a Maui hospital in Kula. He called it the state’s most serious since flooding since 2004, when floods in Manoa inundated homes and a University of Hawaii library.
On Oahu’s North Shore, famed for big wave surfing, the waters rose quickly after midnight Friday as heavy rains fell on soil already saturated by downpours from a winter storm a week earlier. Raging waters lifted homes and cars. The storm prompted evacuation orders for 5,500 people north of Honolulu — though they were later lifted — and more than 230 people were rescued from the rising waters.
Some residents fled on surfboards as water reached waist or chest high.
Farms around the state reported more than $9.4 million worth of damage as of Monday, according to a survey conducted by Agriculture Stewardship Hawaii, the Hawaii Farm Bureau and other organizations. Oahu farmers reported more than $2.7 million in crop damage.
Street Becomes A River
An intense band of showers passed over Oahu’s south side Monday afternoon, lifting stream levels and transforming a road in the university neighborhood of Manoa into a river.
Natalie Aczon had gone to the drugstore to pick up some medication for her mother. By the time she left the store some 15 minutes later water was roaring down the street next to the shopping center.
“People came running out from Longs and one of the guys actually said, ‘That’s my white car.’ And it had elevated,” she said.
Stream gauges rapidly surged into flood stage status, said Molly Pierce, a spokesperson for the Oahu Emergency Management Agency.
“That speaks to the amount of water that was falling and also the sheer saturation that we’re seeing where there’s just no absorption anymore,” she said. “All the water just flows.”
Manoa stream, which overflowed its banks in 2004, did so again Pierce said, but the water receded quickly.
Officials do not know how many homes and structures were affected, Pierce said.