HONOLULU
\nHawaii officials urged people in hard-hit areas to evacuate Saturday due to the state\u2019s worst flooding in more than 20 years, after heavy rains fell on soil already saturated by downpours from a winter storm a week ago with still more expected over the weekend.
\nMuddy floodwaters smothered vast stretches of Oahu\u2019s North Shore, a community world-renowned for its big-wave surfing. Raging waters lifted homes and cars and prompted evacuation orders for 5,500 people north of Honolulu, though they were later lifted. Authorities cautioned that a 120-year-old dam could fail.
\nOn the island of Maui, authorities upgraded an evacuation advisory to a warning for some parts of Lahaina, which is still reeling from a deadly 2023 wildfire, because of retention basins nearing capacity.
\nNorth Shore Oahu residents who did not evacuate were heartened in the morning by receding waters and moments of blue skies, but more rain was on the way.
\n\u201cDon\u2019t let your guard down just yet,\u201d said Tina Stall, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Honolulu, \u201cthere\u2019s still potential for more flooding impacts.\u201d
\nRacquel Achiu, a Waialua farmer who stayed to care for her livestock, found her goats in knee-high water Thursday night, and an hour later, her family\u2019s seven dogs were in danger of drowning in an elevated kennel. Her nephew and son-in-law rushed out into chest-high water to save them.
\n\u201cMy dogs\u2019 heads were literally just sticking out of the water,\u201d Achiu recalled.
\n\u201cThere was so much water, I cannot even express.\u201d
\nGov. 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.
\n\u201cThis is going to have a very serious consequence for us as a state,\u201d Green said at a news conference. He also said his chief of staff spoke to the White House and received assurances of federal support.
\nWorst flooding in over 2 decades
\nGreen said the flooding was the state\u2019s most serious since 2004, when homes and a University of Hawaii library were swamped.
\nDozens and perhaps hundreds of homes have been damaged, but officials have yet to fully assess the destruction.
\nOfficials blamed some of the devastation on the sheer amount of rain that fell in a short amount of time on saturated land. Parts of Oahu received 8 to 12 inches (20 to 30 cm), the National Weather Service said.
\nMore than 200 people were rescued from the rising waters, authorities said, but no deaths were reported and no one was unaccounted for. Crews searched by air and by water for stranded people.
\nThe National Guard and Honolulu Fire Department airlifted 72 children and adults from a spring break youth camp at a retreat on Oahu\u2019s west coast called Our Lady of Kea\u2019au, city officials said. The camp is on high ground, but authorities did not want to leave them there, the mayor said.
\nWinter storm systems known as \u201cKona lows,\u201d which feature southerly or southwesterly winds that bring in moisture-laden air, have been responsible for the deluges in the past two weeks. The intensity and frequency of heavy rains in Hawaii have increased amid human-caused global warming, experts say.
\nEyes on an aging dam
\nOfficials have been closely watching the Wahiawa dam, which has been vulnerable for decades, saying it was \u201cat risk of imminent failure.\u201d
\nWater levels in the dam about 17 miles (28 kilometers) northwest of Honolulu, on the island of Oahu, receded by late Friday and then went up again with overnight rain.
\nHowever the dam appeared to be less of a concern the following morning than the \u201cbreadth of hazardous conditions\u201d across the island, said Molly Pierce, a spokesperson for Oahu\u2019s Department of Emergency Management.
\nShe noted substantial flooding including in residential parts of Honolulu.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re seeing the waters receding in a lot of places, but again with that saturation, just the smallest amount of water can bring those raging back up,\u201d Pierce said. \u201cSo even if it\u2019s blue skies where you are, I think we all know in Hawaii that if rain is falling on the mountain, it\u2019s coming to you soon enough.\u201d
\nKathleen Pahinui evacuated her Waialua home early Friday because of the dam danger.
\n\u201cHopefully if we make it through today, then tomorrow will dawn bright and sunny,\u201d she said Saturday. \u201cAnd then everyone can start moving slowly back in, and we can start to resume normal and start cleaning up and helping our neighbors.\u201d
\nThe Wahiawa dam, an earthen structure, was built in 1906 to increase sugar production for the Waialua Agricultural Company, which eventually became a subsidiary of Dole Food Company. It was reconstructed following a collapse in 1921.
\nThe state has said Wahiawa dam has \u201chigh hazard potential\u201d and a failure \u201cwill result in probable loss of human life.\u201d
\nIt has sent Dole four notices of deficiency about the dam since 2009, and five years ago it fined the company $20,000 for failing to address safety deficiencies on time, according to records.
\nAfterward, Dole proposed to donate the dam, reservoir and ditch system to the state in exchange for an agreement to repair the spillway to meet and maintain dam safety standards.
\n\u201cThe dam continues to operate as designed with no indications of damage,\u201d Dole said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HONOLULU Hawaii officials urged people in hard-hit areas to evacuate Saturday due to the state\u2019s worst flooding in more than 20 years, after heavy rains fell on soil already saturated by downpours from a winter storm a week ago with still more expected over the weekend. Muddy floodwaters smothered vast stretches of Oahu\u2019s North Shore, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537758,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-537730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n