Kailua sewage line crumbles

Several families are evacuated
as toilets overflow in their homes

By Lori Tighe
Star-Bulletin

A major sewer line crumbled in Kailua this weekend, flooding a home, overflowing toilets in many nearby homes and causing several families to evacuate.

Traffic will continue to be detoured through tomorrow around the broken line at the intersection of North Kawailoa Avenue and Kainui Drive, while workers repair the pipe.

About two miles away on Kawailoa Drive where the raw sewage backed up, residents this morning said the smell seems to have dissipated. Health officials, though, said it'll take a couple of more days before the bacteria is rendered harmless.

Magnus Taitano, a retired city public works construction inspector, said city crews "did their job really well. They worked all night Saturday and didn't stop going for two days straight."

Taitano, who lives a lane away, said the sewage smell seems to have gone away by this morning.

"It's a big deal," Doug Woo, city Department of Wastewater Management spokesman, said yesterday. "It's one of the biggest sewer lines we have. It's an artery."

The city hopes to fix the concrete line by tomorrow.

An average 600 gallons of raw sewage flowed out of the 54-inch broken pipe each hour for 18 hours before workers could divert the flow, Woo said. Workers managed to contain the spill to private property and prevent it from flowing into Kaelepulu Stream, leading to Kailua Bay.

Wanda Johnson said the first floor of her Kawailoa Drive home flooded with 3 inches of sludge.

People living near 437 Kawailoa Road reported their toilets overflowing around 8 a.m. Saturday, Woo said. The accident flooded one home with untreated sewage, and backed up toilets in about 30 homes, said the Red Cross-Hawaii.

Civil Defense asked the Red Cross to open an evacuation shelter for three to four families evacuated from the area. But the shelter was closed yesterday when families didn't show up, said Russell Fujita, Red Cross spokesman.

The overwhelming stench also forced nearby Buzz's Original Steak House to close early Saturday night, turning away about 50 Valentine's Day customers.

Repair crews managed to divert the sewage flow from the broken line to another manhole 250 feet away by 2 a.m. yesterday, Woo said. "We urge residents of Kailua, Lanikai and Enchanted Lake to please keep their water use low," he said. "It will be easier to make the repairs."

The department hired a private contractor to repair the line, Woo said. Officials suspect hydrogen sulfite from the raw sewage eroded the line into ruin.