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City willing to
foot bill for Waikele
flood repair

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By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

The city will pick up the cost of repairing damage to eight townhouse homes in a Waikele subdivision flooded during the weekend -- if no one else will foot the bill, according to Managing Director Ben Lee.

Lee said yesterday that he has told contractor Dick Pacific Construction "to make all the necessary repair, replacement and so forth as soon as possible," and that the city will front the money for the repairs.

Dick Pacific is the general contractor working on the city's Central Oahu Regional Park project just above the Village on the Green subdivision where the flooding took place.

No cost estimates have been given, but Lee estimated that it was in "the tens of thousands."

Heavy, muddy rains overflowed from a drainage ditch at the site and from adjacent Kamehameha Highway. A fence between the subdivision and the project was then cut open during the rains, and the water gushed into the lower units nearest the fence line.

Furniture and carpets were damaged in the eight units.

It has not been determined if any fault for the flooding can be blamed on human error, but the city will try to get compensation if such fault is determined, Lee said.

"I don't believe that this is anybody's fault," Lee said. National Weather Service and Oahu Civil Defense officials said three to four inches of rain fell in the Waipio-Waikele area from 6 to 9 p.m. Sunday.

Lee said the money would come from the contingency fund that is part of the park's $16 million construction project.

Lee added that the city "is working with the engineers and designers to see the quickest and most cost-effective way to make sure that this drainage problem doesn't happen again."