GARY T. KUBOTA / GKUBOTA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Adam Jardine, foreground, and other Maui County employees worked yesterday to replace a pipeline broken by flooding in a gulch in upper Kula on Maui.
Rain disrupts Heavy rain moving from Oahu to the Big Island yesterday disrupted phone service, electricity and traffic, caused a Makapuu rock slide and left some Waikele home owners with a soggy feeling of deja vu.
electricity, traffic,
phones across isles
Winter likely drier than normalStar-Bulletin staff
Weather forecasters said this morning that continual heavy rain is expected for Maui and portions of the Big Island, especially the Kohala area through tomorrow.
The stationary but unpredictable weather front is anchored above eastern Maui today, weather forecaster said. It dumped up to 4.5 inches of rain between 8 p.m. yesterday and 8 a.m. today, forecasters said.
Meteorologists say isle residents should expect more rain and thunderstorms for several days and that back-to-back ocean swells should bring big waves to the north shores of all islands.
"It's going to be big," National Weather Service lead forecaster Hans Rosendal said yesterday of the waves. "The first real big event of the season."
Rosendal said a low-pressure system north of the islands is expected to bring 20-foot-high surf by Friday. Meanwhile, big waves arrived this morning, delighting surfers on the northwest shores with 8- to 12-foot wave fronts.
As for the rain, he said, "We're going to be in this pattern for a number of days, maybe four or five days."
Yesterday's flash-flood watch for all islands except Kauai has been extended to 4 p.m. today.
Police and fire departments reported no serious problems overnight other than minor flooding on the Big Island. But heavy rain caused trouble throughout much of the state yesterday.
On the Big Island, a dump truck lost control in rainy weather and damaged a major fiber optic cable on Highway 190 near Saddle Road, making if difficult for residents to call in and out of the area from Laupahoehoe to Naalehu, said Ann Nishida, a spokeswoman for Verizon Hawaii. Service was restored by 8 p.m., she said.
In Maui County, numerous lightning strikes interrupted power in Waikapu, Wailuku and Pukalani, and flooding broke a waterline and halted travel on Piilani Highway between Hana and Ulupalakua.
And on Oahu, an early-morning rock slide near Makapuu closed the Kalanianaole Highway from Kealahou Street near Sandy Beach to Bell Street in Waimanalo until about 3 p.m. while state Department of Transportation workers cleaned up the rocks.
Earlier this year, the department held public hearings to discuss possible ways to limit the risk of Makapuu rock falls.
"One of the things we are considering is putting up the steel nets that we have in places like Lahaina and Kipapa Gulch," Gov. Ben Cayetano said yesterday. "You are always reluctant to do that, because it mars a little bit the natural beauty of the mountains, but if it becomes a real problem, we need to do it."
Asked about one proposal to build a new road through the mountain, he said it would be "mighty expensive."
"It wouldn't be feasible," Cayetano said. "Besides, the present highway is very scenic and I am not sure who would want to drive through a mountain."
Also on Oahu, three downed power lines blocked traffic for hours yesterday on Kamehameha Highway near Sharks Cove along the North Shore. Nishida said phone service to Sunset Beach-area residents was to be restored by midnight yesterday.
In Waikele, some Lumiauau Street residents relived the nightmare of two years ago when their homes were flooded. After a heavy rain in August 2000, about eight townhouses were filled with muddy water that flowed from a ditch at the Central Oahu Regional Park and the adjacent Kamehameha Highway.
This time, only three or four homes were affected, but residents once again pointed to an inadequate drainage ditch as the problem.
While residents said the flooding from rain that started late Monday was nowhere near as bad, some were upset that the problem recurred after the city promised to improve drainage after the 2000 flood.
"You've gotta keep the windows open and the (carpet) blower's going on behind you, the carpet's fluffing up," homeowner Doug Hill said yesterday afternoon. "It's a little inconvenient."
City Managing Director Ben Lee, who went to Waikele to talk to the homeowners, said: "I understand they're frustrated, that they're mad. I really feel badly for the residents because they said, 'We saw you two years ago and here you are again.'
"We thought we fixed it," Lee said. "Nothing happened last year. We created an interim drainage (ditch), cleaned out the drainage around Kam Highway and grassed the whole park area."
Hill has lived at Village on the Green for six years and said the problem began only when the city began building the park.
"This is the second time it's happened," said Hill, whose living room carpet and storage room were flooded. "This is minor compared to the last time."
BARRY MARKOWITZ / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-BULLETIN
At his Sharks Cove residence, John Lane was told by a HECO worker yesterday where his power line will be attached on his home. Nasty weather downed three utility lines on Kamehameha Highway yesterday.
Lee said, "I've given my assurance that we'll take care of it and fix the drainage problem."
Meanwhile, on Maui, major damage occurred before 8:30 a.m. when flooding in a gulch broke supports to a 200-foot-long pipeline near Kawehi Place in upper Kula. Water department spokesperson Jackie Takakura said the break affected about 400 water customers from Polipoli to Kanaio, including the Kula Hospital and Ulupalakua Ranch.
Takakura said the line should be repaired today but officials are asking affected residents to use water only for indoor purposes or livestock.
Takakura said the water department has a tanker truck at the telephone exchange near Rice Park and another at Kawehi Place for affected residents. Kula Hospital officials say they have two water tanks with enough water to prevent an interruption in health-care service.
Maui Electric said lightning struck lines 10 times in the Waikapu-Maalaea area from 5:35 a.m. to 6 a.m. and once at 6:15 a.m. in Pukalani. The strikes caused an power interruption of one to two hours in areas of Waikapu, Wailuku and Pukalani before the company restored service.
Maui Electric operations superintendent Herb Glassen said in his 31 years working for the company, he has never heard of 10 lightning strikes in one area in such a short period.
Star-Bulletin reporters Gregg K. Kakesako, Gary T. Kubota, Rod Antone, Genevieve A. Suzuki, Richard Borreca and Craig Gima contributed to this report.
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