CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Students at Varney Circle at the University of Hawaii-Manoa rushed between buildings yesterday as the rains came.
Heavy rainfall across Oahu brings
rockslides and power failures
Heavy rains socked Oahu yesterday, causing power outages and several rockslides, including two in East Oahu that shut down sections of Kalanianaole Highway last night.
State transportation officials said the rain initially brought down eight boulders -- one of them described as 3 feet long and 2 feet wide -- onto the highway about 7 p.m.
About an hour later, police and state officials closed the highway between Kealahou Street near Sandy Beach Park to Sea Life Park, close to where the rockslide occurred.
"The rockslide happened about 1,500 feet from the Sea Life Park entrance at the edge of the cliffside," said Department of Transportation spokesman Scott Ishikawa last night. "We'll probably have an engineer out here in the morning to take a look at the whole cliffside."
At about 9:10 p.m., the department reopened the road but 20 minutes later another rockslide between the Koko Head Rifle Range and Sandy Beach forced the closure of the highway between Hanauma Bay and Kealahou. Crews were working to clean up the rocks late last night. Ishikawa expected the road to be reopened by early morning.
LEILA FUJIMORI / LFUJIMORI@STARBULLETIN.COM
Firefighters vacuumed water from the Scan/Design-Scan/Line furniture showroom yesterday morning while store manager Brian Pedersen looked at wet rugs used to sop up the water.
He said the Makapuu area where the rocks fell is beyond the area where the Transportation Department placed steel netting on the hillside above Makapuu Point after an Oct. 15, 2002, rockslide closed a portion of the highway for weeks.
Asked whether the department might have to extend the area of the netting, Ishikawa said, "It's likely."
Wahiawa police also reported a rockslide near Waimea Bay between 9 and 9:30 p.m. but it was cleared within an hour.
A fourth rockslide was reported in the Koko Head bound lanes of Diamond Head Road near the lookout after 10:30 p.m., according to police. No road closures were reported from that rockfall.
Heavy rains also brought down rocks in Niu Valley, where residents reported two large boulders coming down near the top of Anolani Street on Sunday night. One of the boulders, which was described as 5 feet tall and 6 feet wide, crashed through the top portion of a retaining wall.
Besides rockslides, the Honolulu Fire Department was inundated with calls about water- and weather-related problems yesterday, responding to 10 flooding and water evacuation calls by late afternoon, six of which were on Windward Oahu.
Downpours were widespread but did not remain in one spot long enough to cause major flooding, however flooding of low-lying areas occurred, said Tim Craig, lead forecaster for the National Weather Service. "I doubt seriously that there was a dry spot in the islands today."
Waterspouts were reported off Windward Oahu.
Lightning also struck at least three times on the Windward side. A Kaneohe house in Haiku Plantation, was hit by lightening, leaving a 2-foot hole in the roof, said fire Capt. Kenison Tejada. Residents reported smelling smoke, he said.
FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Cars drove through flooded Cummins Street in Kakaako after heavy rains yesterday.
An Enchanted Lake house was also struck. Homeowner Burl Burlingame, a Star-Bulletin writer, said he arrived home about 4 p.m. to find wiring shredded and a corner of the house burst open with splintered wood in the yard and one electrical circuit blown.
The lightning also burned a hole in the carpet -- leaving a foot-high splinter sticking straight up -- and broke louvered windows.
"Electrical outlets exploded and threw shrapnel across the room," he said.
Lightning also struck a utility pole in the same neighborhood shortly after noon, causing sparks to fly and a power failure to the area, said Hawaiian Electric Co. spokesman Jose Dizon. No apparent damage was found, and power was restored to all 1,300 customers by 12:45 p.m.
Other weather-related power failures affected 800 homes in Waimea on Oahu's North Shore and 1,100 homes in Waianae yesterday morning. Another power failure from Ainakoa Avenue to Niu Valley affected 2,900 customers at 6 p.m. Power was restored by 7:25 p.m., Dizon said.
Firefighters vacuumed water from the Scan/Design-Scan/Line furniture showroom on South King Street after it was flooded just before opening at 10 a.m. yesterday. The water stood 3 inches high when firefighters arrived.
The store's Hotel Street entrance is lower than the street, and water overflowed from a drain in front of the doors, and water from passing cars also splashed into the store.
In Kapolei the rain fell so hard that it flooded two classrooms full of 3- and 4-year-olds at Seagull Schools yesterday, prompting a call to the Fire Department and a hunt for sandbags to help block the flow of water.
"The first line of defense was to get a mop and mop it out," said Kathy Garner, the preschool's administrative assistant. "But it was raining hard enough and fast enough that a mop was like swatting flies with a toothpick."
At the state Capitol, the water leaked through the basement ceiling, causing water to run along basement hallways and several offices. The Capitol atrium was flooded at times as the drains could not handle the downpour.
Two ceiling panels in the Capitol snack shop were soaked with water and collapsed.
Still, all the rain will not immediately replenish low ground-water levels. Most of the water from heavy rainfall will pond and run off, said Honolulu Board of Water Supply spokeswoman Wanda Yamane.
The heavy rains and sudden downpours along with the ponding on roadways contributed to numerous accidents.
Castle Junction had a small landslide behind the concrete barrier and rockslide near Kipapa Gulch yesterday morning but was cleaned up quickly, Ishikawa said.
For the past three days, city maintenance crews have been working between Laie and Kaneohe and other Oahu locations to keep storm drains, catch basins and streams free-flowing, said city spokeswoman Carol Costa.
The rains moved from Kauai to Maui, but some showers were possible for Oahu today, forecasters said.
By last night, Maui police officials said there was only one road closure due to the weather, located along Honoapiilani Highway between Fleming Beach Park and mile post marker 40, two miles north of Nakalele Point.
Star-Bulletin reporters Susan Essoyan and Richard Borreca contributed to this report.
