Darby damage was avoidable?

This seems to happen with each major rainstorm Hawaii endures: The facilities meant to protect neighborhoods and businesses from damage don’t.

This was starkly eviden with Tropical Storm Darby. Not only were areas such as Mapunapuna swamped — a fairly common occurrence there — but waterways, such as Kalihi Stream, became clogged and overflowed.

Perhaps there’s no way to avoid such outcomes in extreme conditions such as Darby presented. However, the hurricane season has just begun, so we have to hope that clearing stream channels would become a priority activity in the coming weeks.

Cooling-off period yields lower bids

Now that bids are coming in lower for work to cool Hawaii’s public school classrooms, temperatures could lower soon as well in the hottest facilities across the state.

Dann Carlson, state Department of Education (DOE) assistant superintendent for school facilities and support services, said DOE has seen a drastic reduction in the bid prices for heat abatement.

Bids for a project at Kamaile Academy, a public charter school in Waianae came in closer to the department’s “estimated median perclassroom” of $40,000 — from $49,527 per classroom and $63,422 per classroom.

That’s more palatable than initial bids of nearly 10 times the DOE estimate and that were rightly rejected.