Sinkhole blocks residents’ access to vital highway

The combined destructive water from above and below a Windward Oahu roadway opened up a large sinkhole Sunday night, cutting off vehicle access to Kamehameha Highway for at least 24 families and hurting farms large and small.

A 16-inch water main break caused water to push up from underneath Punaluu Valley Road, and gushing stormwater from above undermined the integrity of the roadway, Board of Water Supply spokesman Dymian Racoma said.

“It started buckling and rupturing before the storm hit last night,” said Dorothy Colby, 53, who lives on Punaluu Valley Road. “Then we had a regular valley flooding.

“We get potholes, but we don’t get the road entirely disappearing,” said Colby, who said she and several neighbors stayed home from work Monday, their cars trapped on the mauka side of the sinkhole, leaving them unable to drive to the highway.

One man had to walk to the highway to catch a Handi-Van, she said.

Punaluu Valley Road serves, for the most part, a farming community and is the only way in and out, Colby said.

The water main break occurred at about 7 p.m., leaving 24 customers without water. Board of Water Supply crews were dispatched immediately, but road closures due to flooding caused delays, Racoma said. The Board of Water Supply provided a water truck, and residents filled their jugs and hauled them back up the road.

The cavity is roughly 12 feet wide by 20 feet long by 8 feet deep, but may have been slightly smaller when crews arrived, Racoma said.

Crews would be working into the night, he said Monday, but he had no estimate on the time it would take to repair the main and the road. He said determining the cause of the break could take a couple of months.

On Sunday evening Colby and her husband drove through a stream of water running down the road to go to the store.

When they returned, police had cordoned off an area that “was buckling but hadn’t fully busted.” She added, “They were starting to restrict driving before it turned into this giant gorge.”

She said she had no trepidation about driving through the stream of water because water runs over the roadway all the time.

For farmers the problem means a loss of income.

“It’s impeding business,” said Joni Kamiya, whose family owns Kamiya Farms, which produces papayas. The farm is about a half-mile from the highway, at the end of the road. “Without being able to pick it, it will get overripe and stung by fruit flies. Hopefully it doesn’t get rotted.”

The bulk of their produce comes from their Punaluu field.

“My dad can’t get the trucks in and out until they plug the hole,” she said.

The papayas are picked using forklifts, and placed in 250-pound capacity bins. The bins are then placed in high cube trucks. The trucks transport the papayas to Waikane for cleaning and processing.

The setback, one of many, could cost the family a week’s worth of income, said Kamiya, who, with her brother, parents and two hired hands, picks the papayas.

Heavy rain can also rot the roots, Kamiya said.

Kamiya Farms has suffered huge losses from the theft of papayas.

Most recently someone stole a portable toilet worth $2,500. “That’s like 3,000 pounds of papaya we have to sell, plus labor,” Kamiya said.