Businesses struggle to handle the recurring damage from flooding

Three floods beginning Aug. 24 inundated a high-end furniture store and design center in the Dole Cannery mall in Iwilei, co-owner Bryan Kitashima said.

“It’s like war,” said Kita­shima, who owns MESH by Shari Saiki and Shari Saiki Design Center. “We gotta go fight it again. It’s just so much anxiety.”

“It started last Monday (Aug. 24),” Kitashima said. “Half the showroom had taken on water, and included the whole back room. Wednesday (Aug. 26) it really let go; 100 percent of the showroom was flooded and the adjacent warehouse was flooded as well.”

They vacuumed, cleaned, got all of the water out and opened for business. But Thursday was no better. “It just kept coming down. It was pretty much ‘Groundhog Day,’” he said, referring to the movie in which a man keeps reliving a single bad day.

Honolulu businesses were drying out Friday from their second or third bout of flooding in two weeks and feared yet another round of downpours when another flash flood warning was briefly in effect.

An upper-level trough coupled with moisture from Tropical Storm Ignacio caused rain to move slowly over Oahu, flooding various parts of the island Thursday. Last week’s heavy rain also caused flash flooding.

The city said its storm drain system was beyond capacity, which caused flooding, especially in Kalihi, downtown Honolulu, Iwilei and Liliha.

Kitashima and his wife and co-owner, Shari Saiki Kitashima, hired a water-evacuation company, as there were no resources to deal with all the flooding in the Dole Cannery mall.

“We’ve had floodings here before, but not to where everyone was affected,” he said. “Basically the drains didn’t work.”

No furniture was damaged, as they had put everything up on pallets in the warehouse and placed furniture in the showroom on blocks cut from 2-by-4s. The Kitashimas and their staff have been working double shifts until 9 or 10 every night, cleaning and doing their best to get all the water out.

“We have to be open for business,” he said. “We never close the doors.”

Design installation took place Friday, and furniture was retrieved from the warehouse.

Regal Dole Cannery 18 Theaters, which were closed Thursday due to the flooding, reopened Friday.

Vika Rogers, who works at Minh’s Cafe & Restaurant at 590 N. King St., said she, owner Thao Ho and another employee cleaned up the mess left by stormwater that rushed into the cafe’s front door Thursday morning and flowed out the back door.

Outside the rear of the restaurant, “it looked like the Mississippi River, Rogers said, with thigh-high water.

“It just came right through, and we never have no sandbags at all to block it off,” she said. “She had no help.”

The stormwater lifted two chest freezers off the ground, damaging them, Rogers said. The food had to be stuffed into another freezer.

Rogers said this was the second blow for the tiny cafe, which also flooded last week. That’s when Ho stuffed her children’s clothes into bags, which she tried to use to block the water.

“She didn’t know,” Rogers said. “All she knows is flood. Shut the door.”

Rogers blamed sandbags stuffed into a storm drain near King and Liliha streets for the flooding Thursday. When a city worker removed them, the water drained.

The water nearly reached the handles of Ho’s minivan, which was parked outside the restaurant on King Street. The inside of the vehicle was soaked.

Rogers said they worked till past 11 p.m. Thursday to clean up.

Ho, whose first language is Vietnamese, planned to try to have the freezers repaired, but doesn’t know how to get help, Rogers said. “She lost a lot.”

Castle & Cooke, owner of the Dole Cannery mall, emailed city claim forms to its tenants.

Charles Steffey, who lives at Island West apartments on North King Street and Akepo Lane, said the first-floor apartments, including his, and the parking lot were flooded.

“It was full of water,” he said, adding the water reached to the bottoms of the cars.

Kaumakapili Church’s Hale Aloha, used as a food bank and community service and outreach center, was flooded with about a foot of water.

They managed to clear out the water before lunch with help from the fire department and community service workers, said a church secretary, Veronica Milotta. “Hopefully no more,” she said.

“I can’t wait for hurricane season to be over,” Kita­shima said.