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DENNIS ODA / doda@staradvertiser.com
Workers cleaned up ponding water Wednesday on the makai side of Kalanianaole Highway between East Hind Drive and Puuikena Drive.
PHOTO BY DENNIS ODA
20120307-6704 CTY CLEAN UP Tina Nunes surveys a still flooded Wailupe Pl. (off Kalanianaole Hwy.) in front of her home. She literally now has a lake side residence. Her neighbor's yard on the right is still under water. PHOTO BY DENNIS ODA. MARCH 7, 2012.
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARADVERTISER.COM
Instructor Russell Sunabe's art room, used for teaching painting at Kapiolani Community College, was covered with plastic sheeting Wednesday because a leaking roof had caused the ceiling tiles to fall.
Officials expected to resume tallying damage estimates today from the storm earlier this week before another low pressure system brings more chances for thunderstorms to the western half of the islands on Friday.
Eighteen homes on Oahu and 12 homes on Kauai were affected or damaged by the heavy rainfall, according to the American Red Cross. Kauai sustained the brunt of the damage, with two homes in Haena sustaining major damage after water entered the structures. Two portions of state highways also were damaged.
Meanwhile, an upper low will nearly pass Kauai Friday morning, bringing chances for thunderstorms to the western part of the state before tradewinds return Monday, the National Weather Service said.
The two Haena homes are uninhabitable, said Maria Lutz, director of disaster services for the American Red Cross.
Ten homes had less damage, and were habitable, in Koloa, Kapaa, Anahola and Hanalei.
Volunteers with the American Red Cross found the home in the worst shape on Oahu was in Hawaii Kai and had about a foot of water inside. The other 17 homes had less severe problems, such as severe yard damage or ponding in the yard. In one case, water rose to within 4 inches of the floor level of a home on stilts in Mililani. Ten of the homes were in Hawaii Kai while the others were in Niu Valley, Kaneohe, Mililani, and Waimanalo, Lutz said.
Today volunteers will look for more destruction in Kilauea and Princeville on Kauai, try to meet the affected homeowners to offer further assistance, and hand out cleaning supplies.
The Red Cross will forward information on the destruction it finds to county and state Civil Defense agencies that can look at ways to prevent flooding in the future or seek assistance for the property owners.
John Cummings, spokesman for the Honolulu Department of Emergency Management, said there was no infrastructure damage on Oahu from the storm.
Ted Daligdig, Civil Defense manager on Kauai, drove from Lihue to the North Shore and saw between six and a dozen landslides along the roadway Wednesday.
"I was surprised by how much damage constant rain can do," he said. "It doesn’t really hit you until you see it with your own eyes."
He said that south of Hanalei Bridge on Kuhio Highway a 20-foot-long portion of one lane was washed out by the rainfall.
Dan Meisenzahl, spokesman for the Department of Transportation, said crews were working to repair the damage to the south leg of the Kapaa temporary bypass road between Kuhio Highway and Olohena Road after floodwaters undermined a 36-inch culvert under the roadway.
