HawaiiNewsNow Video » Fallen boulders damage homes in Kalihi
Boulders tumbled down a Kalihi mountainside Thursday, smashing into three houses on Kula Kolea Place and narrowly missing four people in one of the houses.
Firefighters and rescue personnel were summoned at about 9 p.m. to the area of Kula Kolea Drive and Kula Kolea Place. No injuries were reported.
Sgt. R. Oakes said at least two large boulders came down, damaging three homes, two heavily.
Police evacuated people from several houses on both sides of the street in the danger zone where officials were concerned more boulders might fall.
The American Red Cross was called to provide shelter for the displaced residents.
Oakes said a boulder about 6 feet in diameter and about 3 or 4 tons scraped along the side of a home at 2404 Kula Kolea Place and stopped in the middle of the road. A second boulder went through the roof of the carport at 2408 Kula Kolea, then landed between two parked cars, leaving a pothole in the street. The boulder bounced about 30 feet over a motorcycle and a picnic table and crashed into a home across the street.
"We are very lucky nobody was hurt," Oakes said.
Homeowner John Maemori said he was working on a computer in one part of the house with three friends nearby when he heard a rumble and the "whole left side of my house caved in."
He said a boulder crashed into the back of his house at 2408 Kula Kolea Place, went through the kitchen and "totaled" the house.
Saying the boulder came close to him and his friends, Maemori said he was lucky to be alive.
He said another boulder hit his neighbor’s house, demolishing it.
Maemori said he was going to recover some items and wait for an assessment to be done by fire officials.
