Isles put on alert for flooding after receiving heavy rainfall

Kauai and Oahu can expect some heavy rainfall Wednesday, although the weak low-pressure system that brought heavy showers and flash flooding Monday and Tuesday is moving westward and away from the islands.

Flash flood warnings, watches and advisories across the state were in effect at various times throughout Tuesday.

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch for all Hawaiian Islands until 6 a.m. Wednesday. A flash flood advisory was in effect for Maui on Tuesday night, where the upslope, southern end of the island, including Ulupalakua, was getting pummeled by heavy rain.

Windward Oahu from Waimanalo to Hauula was under a flash flood warning for part of the day Tuesday. “Windward Oahu got smashed about the same location” Tuesday in the Waiahole-Waikane area, where floodwaters were up to 2 feet deep Monday night, said National Weather Service meteorologist Henry Lau.

“The Big Island quieted down today,” Lau said.

On Monday a group of tourists riding all-terrain vehicles in a remote, mountainous part of Hawaii island had to climb trees to keep from being swept over a 75-foot waterfall during a flash flood.

They were on a tour with Ride the Rim, a company that runs tours around Waipio Valley, and the 14 guests and three guides set out at about 1 p.m. Monday, said Eileen Levin, an owner of Ride the Rim.

When the group stopped to swim at a waterfall that’s part of the tour, three visitors dipped into the pool that sits between two waterfalls, including the 75-foot drop downstream of the swimming hole. That’s when the waterfall feeding the pool started gushing, said visitor Jill Bolstridge, 33, of New York.

“We pulled ourselves out right in the nick of time, because 4 or 5 feet to the left, we would have had nothing to grab onto, and the water was so strong that we would have been taken over the edge,” Bolstridge said.

The swimmers scrambled to safety on a platform near the water’s edge, but a breakaway bridge they needed to get back to the rest of the tour group and the trail had been washed away to the side. The current was too strong to safely cross, so the swimmers and a handful of other tourists who had walked across the bridge were stranded.

The group was waiting on a wooden platform overlooking the waterfalls. But as the water level continued to rise, they feared the platform could be swept away and over the falls, so they climbed nearby trees and waited for help. Eventually, a rescue helicopter from the Hawaii Fire Department lifted the tourists and guides to safety. No one was injured.