A waterlogged windward Maui was slammed by heavy rain again Saturday, triggering flash flooding, landslides, road closures and the opening of emergency shelters.
“We’re underwater over here,” said Maui County Councilman Robert Carroll of Hana. “We’ve gotten really, really heavy rain all day.”
Hana Highway, hard hit by muddy runoff and rocks, was closed in East Maui on Friday night and again on Saturday. The winding coastal road was expected to remain closed at least through the night.
“Authorities will not work on clearing until tomorrow because of extreme danger of further landslides,” Maui state Sen. J. Kalani English, a Hana resident, wrote on his Facebook page Saturday night.
The American Red Cross opened shelters at the Hana High School gym on Friday and the Velma Santos Community Center in Wailuku on Saturday. At least eight people sought shelter in Hana over two days, said Michele Liberty, Red Cross spokeswoman.
YMCA Camp Keanae became a refuge for more than 30 motorists Friday and at least 50 people Saturday who were trapped between landslides while traveling on Hana Highway.
Cindi Nand, the interim camp director, said the area has endured “torrential rain” for nearly three days and that on Saturday mud and rocks were piled on the highway 10 feet high at one spot.
“A rushing river of water ankle-deep was running off the highway down our driveway,” she said. “The property was literally completely full of water — rushing, rushing brown water. It was coming down in sheets.”
Nand said she expected many of the travelers to ring in the new year at the camp and bed down for the night.
“I thought I was going to be here all by my lonesome,” she said, “but this’ll be fun.”
On Friday, Carroll left his Wailuku office on his way to his Hana home when he was alerted by his daughter that Hana Highway was closed. Carroll took a detour along the leeward side of Maui through Kaupo, a route that adds an extra hour to his commute.
“Today I stayed in, keeping dry the best I could,” he said.
Maui County authorities on Saturday were urging motorists to stay off the roads due to hazardous conditions.
Road closures from downed trees, landslides and flooding were reported on Hana Highway between Honomanu Bay and Keanae, near mile markers 14 and 15; and in Haiku, where a rock slide and large boulder blocked the highway’s eastbound lane about 400 yards from the Kahului side of West Kuiaha Road in Haiku.
Flooding also briefly closed the intersection at Kaupakalua and Kokomo roads about noon Saturday.
Jon Jelsema, National Weather Service meteorologist, said a slow-moving cold front stalled over Maui and combined with an upper-level disturbance to unleash the heavy rain.
One rain gauge at West Wailuaiki in East Maui recorded 9.4 inches of rain over a 24-hour period, he said, while Kahakuloa in windward northwestern Maui saw 4.39 inches of
rain.
A record amount of rainfall was recorded for the date at Kahului Airport on Friday. The 1.28 inches of rain broke the old record of 0.85 inches set in 1958.
The weather service continued a flash flood watch for Maui through at least 6 a.m. today.
“It’s a gloomy end to 2016 for visitors and residents of Maui,” Jelsema said.
The good news is that conditions are expected to improve as the disturbance moves to the east and the cold front dissipates over the next day or so, he said.
On Saturday, heavy rains were reported in East Molokai as well, and the search for a missing plane north of the island was hampered by rain, wind and cloud cover, the Maui Fire Department reported.
In addition, the rain prompted state health officials to issue a brown water advisory for Maui. Avoid floodwater and stormwater runoff due to “possible overflowing cesspools, sewer manholes, pesticides, animal fecal matter, dead animals, pathogens, chemicals and associated flood debris,” officials said in the advisory.