Maui County crews were out in force Sunday to clean up the mess left by heavy rain.
Moist, unstable air combined with strong, upper-level wind conditions resulted in heavy showers that led to the closure of two major thoroughfares on Maui.
A landslide closed a portion of Kahekili Highway near mile marker 11. On the opposite side of the island, heavy rain at Kaupo Gap caused a river to overflow onto Piilani Highway.
The Central Maui Landfill is scheduled to close to residential and commercial traffic today so workers can address damage from the storm. The facility will open at its regular time, 6 a.m., but will close at noon.
County officials said that the landfill could be closed all day should heavy rain continue overnight.
Over the 24-hour span ending Sunday at 5:45 p.m., Kula was battered by 7.19 inches of rain. During the same period, gauges recorded unusually heavy rainfall at Haiku (6.49 inches), Hana Airport (5.26) and Ulupalakua (5.2).
In Kahului, 2.11 inches of rain fell Sunday, breaking the record for the date — 1.24 inches, set in 1954 — the weather service said. Honolulu also saw record rainfall, with 1.14 inches, beating the old record of 0.19 inch, set in 1966.
Honolulu was also chilly Sunday, with a low temperature of 61 degrees, breaking the old record of 63, set in 1995, the weather service said.
Forecasters predict conditions will improve over the early part of the week as the stationary front breaks up and the upper-level low slowly moves away from the islands. Warm, muggy conditions today and Tuesday should give way to a return of tradewind weather over the latter half of the week.
HAWAII ISLAND
President of Palau will speak at UH-Hilo graduation rites
Tommy Remengesau, president of the Republic of Palau, will deliver the keynote address at the University of Hawaii at Hilo’s spring commencement May 13.
Remengesau, the first Palauan to be elected president four times, has focused in office on financial stability and good governance, and amplified Palau’s international leadership while emphasizing the importance of regional and global partnerships, UH Hilo said on its website. Remengesau also was the keynote speaker at the opening ceremony of the 2016 International Union for the Conservation of Nature World Conservation Congress in Honolulu.
He has won numerous environmental awards, including the International Game Fish Association’s Conservation Award in 2014 and the 2016 Peter Benchley Ocean Award for Excellence in National Stewardship for leading the effort to implement the Palau National Marine Sanctuary. The protected, no-fishing zone covers 80 percent of Palau’s territorial waters and is the sixth-largest fully protected marine area in the world.
Remengesau has been named one of the heroes of the environment by Time magazine, received the Pacific Islands Environmental Leadership Awards inaugural Pacific Champion Award and received the Champion of the Earth Award from the United Nations.
Three family members, including two of his children, are graduates of UH Hilo.
The ceremony will begin at 9 a.m. at Edith Kanaka‘ole Stadium.
Karla Kapo‘aiola Ahn, a performing-arts major, will be the student speaker.
Ahn, a former radio broadcaster on Maui and an entertainer, will talk about her struggles as a nontraditional student, a member of the workforce and the parent of two grown daughters, both already college graduates.
Ahn served as a senator representing the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Hawaii at Hilo Student Association during the 2011-2012 academic year, and is involved with the University Chorus and Kapili Choir.
