As heavy weather battered Oahu, a teenage girl sustained significant injuries Monday evening as she was struck by large tree that fell near the intersection of Ala Moana Boulevard and Atkinson Drive.
The girl was one of four people waiting at a bus shelter when the tree fell, according to Honolulu Fire Department spokesman Capt. David Jenkins. The other three people were able to escape without injury. The shelter was badly damaged.
Also earlier in the evening, lightning reportedly struck a construction crane on Kuhio Avenue.
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch for Oahu, Maui County and the Big Island that began Monday morning and is expected to last through this afternoon. A flash flood watch means that conditions could develop that lead to flash flooding.
Heavy showers and thunderstorms associated with an upper trough and cold front moving down the islands could result in flooding, with the greatest potential for rain over Oahu, Maui County and the Big Island. The front is expected to continue southeast down the island chain from Kauai today, then shift east of the Big Island on Wednesday night into Thursday.
“There shouldn’t be any changes with that at this point,” forecaster Matt Foster said Monday afternoon. “We’ve had a couple heavy showers pop up over Oahu, Waianae coast this morning, but it’s been mostly uniform showers coming through.”
Patsy T. Mink Central Oahu Regional Park, the Mark K. Takai Veterans’ Memorial Aquatic Center and Kaneohe District Park closed Monday due to bad weather.
A high-surf advisory for the north-facing shores of Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Molokai and Maui was also issued Monday morning with surf expected to decline overnight but rise again today and Wednesday with a new, slightly larger northwest swell. Surf is expected to reach 10 to 15 feet on most isle shores and 12 to 18 feet on Kauai’s north-facing shores. The high-surf advisory is in effect until 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Meanwhile, more than 1,500 Hawaiian Electric customers lost power Monday afternoon on the North Shore. HECO said the outage occurred at 3:41 p.m. in
Haleiwa, Waialua Beach, Camp Erdman, Dillingham Airfield and along Farrington Highway, among other areas. Power was restored just after 5:30 p.m.
The cause was a downed line due to torrential rain, HECO said.
