While Oahu did not sustain the type of damage from the weekend’s rains as Kauai did, city officials are trying to determine whether the financial loss to government facilities in East Honolulu and Windward Oahu are great enough for a disaster declaration, city Managing Director Roy
Amemiya said Monday.
Officials would have to determine that at least $3.5 million in damage had been sustained at city and state facilities for a disaster declaration and make the situation eligible for federal disaster assistance funds, Amemiya said.
As of Monday afternoon the city-owned facilities known to have flood damage included channel walls in a ditch below Hind Iuka Drive near the back of Aina Haina, a concrete revetment at Hahaione Stream mauka of the Pepeekeo Street Bridge, and a portion of
Akiahala Ditch near Akele Street
in Kailua, Amemiya said.
It’s difficult to say whether those three areas, by themselves, total $3.5 million, city officials said. “But if you see the pictures of those, you can see that it’s a
capital improvements project,” Amemiya said.
East Honolulu City Councilman Trevor Ozawa, who was in a Washington, D.C., meeting with federal transit officials about the city’s
$9 billion rail project, urged Mayor Kirk Caldwell to make a disaster declaration.
Ozawa said he wants city and state officials to work collaboratively to address the needs of homeowners affected by Friday’s storm.
National Weather Service determined that the 24-hour rainfall from 4 p.m. Friday to 4 p.m. Saturday was 5.6 inches in Niu Valley. That compares with 4 inches in Niu Valley for all of April 2017. Maunawili Valley had 5.4 inches; Waimanalo, 5 inches; and Olomana, 4.7 inches.
The storm did not cause any sewage overflows, although there is a brown-water advisory for all Oahu waters, the Department of Environmental Services reported.
To help East Honolulu residents with storm-damaged items they might want to dispose of, Environmental Services starting today is making available roll-off dumpsters at the Hawaii Kai Park and Ride facility and Kawaikui Beach Park near the bottom of Hawaii Loa Ridge. The bins will be replaced daily through Friday, Deputy Environmental Services Director Timothy Houghton said.
City officials urge residents to use the bin only for storm-damaged items, and say hazardous
materials, major appliances, regular trash and other nonstorm debris will not be accepted.
Regular bulky-item pickup is scheduled to begin Monday in Aina Haina and from Niu Valley to Hawaii Kai on April 25. If additional bulky-item pickups are deemed necessary in certain areas, the city will do them, Houghton said. Residents in storm-damaged areas will not be cited for setting out bulky items early during the cleanup period.
Silt and mud washing down
East Honolulu waterways was not a major factor for the flooding, city Facility Maintenance Director Ross Sasamura said. The main cause was the fast and sudden deluge
of water, he said.
Still, Sasamura reminded Oahu residents that “it’s not a good practice to dispose of large items within drainage channels, canals, streams or rivers, and that if any residents see any type of debris that’s heavy, that can actually clog and collect at bridges, they should let us know right away.”
Those larger types of debris were not the problem in East Honolulu over the weekend,
although there were some tree trunks and other items seen, Sasamura said. “But largely from what I’ve seen, the damage to the city infrastructure was caused by very heavy flow of water.”
City officials did not anticipate the severity of Friday night’s storm and did not do a check of vulnerable areas across the island as they sometimes do when heavy rain is expected.
“The areas that we’re talking about where we sustained damage are not typical areas where we have that degree of water flow, nor (were they areas) that we typically deal with heavy items that are actually potential flood threats,” he said.
The waterways in the area were cleared within the last eight months, Sasamura said.