City assesses damages from the flood to qualify for federal relief

The City and County of Honolulu urged residents to report property damage on its website to help with assessment efforts required to receive federal funds after severe flooding hit businesses and homes on Oahu.

However, Honolulu Director of Emergency Management Hiro Toiya explained that people will not receive financial assistance immediately for property damage.

“A damaged home doesn’t necessarily automatically result in federal or state assistance,” he said. “We have to go through an assessment process to determine the level of impact.”

There are several types of assistance that people can seek. One is a loan through the Small Business Administration, and another is an individual assistance program through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Both types of assistance depend the amount of damage, which the county and state will need to assess.

Toya did not yet know how long the damage assessment would take.

“It really varies a lot,” he said. “Right now our efforts are being hampered by the additional (rains) that are coming in. So with that, we really ask as much as the impacted residents can report the damage to us, that makes our job a lot easier.”

Gov. David Ige and Mayor Rick Blangiardi surveyed the damage to property in Haleiwa on Wednesday after severe flooding Tuesday night. However, due to the continuing rain, they were not able to get a full picture of the damage.

Mike Lyons, who owns a building on Kamehameha Highway in Haleiwa, confronted both Ige and Blangiardi when they stopped at his property.

“What happened yesterday was disgraceful,” he said.

“This evacuation stuff is full of you know what.”

Lyons explained that people struggled to leave and enter Haleiwa during the flood on Tuesday night because the bridges were being evaluated.

Councilwoman Heidi Tsuneyoshi, who represents the Windward and North Shore areas, pointed out that the flood issues with the bridges in Haleiwa have been problems for a long time.

“Long bridge and twin bridges, which we’ve known for a long time, have a tendency to overflow. And this is exactly what happened in this situation,” she said.

“The water has no place to go. So it overflows into surrounding communities, causing us concern.”

Tsuneyoshi explained that sediment under the bridges is what prevents the water from flowing. However, the jurisdiction of the bridge changes between the state and city depending on the part of the bridge, so it is not clear whose responsibility it is to clear the sediment.

Blangiardi said he will be looking at the city’s $1 billion Capital Improvement Project to see how these types of flooding issues can be addressed.

“If the city could play a role in that, we absolutely want to get a hand in doing that,” he said.

Ige was hopeful that the next round of federal COVID relief funding would help those affected by the flood as well.

“Certainly, natural disasters like this has a tremendous impact on the busi­nesses, especially those that received flood damage or were overrun by water,” he said.

“We do see significant resources. A lot of those would be focused on the impact of COVID, but clearly there would be programs to provide rental assistance, mortgage assistance and assistance to small businesses in general that have been significantly impacted by COVID.”

Congress on Wednesday passed the American Rescue Plan Act, which would provide more stimulus payments to qualifying citizens and funds to state and county governments for relief efforts. President Joe Biden is expected to sign it Friday.

The city also received $114 million in federal funding for rent and utility relief, separate from that act. Residents can apply at oneoahu.org. Blangiardi expects the funds to start being distributed by the end of this month or early April.