Crews began evaluating damage on Tuesday after a surprise downpour sent floodwaters raging through a neighbourhood near downtown Honolulu, the latest in a series of storms that have battered Hawaii over the past two weeks.
Residents on Oahu's North Shore, already cleaning up from the worst flooding in 20 years, were caught off guard when a storm on Monday unleashed several inches of rain on the southern part of the island. In Manoa Valley, reddish-brown torrents swept away parked cars and swamped much of the area, with one resident describing the water as unrelenting.
The ferocity of the downpour took meteorologists by surprise. Forecaster Cole Evans of the National Weather Service said models struggle to predict how much moisture lingers in winter storm systems known as Kona lows. “When you think it's over it's not quite over,” he said on Tuesday. The rainfall was highly localised, with 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 cm) per hour in some spots while Honolulu Airport received less than a millimetre.
No deaths or serious injuries were reported, but hundreds of homes on the North Shore had been damaged by previous flooding, with more than 230 people rescued. Evacuation orders covered 5,500 people north of Honolulu, and some residents used surfboards to escape as water reached waist or chest height. Farms reported over $9.4 million in damage, and Governor Josh Green estimated the overall cost could exceed $1 billion, including damage to airports, schools, roads, and a Maui hospital.
The Kona low is now moving east, reducing the risk of further bursts, though a flash flood warning remained for eastern Maui. Officials expressed cautious optimism that the rains might finally end, with one spokesperson calling the storm system “extremely unusual” and noting that most had not seen such relentless weather.
