Starting Thursday morning, the entire state is facing a flood watch. But that could be especially difficult for parts of Molokaʻi — which less than three weeks ago suffered its heaviest flooding in decades.
Torrential rains closed schools, flooded homes and temporarily cut off access to the island's east end.
Residents along the Molokaʻi's south-central shoreline are still digging their yards and homes out of thick mud. Along Kamehameha V Highway, mounds of dirt and debris are piled high.
Judy Mertens lives by the ocean just east of Kaunakakai. Her property was swamped in a single day.
“It was like a river in our backyard, moving and dangerous to get out there in it…And then all night there were police cars because people were having trouble getting through that stretch of the road," she said.
Mertens is still working to clear her driveway.
“The mud was more than a foot and a half deep… and we couldn’t get out of the driveway. My husband is now quite ill and to get him to the emergency room, we had to walk down to a vacant lot and out that way because we couldn’t get through our yard," Mertens said.
Ron and Camie Kimball have lived in their Kawela home for over three decades.
“This is the worst we’ve seen with the mud,” said Camie Kimball.
“Not only the mud, the debris that got left. I think that has to do with the severe drought and the animals," added Ron Kimball.
"We have a huge deer problem over here, unreal, eating everything, but I think the combination of the drought and the deer taking out the topsoil up there and then the amount of rain at one time just pushed all of that loose stuff down."
Rainfall at Molokaʻi’s Puʻu Aliʻi rain gauge brought Maui County's highest daily total on Jan. 28 at 16.68 inches. The Kaunakakai Mauka rain gauge recorded the highest January rainfall since 2004.
Donna Paoa's family has been living in their Kawela home since 1955. The Kawela area floods periodically during heavy rains, but this was the worst she's seen.
Her yard was under a foot of water, which damaged her home. Despite the hardships faced by residents, they express gratitude for the much-needed rain —and the assistance they received from family, friends and neighbors.
“We do what we can to work with what we have, and we count on each other. This is our home, and family and friends are greater here than anywhere else," Paoa said.
