Maui residents are saying last weekend’s storm was the worst they’ve ever seen.
“This area is known for rain because we're near the valley, we're near ʻĪao, so I've never seen rain like this before in my life,” said Wailuku resident Torie Hoʻopiʻi. “This is the first time; I've ever experienced anything like this before.”
She and her family in the Puʻuohala neighborhood were without power for about 72 hours, since around midnight on Saturday.
“In the middle of the storm, the rain and the wind, and at 12:30, we heard three loud explosions, and it sounded like a shotgun,” she said. “Actually, it was right outside of our house. And right after that, we lost power.”
The Hoʻopiʻi ʻohana had stocked up on food before the storm, and were able to transfer some of it to coolers with ice. But without electricity, they had to throw most of it away.
“We had to dump whatever was in the freezer already because it's not salvageable,” Hoʻopiʻi said. “Our refrigerator smelled like rotten eggs.”
“It was like rivers of brown water was going down the street,” she described. “Parts of my roof was leaking. My son and my husband had to go on top of our roof to try to put plastic to stop [it]. I was scared my roof was going to cave in.”
In Upcountry Maui, residents are having to chainsaw their way out of their driveways.
“There were many people who could not get out of their homes after this,” said Kula resident Kyle Ellison. “And so we received lots of requests for simply just letting people gain access out of their driveways.”
Ellison founded the nonprofit Mālama Kula, and the organization has been helping the community with damage and coordinating with emergency officials.
“There are power lines, cable lines, phone lines, utility poles, just down everywhere, with very, very, very big trees leaning on them, and it's pretty precarious,” he said.
Ellison said the Kona low storm brought extra damage.
“Just downed trees everywhere, which was to be expected,” he explained. “But I think what's surprising everybody is just the damage to drainages and infrastructure and rivers that were flowing in places where rivers don't normally flow, and culverts that are just destroyed, roads that are closed, boulders everywhere, that kind of ratcheted up the destruction from what we've seen in the past.”
In Hāna, thousands of pounds of food are being airdropped by helicopter during road closures that have cut off access to the community.
Going into Lahaina, Honoapiʻilani Highway was closed temporarily for flooding, and on Saturday evening, Lahaina residents in the Wahikuli and Leialiʻi areas were under an evacuation warning and advisory because of fast-moving floodwaters. County crews were ultimately able to redirect the overflow and pump the water to keep safe levels of nearby retention basins.
And in Kīhei, the town was inundated with heavy floodwaters and mud. A section of South Kīhei Road caved in, and parts of the road covered in thick silt remain closed.
Kīhei resident Autumn Ness said the water in her yard was up to her thighs. But she counts herself lucky because the house she rents is built raised up. Many others had flooding in their homes.
“My friends two doors down, theirs was probably, inside the house, thigh high,” she said.
Kīhei has seen frequent flooding historically.
“So you prepare for water to come,” Ness said. “But this time, things flooded that never flooded before.”
Some vehicles are still stuck on South Kīhei Road due to mud and water.
“I'm watching from my patio right now, guys who are coming to rescue their car that's parked in the lane across the road because they couldn't drive it, it got stuck in the flood,” Ness said.
The Maui Fire Department said crews performed 10 swift water rescues to help 27 people stranded by fast-rising water during the Kona storm.
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