Molokaʻi resident Darryl Burgess has spent the last few days shoveling mud from his floors. Last weekend’s storm left a river running through his home.
It all started Saturday night.
“I was ready to go to sleep, I heard something boom, like the river opened up right past my house, and then I heard bubbling,” Burgess said. “I turned on my light, and I seen water coming in my house.”
He had installed sandbags in front of his doors, but he says the water rushed right over them.
“I opened my door, and man, it started to just come in the house. So I opened all the doors and the back door to let it just run through the house,” he told HPR.
Burgess said two rivers of muddy water were running down the hill on either side of his house just east of Kaunakakai, near Pano Place. More heavy rain spurred even more flooding.
“Then a second wave came about five something in the morning, I’d say, on Sunday,” he said. “That was the worst. Was about at least 4 inches of water and mud in my house.”
He joked he’s never experienced anything like it despite his profession.
“I'm a plumber, and I never did see this much water,” he laughed.
Burgess said they had to throw out a lot of their furniture, and the water shorted out their home’s electricity. They’re using a porta-potty since their bathroom is unusable.
He's visited the community hub distributing donated supplies from Maui.
“We just came back from there, we got some cleaning products, canned goods, some basic necessities to get by,” he said. “And they're willing to help and bringing supplies, like commercial fans, generators and all that. So that's a good thing. We work together, yeah?”
His driveway was also blocked with mud, and a friend with an excavator helped them dig their way out.
“I had like 2 feet of mud in front of my gate. So if had an emergency, we wouldn't be able to get out, because in the back we have the ocean. Two sides of me is flooded, blocking my gate is mud. So we had no escape.”
It’s been a huge cleanup job.
“We [were] going with shovels and squeegees and everything to get all the mud out,” he said. “So I never thought I would ever pressure wash inside of a house, but that's what we're doing — me, my wife, my son. We're pressure washing each room and vacuuming it up, all that, the dust of the mud and then doing final mopping.”
Burgess and his ʻohana and dog have been muddy and tired since the storm, but he’s thankful they’re safe despite the damage.
“My generator, I got for backup in case the power went out, was underwater. So we just make do with what we got. Main thing I got my family, my pets, no one died, nobody got hurt.”
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