Before Hurricane Lowell passed through Hawaiʻi, residents living along the Woodlawn Drive Bridge in Mānoa had to come to terms with the fact that they were literally living on the edge.
The natural stream was diverted and has been identified as a problem area where fallen boulders and trees pose a potential hazard.
James Hiramoto and his wife Judith have lived in the neighborhood for 26 years. After their car was swept up into a tree during the 2004 Mānoa Valley floods, they say that they’ve learned to read the signs.
“The dynamics of the stream in the 26 years that we've been here has really changed,” he told HPR.
“Trees come and go. The gravel banks move from here to there. 99% of the time, it's wonderful living here.”
Their next-door neighbors, Eric Rita and his wife Leanne Kimura Rita, saw the flash floods firsthand during the Kona Low storms and were braced for Lala and Lowell.
“The first few times were scary,” Eric recounted.
“We've seen just massive albizia trees just floating down like a toothpick. It's just kind of incredible to see how large these trees are. And this last one, we actually saw a full tree, I mean roots, full branches, just floating down.”
And as floods in Mānoa uproot trees and overwhelm the land with mud, those streams send all that storm debris downstream into the Ala Wai Canal.
Controlling floods is an issue that concerns not only the mauka neighborhoods upstream, but Honolulu’s economic engine — Waikīkī — as well.
To discuss the urgent need for flood control across Oʻahu, HPR spoke with State Sen. Carol Fukunaga.
“We have to all pull together,” she told HPR, stressing the need for collaboration across the state.
“It's time for us to come together, everyone, federal, city, state, community people, government agencies, and the private sector, because we really are going to have to tackle these climate change issues now.”
Fukunaga explained that having to navigate multiple different jurisdictions in the past hindered previous efforts to initiate holistic flood control practices across Oʻahu.
“I think it's doable, but it's more a matter of cooperation because in the past, you know, this portion of the stream is state, this portion is city, this portion is private, and so nothing ever really got finished. Whereas, I think today, people understand we need to pull together.”
This story aired on The Conversation on Sept. 14, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
