Rain continued to fall in Hawaii on Sunday, where a strong storm caused flash flooding, snowstorms and landslides on the islands, while residents reported roads collapsed and a home swept away by rising waters.
Flash flooding has been a major problem in recent days in places like Maui, Molokai and the Big Island, where it rained between 1 and 2 inches (2.5 and 5 cm) per hour overnight, according to Hawaii’s emergency management agency.
According to the National Weather Service, the worst of the storm is over but the rains are not over yet. A flood watch is still in effect for Maui County and Hawaii Island, as is a wind advisory for those areas, and flash flood warnings remain in effect through Sunday night.
“Winds this strong can make driving and walking dangerous. Winds can force doors open and damage hinges or slam them shut, possibly causing injuries,” according to the NWS forecast.
Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said in a social media post Saturday night that some areas of Maui had received more than 20 inches (51 centimeters) of rain in the previous 24 hours.
PowerOutage.us, which tracks outages nationwide, reported that more than 35,000 electricity customers in Hawaii were without power as of noon Sunday.
“We’re seeing flooding, mudslides, sinkholes, debris and downed power lines across the county,” he said. Expressing his gratitude in the Hawaiian language, the mayor added “mahalo for continuing to take care of each other.”
Images incorporated into the mayor’s video showed washed out or collapsed roads, a car trapped by floodwaters and raging waterways. National guard and fire department workers have performed multiple flood rescues, Bissen said.
Tom and Carrie Bashaw said there was little they could do to prevent part of their home in Maui’s Iao Valley from collapsing under rising waters. On Friday, the force of the water began to overcome nearby trees.
“When we lost the mango and the monkey pod, we started throwing things in bags and packing up,” Tom Bashaw told HawaiiNewsNow. They returned Saturday morning and “the entire back of the house” was gone, he said.
Storm Kona, so named because it is created from winds coming from the Kona, or west, direction, brought snowfall to the highest peaks with reports of up to 20 inches on the Big Island’s highest peaks. On Mauna Kea, snow and ice on NASA cameras caused them to stop working on Sunday.
Jesse Wald, a Maui resident and real estate broker who recorded video of a coastal highway collapse on Saturday, said other parts of the highway were inundated with mud and sediment.
“In the 20 years I’ve been here I’ve never seen so much rain,” Wald said. “I’m from Wisconsin and we have thunderstorms, you know, quite often in the summer, so it felt like a Wisconsin storm, but times 10.”
