Published: July 26,2016
Tropical Storm Darby hammered Hawaii with
torrential downpours overnight Sunday and into Monday morning, but the
island chain escaped relatively unscathed as the storm passed Monday
afternoon.
Lightning blew a basketball-sized hole in the wall of a home
in Kaneohe Sunday evening, but luckily no one was injured, Hawaii News
Now reports. Chunks of cinder block were thrown 20 feet into the yard
from a similar sized hole in the sidewalk just feet from the house,
likely the lightning's exit path.
"It shook the house.
We have pictures that came down," resident Kauanoe Mauna Kea told
Hawaii News Now. "I was home on the Big Island when hurricane Iselle
hit. The sound of the albizia trees crashing were horrific in itself.
But this was louder."
In just three hours' time
overnight Sunday, Darby dumped as much as 7 inches of rain on eastern
Oahu, according to weather.com meteorologist Jon Erdman.
That led to ponding along Interstate H-1 near Honolulu, and the city's
police department asked drivers to stay off the roads until the flooding
subsided, according to the Associated Press.
The heavy
rains kept city crews busy dealing with numerous sewage spills across
Oahu — including 42,000 gallons at the Kailua Wastewater Treatment Plant
and 1,000 gallons near the Ala Moana Shopping Center.
A private residence on Oahu leaked around 4,100 gallons of sewage into the Waiolani Stream,
Hawaii News Now reports, prompting officials to warn the public away
from the area, as well as from the lower Nuuanu Stream. Officials issued
a Brown Water Advisory for the Big Island and Maui County on Sunday.
The rains also flooded Kalihi Stream on Oahu, creating a muddy scene on Dillingham Boulevard at a major intersection.
:
State Transportation Department spokesman Tim Sakahara told Hawaii News Now, "We're talking about tons of limbs and branches. We're also talking about a lot of rubbish, certainly a lot of water last night."
The
Honolulu Fire Department responded to at least 79 weather-related
incidents over the weekend, including 59 calls for water evacuations or
flooded conditions, Capt. David Jenkins said.
Residents of the Kalihi neighborhood in Honolulu were hit by the flooding, including Dawn Sato.
"Gotta just clean up and rebuild,
I guess. You do everything and everything is all sludged and nothing
can be saved, I think. Only whatever is on the top, like in the
cabinets. I hope this never happens to anybody else, and I hope it
doesn’t happen anytime in my lifetime again!” Sato told KHON-TV.
Governor
David Ige signed an emergency proclamation Friday as the state began to
prepare for the storm’s landfall, the AP reported. The document
authorizes spending state money for disaster-related relief efforts.
“Our top priority is to protect the health, safety and welfare of Hawai'i’s residents and visitors,”
stated Ige in a press release Saturday. “I urge residents and
businesses to follow emergency instructions, prepare for the storm and
take steps to protect your families, employees and property.”
That same day, an 11-year-old boy and his father were rescued from a swollen stream in Iao Valley, Hawaii News Now reported. The boy was playing in the water when he was swept up by a fast-moving current.
The boy became stranded on a dry island in the river
and bystanders attempted to rescue him by throwing him a garden hose
from the side of the stream, according to Maui Now. The boy's father
entered the stream and walked out to his son on the island. Air 1 lifted
the adult and child to a landing zone along a local road, and
paramedics inspected them before releasing them at the scene.
About 1,000 Hawaii Electric Light customers
in the lower Puna district and a few in Hamakua, upper Puna and Kina
were reportedly without power Saturday, according to KITV. The utility
says a majority of the outages were caused by downed trees and fallen
limbs.
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