Torrential rain caused a dam to overflow in Hawaii on Monday, forcing the evacuation of some 150 families in the area and severely damaging or destroying at least half a dozen homes, officials said.
An evacuation order, which remained in effect on Tuesday, affected people living downstream of the Kaupakalua reservoir and dam in the Haiku area of Maui, said Sandy Baz, managing director of the Maui County Administration Department.
The floods destroyed a bridge in Haiku and heavily damaged a second bridge, Mayor Michael P. Victorino, of Maui County, said in a statement on Tuesday.
He described the flood as “unprecedented” and said the authorities would conduct damage assessments on Tuesday. “I ask everyone to remain vigilant and safe,” he said.
At a news conference on Monday, Victorino said the heavy rain “created a very dangerous flood situation throughout Maui County, but especially in eastern Maui”. He noted that at least five people were rescued.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is a real flood situation that we haven’t seen in a long time,” he said. Some residents, he added, told him it was the worst flood they have seen in 25 years.
The evacuation order affected about 150 homes, according to The Honolulu Star-Advertiser. In a statement released on Monday, Maui County officials asked people not to return to the area “until it is safe to do so”.
Evacuation shelters were opened at the Paia Community Center and Hana Secondary School, and the community center remained open on Tuesday.
“Please stay at home and take your places,” said Victorino, who also asked visitors to the area to stay in their hotels or accommodations. “Don’t go out,” he said.
A section of the Hana Highway near the dam was closed on Monday when muddy water flooded the highway. It has since reopened, according to the Hawaii Department of Transportation. About 1,300 customers at Haiku went out of power on Tuesday morning, said Victorino.
The National Weather Service in Honolulu issued a flood alert on the islands of Hawaii on Wednesday morning. Widespread rainfall was expected to continue into Tuesday night, as a top-level disturbance interacted “with tropical humidity moving from the south and east,” the Meteorological Service said.
Maui County officials initially thought the dam had been breached by floods, but “after closer inspection”, they determined that “there was no structural damage,” the county said in a statement.
The land on which the Kaupakalua reservoir is located is owned by East Maui Irrigation, according to a statement from the office of Governor David Y. Ige of Hawaii.
East Maui Irrigation is owned by Mahi Pono, an agricultural company, and Alexander & Baldwin, a real estate company. Shan Tsutsui, chief operating officer at Mahi Pono, said in a statement that “the dam has not broken”.
“At this point, the overtopping of the dam has stopped,” said Tsutsui. “However, our teams are actively monitoring the situation and will continue to monitor water levels until it returns to a safe level.”
Built in 1885, the Kaupakalua dam is one of the oldest agricultural dams in Maui, according to the state. It is 57 feet high and 120 meters long and can hold 68 million gallons of water.