Almost two weeks after devastating flood waters took Oʻahu’s North Shore by surprise, Honolulu City Council members grilled the city’s top emergency manager on what they said were slow evacuation orders and delayed and unclear updates on storm conditions.
By the time an evacuation order for Waialua and Haleʻiwa came around 5:30 a.m. on March 20, residents had been wading through chest-deep floodwaters. During a council meeting on Wednesday, council members asked city officials what went wrong.
“Why did you wait that long when the week before, at a lower level, the evacuation notice was given?” Council member Val Okimoto asked.
Department of Emergency Management Director Randal Collins said evacuation orders aren’t as simple as looking at the water level of a stream gauge. He also said officials were focused on the water level at the Wahiawā Reservoir, also known as Lake Wilson. They were watching to see if the 120-year-old dam, owned by Dole Food Co. and set to transfer to the state, was on the brink of overflow and possible failure.
Mayor Rick Blangiardi said his team did the best they could given unpredictable weather patterns that dumped 2 trillion gallons of rain on the state in the span of a month, at times reaching 3,000% of normal historical rainfall levels for this time of year.
The National Weather Service had predicted far less rain on the night of March 19 than what actually occurred.
“This stuff here was something that was wildly unpredictable,” Blangiardi said.
Honolulu Managing Director Mike Formby said he stands by the city’s metrics for when to order an evacuation. Ordering an evacuation is a complex decision, he said, with officials needing to have a plan of where people will go and what venues can take them in.
“When you reach that point, you have to make a decision knowing that Dole and others are going to say, ‘That’s a premature decision, you shouldn’t be evacuating people out of that community,’” he said.
Council Chair Tommy Waters asked why an evacuation order was not issued at 8:25 p.m. on March 19 when Kaukonahua Stream, which sits next to Otake Camp, surged 2 feet. Collins said officials weren’t watching that gauge because it happened a couple hours before the city’s Emergency Operation Center was activated.
“We had no knowledge of such an event happening at that moment,” Collins said.
His employees were off duty then, he said, and in scenarios like that, a 911 operator can call to update them on ongoing emergencies.
“We never received a call at any time,” he said.
Collins said one problem is the stream monitors don’t automatically alert anyone when water levels exceed normal levels. That’s partly why he wants more funding for his department so they can have enough staffing to monitor all possible hazards, he said. Collins’ department currently has 15 full-time positions, and last month during budget briefings he asked the council to fund eight more.
Officials did send out a message just after 3:40 a.m. on March 20 advising residents to evacuate only if they could do so safely. First responders were having a hard time getting in themselves.
“It’s probably not a good idea to put the citizens in evacuation mode and drive out in those same conditions,” Collins said. “Again: dark, night, can’t see the rain.”
Council member Andria Tupola, who represents the Waiʻanae Coast, said the mayor’s Chief of Staff Andy Sugg provided good information to her and other council members in a text thread the morning of March 20. But she said other city communication, including with the public through its HNL Alert text system, was confusing and not specific enough.
“If we can up our communication,” Tupola said, “we need to do that yesterday.”
State Hopes For Federal Assistance
Representatives from agricultural agencies told state lawmakers in a separate briefing Wednesday at the Hawaiʻi Capitol that farmers whose crops and homes were devastated by flash floods brought by the recent Kona low storm system need help now. Many do not have flood insurance.
“Our farmers and ranchers are resilient,” Hawaiʻi Farm Bureau Executive Director Brian Miyamoto told chairs of the Legislature’s water and land, agriculture and environmental protection committees. “But resilience does not replace resources.”
Miyamoto said farmers need money quickly. At least $23 million in damage occurred and 2,700 livestock were lost, according to fellow attendee Hunter Heavilin, advocacy director for the Hawaiʻi Farmers Union.
“We know this is significantly underreported,” Heavilin said.
Amanda Shaw, director of food systems for Oʻahu Resource Conservation and Development Council, told legislators the real economic damage to farms is likely between $46 million and $59 million, and Miyamoto said grants are preferable to loans since many farmers are already in debt and can’t afford to take on more.
A presidential disaster declaration would unlock flexible federal emergency funding for communities damaged by the flooding. Gov. Josh Green said he requested this designation last week, but as of Wednesday afternoon President Donald Trump has not granted it.
During his second term, Trump has approved less than 25% of federal disaster aid requests for Democratic states, according to a recent analysis from E&E News. In contrast, he has approved almost 90% of requests for Republican states, the analysis says, an unprecedented dynamic compared to his first term and to previous presidents’ doling out of emergency aid.
Formby, the Honolulu managing director, alluded to this fact during the afternoon’s council meeting. A final damage assessment is yet to be complete, but Green has said the amount of damage will likely be equivalent to at least $1 billion.
“We believe that we’re going to meet the eligibility requirements for a presidential declaration,” Formby said, “but we don’t know that we’re going to get one yet. We hope we will.”
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This story was originally published by Honolulu Civil Beat and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
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