Hawaii faces another major flood threat 2 weeks after its worst flooding in 20 years
By Meteorologist Dakota Smith, CNN
(CNN) — A potent, multi-day Kona storm is lashing Hawaii with its first rounds of heavy rain, renewing a major flood threat as the state is still recovering from devastating floods in March.
A few places could record multiple months’ worth of rain over just a few days, so a flood watch is in place for all of Hawaii until Friday afternoon, alerting the potential for significant flooding and landslides. The storm is expected to bring a widespread 4 to 8 inches of rain by Friday evening, with locally heavier amounts exceeding 10 inches possible.
The Big Island and Kauai have the most potential to see these higher rainfall accumulations, but depending on how the storm evolves, the heaviest rainbands could hit any island.
“Be prepared for possible evacuations, this is what we’re anticipating. An island-wide event,” Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi said in a news conference Monday. Honolulu will activate its Emergency Operations Center Wednesday and first responders will be deployed to vulnerable areas ahead of the storm, he added.
Kona storms are slow-moving weather systems that form and strengthen northwest of the islands. Their slow movement allows them to tap into moisture from the equatorial Pacific, funneling a barrage of rainstorms to the state.
This is the third Kona storm to hit Hawaii since mid-March. The second triggered the state’s worst flooding in 20 years, and many areas are still recovering. A widespread foot of rain fell across Oahu from March 19 to 24, triggering catastrophic floods that prompted more than 200 rescues and damaged or destroyed hundreds of properties. Parts of Maui saw serious flooding and wind damage from the first storm in mid-March.
The hardest hit areas remain vulnerable to the new flood threat as already saturated ground will flood quicker and run off into streams faster.
“Every inch of rain, as far as we’re concerned, now is more than an inch of rain. It just compounds itself because of the circumstances and people need to be aware of that,” Blangiardi noted.
The storm’s first round of showers began soaking the islands Tuesday afternoon and persisted into Wednesday morning. The downpours prompted flash flood warnings for parts of Maui and the Big Island.
Floodwater entered a home in the Big Island’s Puna District Tuesday night, according to a National Weather Service report citing emergency management. Rainfall totals over a half-foot have been reported at several nearby gauges.
Rounds of showers and thunderstorms will move throughout Hawaii until Thursday morning but will pick up intensity on Thursday afternoon as the Kona storm strengthens.
The train of storms tracking over the same area could produce tremendous amounts of rainfall in a very short period of time. One location in Oahu recorded 25 inches of rain in March’s second Kona storm, with most of that falling in a 24-hour period.
Rain will remain in the forecast for most of Hawaii through the weekend but should become less intense by Saturday as the storm system moves north and away from the islands.
The-CNN-Wire
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