Fooding covers a residential neighborhood in Waialua, Hawaii, on Friday, March 20, 2026.
Mengshin Lin | AP Photograph
As Hawaii endures its worst flooding in additional than 20 years, officers urged individuals in hard-hit areas to “LEAVE NOW.” That warning early Saturday got here after heavy rains fell on soil already saturated by downpours from a winter storm per week in the past, and nonetheless extra was anticipated over the weekend.
Muddy floodwaters smothered huge stretches of Oahu’s North Shore, a neighborhood world-renowned for its big-wave browsing. Raging waters lifted properties and automobiles, prompting evacuation orders for five,500 individuals north of Honolulu.
Authorities cautioned {that a} 120-year-old dam may fail.
“The remaining entry street out of Waialua is at excessive threat of failure if rainfall continues,” an emergency alert stated.
On the island of Maui, authorities upgraded an evacuation advisory to a warning for some components of Lahaina, which remains to be reeling from a lethal 2023 wildfire, due to retention basins nearing capability.
North Shore Oahu residents who didn’t evacuate had been heartened within the morning by receding waters and moments of blue skies, however extra rain was on the best way.
“Do not let your guard down simply but,” stated Tina Stall, a meteorologist with the Nationwide Climate Service in Honolulu, “there’s nonetheless potential for extra flooding impacts.”
Racquel Achiu, a Waialua farmer who stayed to look after her livestock, discovered her goats in knee-high water Thursday night time, and an hour later, her household’s seven canine had been at risk of drowning in an elevated kennel. Her nephew and son-in-law rushed out into chest-high water to avoid wasting them.
“My canine’ heads had been actually simply protruding of the water,” Achiu recalled.
“There was a lot water, I can not even categorical.”
Gov. Josh Inexperienced stated the price of the storm may high $1 billion, together with injury to airports, colleges, roads, properties and a Maui hospital in Kula.
“That is going to have a really severe consequence for us as a state,” Inexperienced stated at a information convention. He additionally stated his chief of workers spoke to the White Home and acquired assurances of federal help.
Worst flooding in over 2 a long time
Inexperienced stated the flooding was the state’s most severe since 2004, when properties and a College of Hawaii library had been swamped.
Dozens and maybe tons of of properties have been broken, however officers have but to totally assess the destruction. Some 5,500 individuals had been below evacuation orders.
A view of a storm-damaged house close to floating felled branches in flood waters brought on by extreme rains in Waialua, Hawaii, on Friday, March 20, 2026.
Mengshin Lin | AP Photograph
Officers blamed among the devastation on the sheer quantity of rain that fell in a short while on saturated floor. Elements of Oahu acquired 8 to 12 inches (20 to 30 cm), the Nationwide Climate Service stated.
Greater than 200 individuals had been rescued from the rising waters, authorities stated, however no deaths had been reported and nobody was unaccounted for. Crews searched by air and by water for stranded individuals.
The Nationwide Guard and Honolulu Fireplace Division airlifted 72 kids and adults from a spring break youth camp at a retreat on Oahu’s west coast referred to as Our Girl of Kea’au, metropolis officers stated. The camp is on excessive floor, however authorities didn’t wish to depart them there, the mayor stated.
Winter storm methods generally known as “Kona lows,” which function southerly or southwesterly winds that herald moisture-laden air, have been answerable for the deluges previously two weeks. The depth and frequency of heavy rains in Hawaii have elevated amid human-caused international warming, consultants say.
Eyes on an ageing dam
Officers have been carefully watching the Wahiawa dam, which has been susceptible for many years, saying it was “prone to imminent failure.”
Water ranges within the dam, about 17 miles (28 kilometers) northwest of Honolulu on the island of Oahu, receded by late Friday after which rose once more with in a single day rain.
Nonetheless, the dam gave the impression to be much less of a priority the next morning than the “breadth of hazardous situations” throughout the island, stated Molly Pierce, a spokesperson for Oahu’s Division of Emergency Administration.
She famous substantial flooding, together with in residential components of Honolulu.
“We’re seeing the waters receding in plenty of locations, however once more with that saturation, simply the smallest quantity of water can convey these raging again up,” Pierce stated. “So even when it is blue skies the place you might be, I feel everyone knows in Hawaii that if rain is falling on the mountain, it is coming to you quickly sufficient.”
Kathleen Pahinui evacuated her Waialua house early Friday as a result of dam’s hazard.
“Hopefully, if we make it by way of immediately, then tomorrow will daybreak vivid and sunny,” she stated Saturday. “After which everybody can begin transferring slowly again in, and we are able to begin to resume regular and begin cleansing up and serving to our neighbors.”
The Wahiawa dam, an earthen construction, was in-built 1906 to extend sugar manufacturing for the Waialua Agricultural Firm, which finally turned a subsidiary of Dole Meals Firm. It was reconstructed following a collapse in 1921.
The state has stated the Wahiawa dam has “excessive hazard potential” and a failure “will end in possible lack of human life.”
It has despatched Dole 4 notices of deficiency concerning the dam since 2009, and 5 years in the past it fined the corporate $20,000 for failing to deal with security deficiencies on time, in accordance with information.
Afterward, Dole proposed to donate the dam, reservoir and ditch system to the state in alternate for an settlement to restore the spillway to satisfy and preserve dam security requirements.
“The dam continues to function as designed with no indications of harm,” Dole stated in a press release.
