Ookala residents are cleaning out from severe mudslides and flash flooding that occurred Wednesday evening.
Ookala residents are cleaning out from severe mudslides and flash flooding that occurred Wednesday evening.
Flattened swaths of cane grass on either side of Highway 19, along with traces of dried mud, mark the spot where the torrent crossed the road before flowing downslope and into residential Ookala.
“It’s unreal, when you see the water coming down,” said Hawaii County Councilwoman Valerie Poindexter, who lives in Ookala. Poindexter returned home after the flash flooding occurred but said she saw videos made by several of her neighbors, including one where the flood breaks through a metal gate.
Laupahoehoe, where the nearest rain gauge is located, received 3.09 inches of rain on Wednesday.
Ensen Paiva said the flooding occurred around 5 p.m. that day, amidst a thunderstorm, and lasted no more than 25 minutes. He had just returned to his home along Old Mamalahoa Highway after picking up his two children from school.
Paiva took video of the flooding, which shows swirling brown water gushing through his neighbor’s yard and across Old Mamalahoa Highway, knocking down more cane grass. Debris — including a broken surfboard — floats down the road.
Paiva’s neighbor, April Weber, wasn’t home when the mud came through. Her dog took cover on the front stoop.
“It was a blessing in disguise,” Weber said of the family’s absence. “My auntie had gone to the hospital with pneumonia, so we had been visiting her. All of this happened 25 minutes after we left.”
Weber and her boyfriend have been cleaning mud out of the patio, garage and washroom area for the past three days. The freezer chest on the patio area has a mudline about 4 inches from the bottom of the chest. Caked, drying mud remains in some areas.
“I’m glad nobody got hurt,” Weber said.
A series of drainage culverts cuts through the hillside around Ookala, but some, as Weber showed in photos on her iPad, are not well-maintained. Those on the Weber property are lined with stones and concrete. The Wednesday flood broke through the concrete in one area, Weber said.
“If a car was coming through Ookala … that gushing water was strong enough to push a car off the side (of Old Mamalahoa Highway) into the pasture below, and God knows what could happen then,” Poindexter said.
She said she was working to arrange a meeting with Hawaii County Civil Defense and the Ookala community, including the dairy, which is located mauka of Highway 19. The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday at the Ookala Sugar Mill site.
“We’ve never, ever had that (kind of flooding) happen before,” Poindexter said.
Other parts of the Hamakua Coast also experienced flash flooding Wednesday. In Paauilo, one lane of Highway 19 was temporarily closed after a landslide blocked the road.
Email Ivy Ashe at iashe@hawaiitribune-herald.com.