Homes ripped from their foundations. Five feet of volcanic mud packed inside living rooms. More than 230 people pulled from rising floodwaters. Hawaii is now counting the cost of its worst flooding in more than two decades, and Governor Josh Green says the bill could top $1 billion.
The rain has finally eased, but the disaster is far from over. Back-to-back Kona low weather systems dumped more than 20 inches of rain across most of the state since last Thursday, turning already saturated ground into a conveyor belt of mud, debris, and destruction that hammered Oahu's North Shore hardest of all.
As FOX Weather reported, the twin storms triggered a Flash Flood Emergency on Oahu early Friday, forced predawn evacuations of Waialua and Haleiwa, and prompted additional evacuations over concerns of "imminent failure" at the Wahiawa Dam in Honolulu County. The National Guard was activated. First responders launched nearly 200 rescues by Friday alone. And the second storm wasn't done yet.
Oahu officials received more than 400 reports of damaged or destroyed homes, the Washington Times reported. Hundreds of homes statewide were hit, along with schools, roads, farms, and a hospital in Kula on Maui. Airports took damage. Cars floated through neighborhoods. And the thick reddish volcanic mud that defines Hawaii's soil turned cleanup into a punishing, slow-motion ordeal.
Wahiawa resident David Fuga told FOX Weather what he saw in his neighborhood:
"Mud up to 5 feet in their homes, lost all of their belongings."
That mud isn't ordinary dirt. As one resident named Michael McEwan explained to the Associated Press, "It's full of iron, so it stains everything brownish-yellow." When it's wet, it clings. When it dries, it stains. Either way, it destroys what it touches.
Molly Pierce, spokesperson for Oahu's Department of Emergency Management, offered one piece of good news amid the wreckage. Newsmax reported her statement: "No deaths have been reported as of yet." That's a testament to the first responders, the Honolulu Fire Department, the Hawaii Army National Guard, and local emergency crews, who worked through the worst of it.
The Honolulu Fire Department safely evacuated and airlifted 72 campers and 2 dogs from Our Lady of Keaʻau, using Air1 helicopters and Army National Guard Black Hawks. National Guard troops were photographed wading through knee-high water on Oahu Saturday. By the time Governor Green gave his Friday update, nearly 200 people had been rescued from floodwaters across the islands. That number climbed past 230 as the weekend wore on, as we previously reported when thousands were fleeing and damages mounted.
Some 5,500 people north of Honolulu were placed under evacuation orders. Those orders were lifted Saturday afternoon, but the danger hadn't passed. A boil water notice remained in effect as late as Monday, according to Oahu Emergency Management. Schools stayed closed across the main Hawaiian islands. A major debris slide shut down Kamehameha V Highway on Molokai Sunday.
On Oahu's North Shore, FOX Weather correspondent Robert Ray documented the aftermath firsthand. He encountered large mud-caked debris piles scattered across the area. As late as Monday, several inches of water still covered roads, and runoff poured off mountainsides like waterfalls.
Governor Green called this the state's worst flooding since 2004. He estimated the total damage could top $1 billion, a figure that accounts for impacts to airports, schools, roads, homes, and the Maui hospital in Kula. Breitbart, citing AP reporting, described homes swept off their foundations and floodwaters rising rapidly after heavy rain pounded already saturated ground on Oahu's North Shore.
The numbers from the FOX Forecast Center tell the story in raw terms. Scofield Barracks near Wahiawa recorded more than 35 inches of rain since March 11. Honolulu had already surpassed its average yearly rainfall total. The city logged its wettest March in 20 years and its fourth-wettest month on record. Kahului on Maui recorded more than 20 inches this month alone, its wettest month ever measured.
Parts of Oahu received 8 to 12 inches of rain, with nearly 16 inches near Kaala late last week. That came on top of another 26.6 inches that had already fallen earlier in March, according to the Washington Times. The ground simply couldn't absorb any more.
More than 200,000 people lost power at one point during the first storm last week, the Governor's Office said. By Sunday afternoon, the New York Post reported that more than 2,000 people were still without power.
FEMA said over the weekend that it was working closely with state officials to coordinate disaster response. Green's updated State of Emergency activated the National Guard and unlocked other state resources ahead of the worst flooding. Hawaii meteorologist Matthew Foster told the Associated Press that "the worst of the storms appears to be over."
That's welcome news. But "over" is a relative term when your home is packed with iron-rich mud, your water isn't safe to drink, and your roads are buried under debris slides.
The Hawaii Tourism Authority, for its part, said trips to the state don't need to be postponed or canceled. That may be true for Waikiki hotels. It rings hollow for the families on Oahu's North Shore who lost everything. As we reported when the aging Wahiawa Dam was teetering near failure, the infrastructure vulnerabilities in these communities were already well known before the skies opened.
The immediate question now is speed, how fast federal and state resources reach the families digging out of the mud. Hawaii's residents deserve the same urgency Washington brings to any mainland disaster. Governor Green has put the price tag on the table. FEMA says it's coordinating. The National Guard is on the ground.
Natural disasters don't pick political sides. But the response to them always reveals priorities. Hawaii's first responders, firefighters, Guard troops, local emergency crews, performed exactly as Americans expect: running toward danger, pulling people out of floodwaters, airlifting campers and their dogs off a mountainside. Nearly 200 rescues by Friday. No deaths reported statewide. That's the work of people who take their duty seriously.
The harder work starts now. Hundreds of damaged homes need rebuilding. Infrastructure needs repair. A hospital took damage. Schools remain closed. And somewhere in the bureaucratic pipeline, a billion dollars' worth of recovery decisions are waiting to be made.
When the cameras move on, the mud will still be there, five feet deep in some homes, staining everything it touches. The people of Hawaii's North Shore didn't ask for back-to-back Kona lows. They did nothing wrong. They deserve a government that moves as fast to help them rebuild as their first responders moved to save their lives.
