Kauai residents woke up early Sunday morning to find heavy rains drenching the entire Garden Isle – resulting in a Flash Flood Warning through the rest of the afternoon.
"Its going into the house so we’re having to suck it out with a wet vac. It’s not fun," said a Kauai resident.
Just about every part of the island got soaked and stream levels began to rapidly rise.
"The water was moving really fast, lucky it didn’t come onto the road, but it was right up onto the edge though definitely thick and sweeping," says Chris Jensen from HawaiiStream.com and a Kapaa resident.
Kauai Civil Defense was forced to close several roadways due to flooding. Kuhio Highway near Hanalei bridge was shut down for part of the day.
"Oh it’s horrible, it’s scary, you have to be careful because of the water puddles," said a Kauai resident.
"It’s pretty much non-stop, been going on since early this morning. Our house is flooded to the fullest right nowl; our back yard is covered almost up to our porch," said Kuulei Manintin, Kauai resident.
Manintin says rain levels reached waist level.
"It would be up to your hips pretty much; if you walk in our back yard it will be up to your hips."
The National Weather Service registered between 6-8 inches of rain in 24 hours around Anahola, Kapaa, Lihue airport, and Port Allen.
"We experience a lot of ponding in typical areas, and then some areas I’ve never seen water fill-up. Around the armory in Kapaa town got half a trash can up deep-wise," said Jensen.
But, it seemed nothing could stop some residents from braving the elements. One guy went stand up paddling in the Poipu beach parking lot. Bikers also didn’t let rain be a reason to stay indoors.
"Oh man it’s crazy. Just came out of the mountains did some dirt biking. Good stuff," said a biker.
Kauai county says pounding rains brought down landslides and boulders that had to be cleared out of the way in Lawai, Lihue and Kalaheo.
There was also a sewage spill in Ele’ele and power is restored in Waimea after an outage earlier today.
See the original article at: KHON2 Local News
