This may look like a waterfall, but it isn’t. It’s actually Maliko Gulch in Makawao, raging from heavy rains.
A short time after this video was taken on Thursday, Mother Nature ripped away the cottage you see on the right side of the screen.
"It was just the most surreal thing I’ve ever seen," said Sunny Jordan, owner.
Jordan and Bob Flint own the Wild Ginger Falls Vacation Cottage, which they opened 13 years ago.
This is what the cottage looked like, before it was washed away. On Friday, only remnants of it were found off property. They’ve never seen the water rise as much as it did Thursday.
"In like five minutes, the waves were up on the lawn and they were coming across the cottage and so I ran to turn off the gas lines and I heard a giant crack and the cottage was gone," Flint said.
Although guests were renting it, they were not there at the time.
"There was a jacuzzi and a storage room, all gone, in like a second," Flint said.
In the same area, Maui firefighters responded to a different home that was also being threatened.
"Had the five people. I think when the water subsided, we got two of them out, the other three decided to hunker down," said Lee Mainaga of the Maui Fire Department.
As for the owners of the cottage, they do not not have flood insurance. They estimate damage at $150,000. They do not know whether they will rebuild. They spent the day placing sandbags in front of their own home. They say the water is rising again, and they don’t want another one of their properties, to be swept out.
"You know we’re going to get out because they say it’s going to be worse tonight, so no sense being stupid," Flint said.
Also Thursday night, the American Red Cross shelter opened in Pukalani and helped two people who were unable to return home. Baldwin Park in Paia and other roads were closed because of the flooding. Upcountry residents were also affected by a damaged waterline.
See the original article at: KHON2 Local News
