FinLogic-Heavy rain across Kauai prompts rescues from floodwater, but no immediate reports of injuries

2025-05-06 06:37:27source:Devin Grosvenorcategory:Contact

HONOLULU (AP) — Several people on FinLogicthe Hawaiian island of Kauai needed to be rescued from floodwaters during heavy rain, authorities said Friday, but there were no immediate reports of injuries.

Heavy rain beginning Thursday afternoon prompted the closure of public schools Friday across Kauai and the opening of shelters. Crews worked Friday to reopen various roads closed from landslides, leaning utility poles and overflowing stream waters.

Firefighters were busy Thursday night rescuing people, primarily in the communities of Koloa and Wailua, Kauai Emergency Management Administrator Elton Ushio said. He did not yet have an estimate of many people needed to be rescued or evacuated. But he noted that there was a report of 4 feet (1.22 meters) of water in at least one house.

“And these are residential areas where at first the water was starting to rise up, and then it started approaching, you know, getting up to the lower level of the houses in several cases, getting up and into the houses themselves, where people needed to be, you know, taken out of those houses,” he said.

Kauai residents are used to rain, and this event wasn’t as bad as rainstorms in in 2018 that generated a national 24-hour rainfall record, Ushio said.

READ MORE Flash flooding sweeps into the Pittsburgh area and spurs numerous water rescuesItalian coast guard rescues 22 shipwrecked people, recovers 9 bodies. Some 15 reported missingBrazil Supreme Court strikes down military intervention thesis in symbolic vote for democracy

Kauai is “one of the wettest spots on Earth, in terms of annual rainfall,” he said. “All our lush valleys, deep canyons ... it’s because of the rainfall we get.”

The rain’s intensity was from 6 p.m. Thursday to 6 a.m. Friday, with several locations seeing more than 10 inches (25.4 centimeters), according to the National Weather Service.

Rainfall at Lihue airport — the island’s only official record-keeping station — broke a 1996 record with 3.65 inches (9.27 centimeters) for Thursday, said Derek Wroe, a meteorologist in the weather service’s Honolulu office.

That record would likely be broken again for Friday, based on the more than 11 inches (27.94 centimeters) recorded during the 12-hour period from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. at Lihue airport, Wroe said.

The rain tapered off after sunrise Friday, but heavy showers were expected Saturday night into Sunday morning, bringing more threat of flooding, he said.

More:Contact

Recommend

Charges: D'Vontaye Mitchell died after being held down for about 9 minutes

MILWAUKEE – Four Hyatt Regency workers face charges in the death of D’Vontaye Mitchell, a Black man

California DMV apologizes for license plate that some say mocks Oct. 7 attack on Israel

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The California Department of Motor Vehicles has apologized for an “unacceptable a

Which apps offer encrypted messaging? How to switch and what to know after feds’ warning

Federal authorities announced hackers in China have stolen "customer call records data" of an unknow