More than 230 rescued amid Hawaii flooding; officials warn more rain is on the way

(CBS) — Hawaii officials rescued over hundreds of people from muddy floodwaters as severe rains inundated streets, pushed homes off their foundations and swallowed vehicles on Friday. More rain is expected for Saturday.

Crew searched by air and by water for people who had been stranded — efforts that were hampered by people flying personal drones to get images of the flooding, said Ian Scheuring, a spokesperson for Honolulu.

Dozens — if not hundreds — of homes had been damaged but officials have not been able to fully assess the destruction, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi said in an afternoon news conference. Some 5,500 people were under evacuation orders. There were over 233 rescues so far, Blangiardi said.

“There’s no question that the damage done thus far has been catastrophic,” he said.  The flooding has already caused over $1 billion worth of damage, Blangiardi said.

Governor Josh Green said that one hour saw over three dozen people rescued, including two with serious injuries. Ten people who had been rescued earlier in the storm had hypothermia, he said. Some rescues were made “directly from rooftops,” he added.

The National Guard and Honolulu Fire Department airlifted 72 children and adults who had been attending a spring break youth camp at a retreat on Oahu’s west coast called Our Lady of Kea’au, according to city and camp officials. The camp is on high ground but authorities didn’t want to leave them there, the mayor said. Kimberly R.Y. Vierra, a spokesperson for St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawai’i, which owns the retreat property, said floodwaters had cut off the entrance road to the camp.

On Maui, officials issued an evacuation advisory for some Lahaina neighborhoods after nearby retention basins neared capacity. Parts of those neighborhoods were burned by the massive wildfire that destroyed much of Lahaina in 2023.

Most of the state was under a flood watch, with Haleiwa and Waialua in northern Oahu under a flash flood warning, according to the National Weather Service. The warning has been extended until 9 a.m. ET Saturday, with the agency forecasting “additional bands of moderate to potentially locally heavy showers” moving in from the south.

Residents in the Waialua area were “strongly urged to LEAVE NOW” in an alert issued by Oahu Emergency Management in the early-morning hours Saturday. The alert said the “remaining access road out of Waialua is at high risk of failure if rainfall continues.”

Blangiardi said 6 to 8 inches of rain is forecast to fall on Oahu in the next two to three days.

Overnight into Friday, the dam’s capacity went from 79 feet to 84 feet — just 6 feet shy of what it can handle, authorities said. Water levels receded late Friday, but that could change if more rain falls.

The state has said Wahiawa dam has “high hazard potential,” and that a failure “will result in probable loss of human life.” Blangiardi said officials felt confident in the stability of the dams on the island, but that it was hard to predict how much rain would come and what it might do.

As she prepared to evacuate to a friend’s home on higher ground, Waialua resident Kathleen Pahinui told The Associated Press in a phone interview that the aging dam is a concern every time it rains.

“Just pray for us,” she said. “We understand there’s more rain coming.”