Life-threatening flash flooding across the northern part of Hawaii’s Oahu island prompted an evacuation order early Friday as the state contended with a new storm arriving on the heels of a sprawling system that waterlogged the region in the last week.
Floodwaters have already cut off road access in the area, according to the emergency management officials and the National Weather Service, which warned that “widespread flooding of roadways and low-lying areas is ongoing.”
The Honolulu Department of Emergency Management urged people in Waialua and Haleiwa to evacuate to higher ground if possible, calling the rising waters “catastrophic.”
The flash flooding threat came as yet another system delivered heavy rain, only days after a multiday storm brought well over a foot of rain to many locations across Hawaii.
While this latest storm is not expected to be as strong as the last one, the Weather Service warned that the soil in many places is already saturated and so it requires less rain to cause flooding. Streams were rising quickly on Friday as rain poured into them.
“Because the ground was so primed for this storm, we’re seeing things get bad pretty quickly,” said Stephen Parker, a meteorologist with the Weather Service office in Honolulu.
The storm arrived Thursday night and was expected to bring a chance of rain through at least Sunday.
Some of the highest rainfall totals so far have been on Oahu. Heavy showers and thunderstorms brought five to 11 inches of rainfall overnight across the northern half of Oahu, the Weather Service said.
Aimee Ortiz covers breaking news and other topics.
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