A resident in Oahu evacuated her home in knee-high water, leaving her husband’s ashes behind. Seventy people, in a group that included children, were surrounded by water and stranded at a campsite. Others found that their cars had been submerged and their homes swept away.
These are just some of the anecdotes that residents and officials from Hawaii have shared over the past week as a series of storms has pounded the islands, causing severe flooding. No deaths were reported, but about 200 people were rescued, thousands more were evacuated, and at least hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of damage was sustained.
Here’s what else to know about the floods.
They were caused by storms called Kona lows.
The flooding was largely caused by back-to-back storms that forecasters call Kona lows — a type of seasonal storm not uncommon during Hawaii’s rainy season from November to April. Such storms tend to bring more precipitation and move more slowly, leading to heavy rain over the same location for extended periods of time.
The first storm struck Hawaii on March 10, when multiple inches of rain were received across the islands.
The intense rainfall over just a few weeks, which experts said was one of the rainiest periods Hawaii had seen recently, saturated ground on parts of the islands, causing additional rain to flood streets.
The National Weather Service is still assessing totals, but many parts of Hawaii received record amounts of rainfall over the past few weeks.
Hundreds needed to be rescued, and it could have been worse.
Oahu, Hawaii’s most populous island and home to its state capital, saw severe rainfall on Friday that led to the catastrophic flooding. Meteorologists with the National Weather Service in Honolulu said Oahu received between 10 to 14 inches of rain overnight from Thursday into Friday, which led to the devastation, with more rainfall into the weekend.
There were no recorded fatalities, but emergency responders, including airmen and high-water vehicle teams deployed by the National Guard, rescued around 200 people. Over 5,000 people had been evacuated from Oahu’s North Shore, one of the hardest-hit areas.
The rainfall had initially led state officials to declare a 120-year-old dam in the Wahiawa Reservoir in northern Oahu at “imminent risk of failure.” By Friday evening, water levels had reduced, and a spokesman for the company that owns the dam said it was operating as designed with “no indications of damage.” Regulators had classified the dam as having a high hazard potential, meaning failure would have most likely resulted in loss of life.
Residents described seeing cars overturned, trucks washed downstream and mud filling rooms in their homes.
Hawaii’s governor, Josh Green, said he anticipated that storm damage across the islands could cost more than $1 billion in public and private property damage. Hawaii Farmers Union United, an advocacy group, said farms were particularly hard hit, estimating damage to crops and infrastructure at around $7 million.
On Tuesday, Mr. Green announced that he had submitted a request to President Trump for a major disaster declaration to support statewide recovery efforts.
Hawaii hasn’t seen flooding like this since 2004.
Mr. Green said the flooding across the islands was the worst the state had seen in 20 years.
Hawaii experienced significant flooding damage two decades ago, when intense rainfall in October 2004 caused the Manoa Stream on the southern part of Oahu to overflow, resulting in flooding through residential areas and the campus of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
There were no deaths or injuries reported in that flood. Still, damages to the library and other buildings on campus, as well as over 100 homes in the area, were estimated at around $85 million.
The storm moved south over the weekend.
Over the weekend, the storm inched over to Maui, which had already sustained damage earlier in the month. Flash flood warnings and evacuation orders were issued on the island, and flooding was reported. On Monday, there were also reports of flash flooding in Manoa, a southern portion of the island of Oahu, as well as on the Big Island.
Local news outlets reporting on the flooding in Manoa described roads and walkways that turned into rivers and streams. The National Weather Service said water levels were at least two feet high, with parked cars being “inundated.”
Rain continued to pour over Maui through Tuesday, with flood watches in effect for Maui and the Big Island through 6 p.m. on Tuesday.
The storm system was expected to leave the area by Tuesday night.
Amy Graff contributed reporting.
Sonia A. Rao reports on disability issues as a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for early-career journalists.
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