Emily McLaughlin had lived long enough in Waialua, Hawaii, on the North Shore of Oahu, to become inured to emergency alerts on her phone.
“You dismiss those if you live here forever,” she said.
Then the water came rushing through her door late on Thursday night. Before she could react, it had risen to her knees. Within a matter of minutes, she was out the door.
“I didn’t even grab my husband’s ashes, his medals from the Navy,” she said, fighting tears, on Saturday morning at a shelter parking lot in Wahiawa, some 10 miles southeast of her home. “I just left. I had to.”
Ms. McLaughlin and thousands of other residents of Oahu’s North Shore were forced to evacuate their homes after intense rains flooded the area and threatened to overwhelm a local dam.
Roadways and buildings remain submerged. Some homes have been swept away. And emergency crews have conducted at least 200 rescues on Oahu, Hawaii’s most populous island, which has experienced its worst flooding in 20 years.
More rain was expected across the island on Saturday and had brought the risk of additional flooding. But as conditions improved on Saturday afternoon, officials lifted evacuation orders on the North Shore and thousands of residents began returning to their homes. Some 5,500 people had been evacuated, Gov. Josh Green of Hawaii said.
For more than a week, Hawaii has been pounded by back-to-back storms forecasters call a Kona low — a type of seasonal storm that moves slowly and drenches the same location over extended periods.
Weather officials said 10 to 14 inches of rain overnight Thursday into Friday in Oahu had unleashed the severe flooding. Most of the island recorded an additional two to six inches of rain in the last 24 hours, Marc Chenard, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center, said on Saturday.
Mr. Green said early Saturday that an additional four to six inches of rain were expected on Oahu through the weekend. But the focus began to shift as the storm moved south toward Maui. There, officials expected four to eight inches of rain, and as many as 12 inches in some areas.
“There will definitely concerns about flooding there,” Mr. Green said, imploring residents not to drive through heavy water.
Officials had been monitoring the dam on the Wahiawa Reservoir in northern Oahu on Saturday. It had been at risk of failure on Friday, officials said, as rain swelled water to a record 85.10 feet, within five feet of the top of the 90-foot-tall dam.
On Saturday morning, the water level had begun to drop, the governor said.
Flash flood warnings were issued for Maui, the Weather Service said, where there were reports of flooding on Saturday afternoon.
Hawaii Emergency Management Agency officials said on Saturday that damage assessments on Oahu were ongoing, but area residents described a ravaged landscape.
Homes and low-lying farmlands that are usually green and lush were instead immersed in brown floodwater and strewed with a morass of debris, abandoned vehicles and collapsed structures. Household items and trash covered the island’s beaches.
Lucas Baggio Pereira, who lives in Halewia, described seeing overturned cars and his neighbor’s truck being washed downstream after he left his home on Thursday night. The Anahulu stream, near his house, had overflown.
“The river pushed against my car,” Mr. Baggio Pereira said. “It was really strong.”
Farms have been particularly hard hit by the recent storms, said Christian Zuckerman, the vice president of Hawaii Farmers Union United, an advocacy group.
Early data gathered by the organization showed that at least 1,200 acres of farmland had been damaged across the state, Mr. Zuckerman said. Damages to crops, infrastructure and other farm assets are estimated to be over $7 million, he said, adding that the organization has started collecting funds to help farmers.
Officials in Oahu described an all-hands-on-deck response that has included members of the public who stepped up as emergency services became overwhelmed.
Communities have come together to coordinate rescues, as well as mutual aid and debris cleanup efforts.
“It was the community that had these bulldozers, and heavy machinery,” said Dave Wassel, the lieutenant for the North Shore District of Honolulu Ocean Safety. “They went into areas where we couldn’t get to and got people out, and brought them to us. They cleared dirt and water and debris, broken houses. They rescued women and children
Myla Zara, 16, said she was among those rescued by fellow neighbors. She was stranded with her family on her roof on Friday morning until community members arrived with an excavator to rescue them.
Back at the shelter parking lot in Wahiawa on Saturday, dozens of volunteers were unloading trucks and cars that had pulled up to donate bottled water, toiletries, towels, cots and sleeping bags.
Nearby, Ms. McLaughlin was cleaning her flooded car before she got the OK to return to see what had become of her house. Her friend’s black Chihuahua, Satan, barked madly inside.
“So this is my new home for a while,” she said, as she opened her car door. Brown water puddled on the floor as the dog kept barking. “I’ll rebuild,” she said.
Reporting was contributed by Claire Wilcox, Jack Truesdale and Gabriela Bhaskar from Oahu, and by Libby Leonard.
Orlando Mayorquín is a Times reporter covering California. He is based in Los Angeles.
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