Experts: Think twice before rebuilding in Kaua‘i’s flood zone
Surrounded by waterfall-drenched mountains, private homes standing on the soft sands of Hanalei’s shimmering half-moon bay represent wealth — and risk. In mid-April 2018, risk became reality when an overnight storm produced the most rainfall recorded during a 24-hour period in U.S. history: at one point in the night, Hanalei received 5.5 inches of water in an hour. A rain gauge at Waipa measured 49.7 inches of rainfall in 24 hours. All that water unleashed landslides, dissolved roads into massive sinkholes and damaged nearly 350 homes on Kaua‘i.
“We just witnessed the power of the Hanalei River and other streams in the watershed,” said Ruby Pap, coastal land use extension agent for the UH Sea Grant College Program. “I believe this is reason enough to think twice before rebuilding in place.”
“Some homeowners may be willing to take the risk because they have the means to do so and they love where they are,” Pap said. “A couple of those homes along Weke not only lost homes, but lost property — there are giant holes where their properties used to be that are now filled with ocean water. So if they were to rebuild in place they would have to restore the land, then rebuild.”
Bradley Romine, a coastal geologist with the UH Sea Grant College Program, is heading up a team that’s drafting post-disaster reconstruction guidelines for the state’s counties to follow after future destructive storms.
“I understand there’s a need to get communities back up and running as soon as possible, get people back in their homes, back on their feet and get the economy working again,” Romine said. “But we’re hoping people will take a step back and consider how we can use disaster as an opportunity to redevelop smarter development that will be more resilient for future disasters.”
Read more about it at Honolulu Civil Beat.