LIHU‘E — The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for Kaua‘i on Saturday morning because of heavy rainfall throughout the island.
LIHU‘E — The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for Kaua‘i on Saturday morning because of heavy rainfall throughout the island.
An emergency alert went out at approximately 10 a.m., advising all residents to avoid all nonessential travel. The warning remained in effect until Saturday afternoon, and was then canceled shortly after the rainfall ended.
Kaua‘i had been under a flood watch for several days, said Jeff Powell, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Honolulu.
“There’s nothing new going on. It’s just an ongoing unfolding event that has been occurring for the last couple of days,” he said.
The threat has been statewide, with Kaua‘i experiencing similar levels of flooding as the windward side of Maui and southeast portions of Hawai‘i Island.
“The atmosphere is moist. We knew the threat was there,” Powell said. “The soil is pretty saturated, so it doesn’t really take much rain to cause a flood threat.”
Portions of Ma‘alo Road in Lihu‘e and Haua‘ala Road in Keapana Valley were closed Saturday due to flooding. Weather conditions also closed Kekaha Landfill, green waste services at the Lihu‘e and Kapa‘a transfer stations, as well as the Kaua‘i Community Recycling Service HI5 Redemption Center in Kekaha. All services were expected to resume Sunday.
The Sunday forecast on Kaua‘i calls for showers, mainly before noon, then mostly cloudy skies with a high near 74 degrees and a stiff east-southeast wind of 18 to 23 miles per hour in the afternoon. Windy conditions should carry into the evening, with gusts as high as 32 mph. Breezy conditions are also forecast for Presidents’ Day amid a backdrop of cloudy skies with a high near 73 degrees.
