Analyst says Kona system still has some ‘unsettled weather’

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WAILUKU - After a day of heavy showers and flooding Thursday, partly sunny skies returned to the Valley Isle on Friday, but weather analyst Glenn James said a Kona weather system remained in the area to continue "unsettled weather."

As of Friday afternoon, a trough west of Kauai still was "making the atmosphere more shower prone," he said.

Gov. Linda Lingle signed a state disaster proclamation Friday for the counties of Maui and Kauai and the City and County of Honolulu. The action provides resources, including the activation of the Hawaii National Guard and access to housing relief and loan programs, for residents to cope with home or business damage from Thursday's flood.

Into next week, residents can expect alternating periods of sunny and cloudy weather with "showers around the edges as well," said James, senior weather analyst at the Pacific Disaster Center.

Satellite images showed thick rain clouds Friday afternoon between Kauai and Oahu, he said, adding that islands in the northern half of the chain would be more likely to see wet weather. A flood warning remained posted for leeward areas of Oahu on Friday, although rainfall totals were down from Thursday when as much as 14 inches of rain was recorded in central Oahu.

"We're going to be kind of on the edge of that," James said. "It doesn't look like the heavy stuff will be coming over to Maui County . . . I don't anticipate anything like what we saw on Thursday."

For the 24-hour period ending at 11 a.m. Friday, rain gauges showed how wet conditions had been in the latter half of the day before.

The gauges in normally dry Kihei and Lahaina reported 2.25 and 2.12 inches, respectively, with nearly all that rain coming between 11 a.m. and 11 p.m. Thursday. Similarly, Kahului Airport received 2.39 inches for the 24-hour period, with most of it coming Thursday.

In Maui watershed areas, Puu Kukui in the West Maui Mountains recorded 4.27 inches, West Wailua Iki in East Maui reported 1.56 inches and Oheo Gulch had 2.75 inches.

Although the period of heavy rainfall was helpful with Maui's ongoing drought, Water Director Jeff Eng said he was troubled by how rainfall over Maui dissipated to almost nothing after Thursday's rains.

Eng said that on Thursday morning the Wailoa Ditch, which has a capacity of nearly 200 million gallons, was at 19 mg, or only 9.5 percent of its capacity. Then, with heavy rainfall, it jumped to 119.4 mg, or 59.8 percent of its capacity.

"We'll see how long it lasts," he said. If the ditch drops down quickly, the rain "hasn't done that much to really saturate the watershed. That would be our concern."

"These sudden episodes of rain . . . a lot of it just ends up as runoff," he said. "We need more sustained, less dramatic episodes of rain to get the proper recharge and proper storage in our watersheds."

The rains added some water to Upcountry reservoirs, bringing their stored water from 118 million gallons on Thursday to 132.4 mg on Friday.

Following Thursday's rains, the state Department of Health advised people to take precautions when coming in contact with floodwaters because of the increased risk of leptospirosis infection.

Leptospirosis is a bacterial disease caused by Leptospira bacteria, found in the urine of infected animals such as rodents, wild pigs, dogs and livestock. The bacteria can contaminate freshwater and mud and enter the body through the mouth, nose, eyes or an open wound.

It causes flulike symptoms including fever, chills, headache, muscle pain, body aches and vomiting. Without treatment, the infection can lead to hospitalization or death.

For more information, see the Health Department's Web site at hawaii.gov/health/about/

reports/leptobrochure.pdf.

Brian Perry can be reached at bperry@mauinews.com.