While people were still mopping up after a downpour hit Molokai, Central and West Maui on Thursday, heavy rain accompanied by lightning and golf ball-sized hail struck East Maui early Friday morning, officials and residents said.
Hana Highway was closed intermittently during much of the storm from 1:19 to 11:50 a.m. Thursday as state and county crews battled mud and dealt with an eroded road shoulder near the YMCA camp in Keanae, a washed-over bridge, and rocks and tree branches from Kailua to Hana, said state Department of Transportation spokesman Dan Meisenzahl.
"The area just got hit hard," he said.
Article Photos
Lit by lightning flashes, storm clouds are illuminated from within and by the rising moon Thursday night as a thunderstorm settles over East Maui. This photo was taken from Kihei around 10 p.m. East Maui residents saw flooding, washed-out roads, overflowing streams, lightning and even hail.
The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo
Wiloris Perry-Estocado, a manager for Hasegawa General Store in Hana, said that the store was busy all day Friday with residents trading stories and checking in.
"It was the meanest lightning show I've ever seen," she said, saying a few trees were even split from lightning strikes.
Perry-Estocado said that at least one family home was flooded when an overflowing stream pushed its way through the front door. The American Red Cross Hawaii Chapter was assisting the family, she said.
Swollen waters from Kaiwapapa Stream also swept under another home taking much of what was there with it, Perry-Estocado said. She said that she didn't hear of any structural damage.
Maui County remained under a severe thunderstorm watch Friday. The National Weather Service canceled its Maui County flood warnings.
Wind and high-surf advisories were expected to remain in effect for Maui and Molokai until 6 p.m. today.
Tom Birchard, a senior forecaster at the National Weather Service office in Honolulu, said that sunny skies should return today for Maui County, except for an occasional shower and some strong trade winds.
"Overall, the system responsible for all this activity is moving away from us and to the west," Birchard said.
No injuries were reported from the storm's visit Thursday and Friday.
About 70 Hawaiian Telcom customers and pockets of other customers across the islands were without service Friday, said company spokeswoman Ann Nishida Fry. Service was expected to be resumed shortly.
Approximately 400 Hana area customers were without power from 1:20 to 9:03 a.m. Thursday after a tree branch struck a transformer, said Maui Electric Co. spokeswoman Kau'i Awai-Dickson.
After sediment from storm water made its way into Shaft 33, a Central Maui well in cane fields at the foot of Iao Valley, county Department of Water Supply officials issued a warning late Thursday night to Central and South Maui residents to boil water as a precaution.
"There has been no contamination to the water," a county statement said.
"It's sediment from storm water (runoff)," said county spokesman Rod Antone.
Antone said that he received multiple calls Friday about the boil-water notice, and he said no wastewater had gotten into the potable water supply.
Water department Deputy Director Paul Meyer said that employees took water samples and flushed and dried out the waterline. Results of the testing were expected in 12 to 24 hours, he said.
Areas affected by the boil-water notice included Kahului, Wailuku, Paia, Spreckelsville, Waihee, Waikapu, Puunene, Kihei, Wailea, Makena and Maalaea.
The National Weather Service issued a seven-day report called "torrential rains slam Hawaii," covering rainfall from 11 a.m. March 2 through 11 a.m. Friday. The highest amounts in Maui County were Puu Kukui watershed atop the West Maui Mountains, which received 16.70 inches, followed by Molokai's Makapulapai with 5.37 inches, Haiku and Mahinahina, both with 4.23 inches.
The state Department of Land and Natural Resources on Friday reopened Iao Valley State Park, which it had closed along with Polipoli Spring State Park.
Crews cleared Iao's access road "of large amounts of debris and rocks," said DLNR Chairman William Aila Jr. However, Polipoli will remain closed "at least until the beginning of next week."
In addition, the department closed Waianapanapa State Park on Hana Highway due to flooding, debris, downed trees and no electricity.
A 6-foot-deep gully closed Uakea Road between the Hana Police Station and Waikoloa Road.
Off Hana Highway about two miles on the Kahului side of Kailua, 50 residents on what they call Hanavana Road were affected by a landslide, said residents Keith Douglas and Sally Black. The landslide left a 25-foot-wide hole in the road that went 75 feet down to a stream below, Black said.
"We just want it addressed," Douglas said.
The Department of Parks and Recreation reported that strong winds tore off a portion of a pavilion roof located at Hana Bay Beach Park. The Hana Community Center's lower building also partially collapsed.
Kamehameha Schools uses the building for its Hana preschool. It appears no one was there, and there was no preschool Friday. Kamehameha Schools closed its Paukukalo preschool because of drinking water concerns.
Most public schools, except for some charter schools and a handful of others, were closed as part of a scheduled teachers' day off Friday, said Department of Education spokeswoman Sandy Goya.
Kamehameha V Highway and Maunaloa Highway reopened on Molokai.
The Waiehu Golf Course also reopened Friday "as long as we don't get another downpour," said starter Guy Hashiro.
* Chris Hamilton can be reached at chamilton@mauinews.com.
