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Storm brings intense flooding, road closures, power outages to Maui

A tree is seen here in the middle of the road along Maui’s Hana Highway after heavy winds and rain on Thursday.

A relatively calm start to Thursday's storm turned into an island-wide emergency sparking flooding and road closures by Friday morning. Hasegawa General Store Office Manager Wiloris Perry-Estocado said Thursday's storm in East Maui was relatively calm around 3 p.m. Thursday with Hana experiencing some wind but no rain yet. John Romain, owner and manager of the Bamboo Inn in Hana, echoed that statement, saying there had been gusts of winds by Thursday afternoon but it was still dry. However, as the storm progressed into the evening, it was a different story. Kamalu Carroll said that by Friday morning, most of Hana and East Maui was visibly impacted by the high winds and heavy rain. "It was hard to see the road, so I spent the night at a family member's house," she said. "It would be too dangerous without knowing what was around the turns. This morning you could see where the state crews have already cleared. The road is very muddy in some parts due to landslides along the way." Carroll said the intensity did not subside throughout the evening, and she watched as Hawaiian Electrician crews arrived on scene in an attempt to restore power. As of 4 p.m. Friday, there were still about 1,400 Maui customers without power, most in Haiku and pockets of Upcountry and Kihei. Crews were expected to continue working into the night to restore service. "Personally I was concerned about the Hawaiian Electric crew last night because of the bad weather," Carroll said. "They were out there working hard and safety is the biggest for me." The same could be said in South Maui, which experienced intense flooding. At around 4 p.m. Thursday, Kihei resident Isabella Troxell said it had rained a little bit in South Maui but the rain had stopped. "It was pretty windy at the beginning during the morning hours, after that it poured pretty hard, but now it seems to have stopped -- the wind and the rain," she said. But as time passed, the storm caused flooding and road closures. Matthew Wells, regional communications director for Hawaii Red Cross, said Kihei was the only area on the island that had people stay overnight in the shelters with 13 individuals served. The Kihei shelter opened around 2 p.m. Thursday, he said, and had closed later Friday afternoon. [caption id="attachment_1249194" align="alignnone" width="750"] An emergency shelter was opened at the Kihei Community Center on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, in an effort to help residents impacted by the heavy wind, rain and flooding that occurred overnight. The Maui News/Megan Moseley [/caption] An emergency shelter was opened at the Kihei Community Center on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, in an effort to help residents impacted by the heavy wind, rain and flooding that occurred overnight. The Maui News/Megan Moseley Vernon Kalanikau, who works with Maui County's Office of Economic Development as well as on a variety of other culturally based initiatives such as the Maui Nui Ahupua'a Project, said he was up all night working with the Maui Emergency Management Agency on the storm. He said the damage is extensive, and will have long-term consequences to Maui's beaches, ocean, environment and marine life. "It's the worst I've ever seen," he said. [caption id="attachment_1249195" align="alignnone" width="667"] A white sedan gets stuck in the mud near the corner of Kulanihakoi Street and South Kihei Road after flooding brought tons of mud onto shoreline streets. The Maui News/Gary Kubota[/caption] A white sedan gets stuck in the mud near the corner of Kulanihakoi Street and South Kihei Road after flooding brought tons of mud onto shoreline streets. The Maui News/Gary Kubota Kalanikau, whose work focuses on preserving and supporting the island's natural habitats, said a large-scale cleanup effort will be needed moving forward. "It's a lot of mess, a lot of damage and a lot of cleanup," he said. If more efforts are not made to restore the island's vegetation, Kalanikau fears situations like these will continue. "The debris is so bad that our natural resources -- any life in the ocean -- is going to be impacted on a large scale," he said. Kalanikau plans on spending his weekend on the beach helping to pick up the debris left behind from the storm, an effort that he hopes others will feel inspired to do. "Our beaches right now are littered with manmade rubbish," he said.

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