More than 110 people attend a meeting in South Maui to discuss flooding in their area from a recent storm. The Maui New/Gary Kubota

South Kihei Road is expected to be fixed as a shoreline thoroughfare through South Maui by the end of this month, Maui County Council member Tom Cook told more than 110 people at the Malcolm Center Wednesday night.

But Cook said other building projects to reduce repeated flooding near the ABC Store near the North Kihei Road junction and Kulanihakoi Gulch near Wailana Place will take years.

“It’s not going to happen overnight,” he said.

During the meeting Wednesday, a number of residents criticized the lack of drainage at bridge areas, which they said led to flooding in their neighborhoods.

Mike Phillips said residents living in his neighborhood at Ewa Place for 70 years have never encountered this kind of flooding, and many of the elderly were forced to clean the mud in their homes themselves. So far, he’s spent $11,000 on the cleanup effort, he added.

“This is ridiculous,” Phillips said.

The problem stems from some areas of lower Kihei being built on wetlands where water percolates, especially during heavy rain, as well as the denuded mauka ranch lands from the overpopulation of deer, and more frequent and higher rainfall totals on Maui recently, Cook said.

He said the state has developed a program to control the deer population that includes building fences to prevent them from roaming. Cook explained that the pastures have been so severely denuded that some lands will require reseeding of grasses to allow them to return to their former state.

Cook said that, at Waiakoa Gulch, where rain water flows near the ABC Store, a friend of his who lives mauka recorded about 10 inches of precipitation in three days.

Maui County Councilman Tom Cook discusses short and long-term projects to reduce flooding in South Maui neighborhoods. The Maui News/Gary Kubota

Cook asked residents to continue to support projects to mitigate the flooding including the development of sediment basins along the mountainside to capture mud and water flowing into Kihei as well as improving drainage in certain areas.

County environmental specialist Vernon Kalanikau said a bridge at Kulanihakoi is old and needs to be replaced. He said the water at Kulanihakoi is not flowing in its natural path. Kalanikau said areas of Kihei are also facing flooding from the ocean from rising sea levels without the rains.

“It doesn’t have to rain to be impacted,” he said.

Cook said a major watershed management plan for Kihei completed in recent years outlines the overall challenges facing South Maui, and residents should address their questions regarding timetables for developing sediment basins and bridges to the county administration when residents meet with them in the coming months.