SURPRISE!?! NOT!!!! Kaonoulu floods yet again on Monday 5/13/24

5/14/24 #kihei

After several days of flood watches and warnings, MEMA alerts via emails and phone calls, on late Monday afternoon North Kihei had a downpour, and WaaLaa, Kaonoulu at So Kihei Rd was under water once again. But this incident was  not the usual with Kūlanihāko‘i Stream gulch filled with stormwater from upcountry.

This is what we usually see as the stream overflows just makai of Alulike with stormwater roaring down the mountain

This time we have a localized downpour, but the stream  bottom was now level with the “temporary” bridge on South Kihei Road akin to a dam, so water flowed North onto Kaonoulu.

You see this is not the usual “mud flood”, look at the color of the flooding water

This morning County workers were out in force with smaller equipment to remove the water and to clean up the road surface.