Comments on: The Wettest Place on Earth

The Wettest Place on Earth

Surfurrus — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 21:27:08 -0800

8 people and 3 houses were swept away on Kauai today - the island that was already slammed and battered by weeks of rain (over 18 inches in 24 hours last month). More dams are expected to fail. Today's disaster should have been predicted?

By: Surfurrus

Surfurrus — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 21:33:08 -0800

Re: prediction -- that last link, last paragraph (2/22/06) "Despite the erroneous call of a dam breaking in Koloa, it was a pretty normal rain event, Marshall said. While six homes did flood in Koloa town, it was due to a dike, and not the Wait Reservoir dam, he added." Koloa dam was the one that broke today.

By: Zbobo

Zbobo — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 21:54:49 -0800

And the rain's still coming down here on the west side, though not as bad as last night

By: roguescout

roguescout — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 22:20:21 -0800

In a related story, Dir. Michael Chertoff filed a report today stating that the DHS is still considering the Army Corps of Engineers' strong recommendation that they use coconut shells and sugar cane to repair the damaged levees in New Orleans.

By: fshgrl

fshgrl — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 22:21:13 -0800

There are a lot of old dams in the US that aren't getting proper (or any) maintenance, I wonder how old this one was? Very, very sad for the families.

By: Relay

Relay — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 23:16:08 -0800

I lived on the North Shore of Oahu for three years. I've got really good friends that live out by Kahuku (next on that storm fronts list of things to do). And I was just meaning to give them a call and see how they we doing with this next batch of rain ...

By: Surfurrus

Surfurrus — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 23:59:55 -0800

Zbobo -- I was over there (on the west side) over the weekend; guess that is partly why I posted ... it was obvious even before this happened that Kauai has taken a pounding. fshgrl -- one report I heard was that most of these dams were built by the sugar planters (almost a century ago?) -- and of the 40 in the state, 30 are considered dangerous (per HPR/NPR report this afternoon) Relay -- windward O'ahu roads were closed for floods this afternoon; Kahuku may be hit hard again, too.

By: Zbobo

Zbobo — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 00:32:16 -0800

As someone who works on old sugar lands, I can say the irrigation systems still around are intricate and pretty fascinating. Many miles of ditches and resoirvoirs are all over the island, all winding down to the lower-lying agricultural areas. Surfurrus is right though- seems that much of this infrastructure is showing its age.

By: freebird

freebird — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 00:40:41 -0800

It could have been predicted, since I'm getting married there next week. That should have been sufficient warning to clear the island and evacuate the coastline of nearby landmasses.

By: Joey Michaels

Joey Michaels — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 02:04:23 -0800

It has been, if you pardon my French, a fricken mess out here for weeks. Flooding all over the place. Not just the seriously damaging kind, but the "three inches of water and mud everywhere you walk so don't bother wearing any shoes you like" kind. There's been a lot of talk about the dams and bridges and roads near streams and such. At least Manoa didn't completely flood yet.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 02:11:36 -0800

Congrats, freebird!

By: obfusciatrist

obfusciatrist — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 02:19:54 -0800

I spent two years ('96-'98) in the basement of Hamilton Library at UH so I was very sad when it was washed out in the 2004 flood. Hopefully that won't be happening again.

By: GooseOnTheLoose

GooseOnTheLoose — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 03:37:42 -0800

That flood was due to people dumping shit (read: large trees, etc) into the stream. I remember those nights and thinking I'd never heard so much rain in my life, but it was definitely not just a "force of nature" problem. Realized how much you take the library for granted, though.

By: iamck

iamck — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 05:39:52 -0800

The add at the bottom of the page is a little much though.

By: Witty

Witty — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 06:43:26 -0800

one report I heard was that most of these dams were built by the sugar planters (almost a century ago?) -- and of the 40 in the state, 30 are considered dangerous (per HPR/NPR report this afternoon) Assuming that's true, who should pay to fix/replace them? A couple centuries of paving, deforesting, digging, tunneling, stripping, channeling and generally fucking up the place (all places, that is), well, that's where the blame goes.

By: stenseng

stenseng — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 09:01:22 -0800

I'm still amazed that there are multi-lane freeways in Hawaii. < /obviously never been to hawaii>

By: davelog

davelog — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 09:05:56 -0800

GEORGE BUSH DOESN'T CARE ABOUT ISLAND PEOPLE.

By: Surfurrus

Surfurrus — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 09:19:18 -0800

Assuming that's true, who should pay to fix/replace them? OMG ... how about Jimmy PFLUEGER?! Yesterday a Kauai friend mentioned Pflueger, who, just last week was fined over $7 million for environmental crimes (he DESTROYED a reef!). It was the largest EPA fine ever given to a single landowner. I had no idea he was connected to this disaster too.

By: Joey Michaels

Joey Michaels — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 13:22:53 -0800

Yeah, Pflueger is a scumbag. Also, as much as I would like to blame our islands' problems on Bush, most of our infrastructure problems we very literally made for ourselves. There's only so long you can put off fixing or cleaning something before it falls down.

By: Relay

Relay — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 15:00:25 -0800

Just got this (brief) email from a friend that lives in Malaekahana (just down the road from Kahuku): "HIGH AND DRY! But tired of it!!!! Sounds like kauai got some serious shit with the washed out highway. That stuff is just murder for tourism... " Aloha.