When it rains it pours on the Waianae coast and that's not just a cliché saying. During the rainy season heavy downpours can be deadly and cause severe damage.
"There was a victim that almost drowned, there were victims on Paakea road who were trapped in heir homes for days," says Senator Maile Shimabukuro, (D) Waianae, Makaha, Makua.
In January of this year, a flash flood on Puhawai Road in Waianae nearly took the lives of two people. That same flash flood wrecked havoc on Farrington Highway and caused a landslide that covered every inch of a family's 3 bedroom home. Disasters that Waianae residents, like Monique Deocampo say have been happening for decades.
"We live along Puuhulu stream and there's a lot of flooding from that," says Deocampo. "I lost half my yard, two times in a row."
So this year state lawmakers allocated $11-million for flood mitigation on the Waianae coast. A town hall meeting was called Thursday night to discuss how to put that money to use.
"If we see any of that money coming into the area, cleaning out the streams would relive a lot of those problem areas," says Waianae resident John Naeole.
In the 2011 budget Naeole's Lualualei neighborhood will receive $2-million for fixes to the Puhawai stream, $8-million will go towards flooding solutions on Farrington Highway and $1-million for Lahilahi street in Makaha.
"2-million dollars would do quite a bit," says Naeole.
Some of the flooding fixes would be to build drainage trenches to channel rain water under roads or to build a levee to regulate water levels.
"Those are some of the ideas that had come out during discussions and preliminary meetings with the US Army Corps of Engineers and Civil Defense," says Representative Karen Awana, (D) Nanakuli, Lualualei, Maili.
The state Civil Defense is also working to leverage federal grants.
"What moneys is already appropriated to help out, can we use that and get more bang for our buck," says Ed Teixeira, Hawaii State Civil Defense.
"I just hope they do it real soon before the next rainy season starts before we have the exact same damage happen again," says Deocampo.
Federal, State and City agencies are reviewing all ideas to come up with a workable solution.
