HONOLULU — Recovery efforts continued across Oʻahu on Friday following recent Kona low storms. The Honolulu Fire Department officially moved back into Station 14 after being displaced by flood damage, and fire crews are operating normally at this time. A number of resources will be available for impacted residents this weekend.
On Saturday, April 4 and Sunday, April 5 (Easter Sunday), the City and County of Honolulu will only publish this update once per day, instead of the twice-daily updates that have been disseminated for most of the past week.
Waialua Community Assistance Center (CAC)
The Waialua Community Assistance Center (CAC) and the Community Distribution Hub have unified into a single operation at Waialua District Park and added several new resources for impacted residents on Friday.
During normal operating hours, navigators are available to guide impacted residents through the facility’s wide variety of government and non-profit services. On Friday, navigation services were offered in numerous languages, including Cantonese, Mandarin, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Tagalog and German.
Updated services available to residents on Friday included:
- Personnel with the Honolulu Board of Water Supply offering rubber boots to residents still doing clean-up operations, with sizes ranging from five to 14
- The Hawai‘i Foodbank handed out Hele Gas gift cards for impacted residents with gasoline needs
- The free medical clinic at the facility offered optometry services, a massage therapist, and an acupuncturist on Friday
The CAC is open daily, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., in the Waialua District Park gymnasium. Parking is available at Waialua District Park, with additional parking available at Waialua Elementary School on days when school is not in session. Visitors are encouraged to follow posted signage for parking and shuttle information.
The Community Distribution Hub, meanwhile, is providing immediate supplies, including food, water, hygiene products and household cleaning items. The Community Distribution Hub is open daily from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and again from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., in the parking lot along Goodale Avenue.
As of 3:15 p.m. Friday, April 3 the CAC has served nearly 1,100 households since its launch on Thursday, March 26.
Pop-Up Community Assistance Center at BYUH in Lāʻie on Saturday
Tomorrow, Saturday, April 4, the City and County of Honolulu is partnering with the KEY Project and the Ko‘olauloa Resilience Fund to establish a Pop-Up Community Assistance Center from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Brigham Young University Hawaiʻi’s old gymnasium in Lāʻie.
The one-day event will bring together City agencies and nonprofit partners to provide recovery resources and services, including financial assistance, food distribution and SNAP enrollment support, vital document replacement, insurance guidance, agricultural support, shelter and housing assistance, permitting and utility assistance, and other government services.
The Ko‘olauloa Resilience Fund, the primary organizer of this pop-up event, is a network of community groups helping to bring much-needed services and assistance to the residents and farmers of Ko‘olauloa.
Community Assistance Center, Distribution Hub Closed for Easter
The Waialua Community Assistance Center and the Community Distribution Hub, both located at Waialua District Park, will be closed on Easter Sunday in observance of the Easter holiday. Both operations will reopen for normal hours on Monday morning.
Potential For More Severe Weather Next Week
City officials are actively monitoring weather forecasts and on-the-ground conditions while maintaining recovery operations in impacted areas. At the same time, City departments and our partners are preparing for the potential for severe weather next week to ensure resources, personnel, and public information efforts are ready to support the community.
Damage Report Dashboards Now Available at OneOahu
Online dashboards detailing property damages in different communities as a result of recent severe weather events are now available online at the City’s Kona Low Storm Recovery website.
For each community, data is broken down by the number of properties that sustained damage, as well how severe the damage was for each property. A summary dashboard, which aggregates the data from each individual region’s dashboard, currently shows that at least 1,074 properties either sustained damage or were rendered temporarily inaccessible. Of those properties, at least 22 are considered destroyed, and an additional 257 will require extensive repairs before being safe to live in again.
View the dashboards now on OneOahu.org.
Debris Removal Update
Debris hauling operations remain ongoing at the temporary debris storage and reduction site at Patsy T. Mink Central Oʻahu Regional Park (CORP). On Friday, approximately 26 loads of debris (750 cubic yards/275 tons) were taken to the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill, and an additional 70 cubic yards/seven tons of metal materials were taken to a metal recycler.
Lāʻie Storm Debris Drop-Off
The City and County of Honolulu Department of Environmental Services (ENV) will host a storm debris drop-off event on Saturday, April 4, to assist residents in Lā‘ie and surrounding communities with ongoing cleanup efforts following recent severe weather.
The drop-off will take place at Brigham Young University Hawaiʻi (BYUH) parking lot in Lāʻie from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Please enter on Naniloa Loop, turn left into the BYUH side entrance, and take an immediate right into the parking lot. Please note there is construction at the entrance of BYUH.
