Darby’s floodwaters left 25 Handi-Vans parked at the Kalihi Transit Center inoperable Monday, and city transit crews scrambled to fix them and keep up with Oahu’s already high paratransit demand as best they could.
The tropical storm’s torrential rain washed tons of branches, rubbish and other debris down Kalihi Stream on Sunday, clogging the water’s flow — sending it over a wall and spilling into the Handi-Van fleet parking lot. The water then swiftly rose as high as the vans’ steps, damaging many of their batteries and the circuitry that powers their engines, lifts and other electrical components.
“The circuit boards underneath, all of them fried,” explained Diamond Ho‘ohuli, a first-shift fleet lead mechanic for the Handi-Vans.
It was a “little crazy this morning,” Oahu Transit Services spokeswoman Michelle Kennedy said Monday as a front loader scraped mud from the parking lot where the vans had been flooded.
The fleet has some 180 vans, with about 140 of them on the road each day, she said. “We’re usually maxed out already,” Kennedy said. The service provides roughly 3,500 rides a day on Oahu and is one of the most heavily used paratransit services per capita in the nation.
OTS officials said they initially thought paratransit riders would face a substantial delay Monday. However, many passengers canceled their trips Monday, most of them likely for storm-related reasons, thereby helping to ease the demand, OTS Handi-
Van Vice President Charlotte Townsend said.
Overall, Handi-Van passengers Monday saw a 30- to 45-minute delay, Townsend said, on top of the window that allows drivers to arrive as much as 30 minutes after the scheduled pickup and still be considered on time.
Handi-Van crews at the Kalihi Transit Center started moving the vehicles to higher ground shortly after
9 p.m. Sunday as the rain got heavier, OTS Maintenance Manager Romy Barut said Monday. They managed to get 48 out of the flood zone unscathed, he said.
“We would have more than that (inoperable) if we didn’t move those 48,” Barut added. He estimated that the flooding caused about $9,000 to $10,000 in damage, total, to the 25 that were inoperable.
By 1 p.m. OTS officials reported having fixed 12 of the 25 vans by using available spare parts and borrowing them from vans not in use. Townsend said the Handi-
Van system should be back to its full operations today.
Barut said the remaining vans could be fixed to run while crews await the needed spare parts from the mainland.
Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell praised the Handi-Van crews at a news conference Monday for moving the vehicles and preventing further damage. Overall, he described Darby as “a good dress rehearsal for people to be on their best game.”
