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Darby weakens, moves away, leaving muddy mess

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NOAA / GOES WEST

Tropical Depression Darby can be seen moving northwest of the islands in these satellite images taken this morning.

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CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM

Firefighters helped clear water from Richard Langit’s home on School Street this morning.

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CENTRAL PACIFIC HURRICANE CENTER

This graphic shows the projected path and intensity of Tropical Depression Darby.

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NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE

A composite satellite image taken this morning shows Tropical Depression Darby north of the islands, moving west.

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CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM

Mud and debris covered Dillingham Boulevard at the H-1 freeway off-ramp this morning.

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CRAIG KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM

Traffic moved along slowly this morning on the H-1 freeway near the School Street on-ramp.

Darby weakened to a tropical depression overnight, leaving a muddy mess behind on Oahu.

The National Weather Service lifted a flash flood watch for Oahu and Kauai as the storm continued on a path to the northwest of the main Hawaiian islands. But the muggy conditions could still generate afternoon showers, forecasters said.

Cleanup of flooding on the H-1 freeway near School Street and on Dillingham Boulevard near Middle Street created heavy traffic for commuters this morning because of lane closures.

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Georgette now a major hurricane, but should weaken in East Pacific
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What’s open and what’s closed in storm’s wake
http://808ne.ws/2aGguZ0
Mud, flooding close some lanes of H-1 freeway, Dillingham Boulevard
http://808ne.ws/2arBRhD

Red Cross volunteers are canvassing the hardest hit areas to assess the damage.

The Health Department issued a number of brown water advisories urging people to stay out of storm runoff in the ocean around Oahu and several other locations.

At estimated 1,200 gallons of wastewater spilled into the street and down a storm drain in Waolani Stream at Wyllie Street in Liliha. Signs are posted along the stream to Honolulu Harbor.

More than 1,000 gallons of sewage spilled out of two manholes at Atkinson Drive and Ala Moana Boulevard near Ala Moana Center Sunday night.

Another brown water advisory was issued for Heeia Fishpond after Heeia Stream overflowed and flooded the Punawai Pump Station, sending about 600 gallons of wastewater from a manhole into Heeia Fishpond.

People are being warned not to go into the water around Oahu because of murky, brown water conditions. The Health Department said storm runoff contains pollution and fecal matter that could be a health hazard. The murky water can also attract sharks.

Warnings are also posted around Hanalei Bay on Kauai and Hilo Bay on Hawaii island because of heavy rain runoff.

Packing maximum sustained winds of 35 mph as of 11 a.m. this morning, Darby was about 210 miles west-northwest of Honolulu and moving west-northwest at 9 mph.

Forecasters expect Darby to continue weakening over the next two days, possibly becoming a post-tropical low Tuesday.

As rains eased this morning, the city closed seven evacuation centers set up to shelter people from the storm.

The American Red Cross reported that 233 people stayed overnight. There were 199 people at the BYU-Hawaii shelter, including students from France who were camping at Malaekahana Beach Park this weekend. Another 18 people stayed at Waimanalo District Park shelter, and 16 people stayed at the McKinley High School shelter.

Over 10 inches of rain fell in Luluku, Kaneohe, upper Nuuanu and Moanalua over the 24-hour period ending at 5 a.m., according to rain gauges.

At Honolulu Airport, the 1.47 inches recorded Sunday broke the rainfall record for that day, set in 1986 at .66 inches.

Police closed the H-1 westbound at the School Street off-ramp last night around 11:37 p.m. after heavy rain and ponding created dangerous driving conditions. Some freeway lanes reopened shortly after 5:30 a.m., but the Dillingham Boulevard and Middle Street off-ramps remain closed after mud and debris washed over the roadway overnight.

Customers, mostly in town and East Oahu, experienced power outages Sunday night due to the storm conditions, according to reports online.

Hawaiian Electric reported there were pockets of outages reported throughout Sunday night with only 400 customers without electricity at 7 a.m. in town and Windward Oahu.

“Crews were working throughout the night to restore power when outages were reported,” said Darren Pai, HECO spokesman.

Hawaiian Electric asks people who see downed power lines to call their trouble line at 1-855-304-1212.

13 responses to “Darby weakens, moves away, leaving muddy mess”

  1. Carang_da_buggahz says:

    Closed H-1 West due to ponding and dangerous conditions? Hell, you can never get up enough speed there to even make that a possibility!

  2. Dawg says:

    OMG the potholes are HUGE and Plentiful! Where is the Mayor today?

  3. wrightj says:

    It’s a blessing, actually; mitigate the drought.

    • juscasting says:

      Perfect timing for all dis rain; usually this time of year, all the school kids stay burning down the mountains cuz they gotta go back to their hot class rooms in the next couple of weeks! Hallelujah!

  4. titasmom says:

    Guess the drivers that tried to make it through the flooded roads never learn their lesson….’turn around, don’t drown’ or at least ‘turn around so you car doesn’t get flooded out, and now you stuck in 2 feet of water and now your battery is dead!” Watched it all on TV last night.

  5. ready2go says:

    Since the rains affected the Handi-vans storage parking, why park them there?

  6. paniolo says:

    State, City and DOT seen what kine damage happened. Clean it up, and fix it, so it doesn’t happen again. Darby wasn’t even a direct hit and look at all the damage. Couple more storms coming, so, get ready.

  7. nomu1001 says:

    Stating the obvious, but this is a critical infrastructure problem which leads to potential health issues from our overflowing sewer systems.

    Run off of debris, contamination flowing into our offshore waters, which leads to officials advising people to “stay out of the water”, killing our coral, etc.

    And it will likely be put on the backburner again. Which we obviously cannot afford to do. Will obviously not help our efforts with tourism, either.

  8. den says:

    it’s hot, it’s like Africa hot

  9. ad1 says:

    Just passed the school street area they were still cleaning up. I couldn’t believe they didn’t have have at least one of those front end sweepers that the paving companies use to sweep the pebbles off the road. They were using what looked like a garden hose with a nozzle to pile up the mud so a vaccum truck could vaccum it up. They also had a bobcat there but wasn’t using that either. Why not use the sweeper to pile up the mud and use the bobcat to pick it up and load it in a truck. Tell the fire department to follow up and wash the remaining mud to the side while the vaccum truck sucks it up. Done

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