Downpours over Maui and Oahu on Tuesday night flooded homes, caused landslides and left several people stranded.

A Maui rain gauge in Puu Kukui, near Iao Valley, recorded 9.79 inches of rain falling from 8 a.m. Tuesday to 8 a.m. Wednesday. The heavy rain swelled the Wailuku River past its banks, flooding much of the valley and stranding 19 people who were rescued by Maui firefighters, including Fire Chief Jeff Murray.

The rain subsided at about 9 p.m. Tuesday on Maui when downpours were pummeling Oahu. A flash flood watch was in effect for all islands, except for Kauai, until this afternoon. The east side of Hawaii island was under a flash flood warning Wednesday night.

The National Weather Service reported hail in Volcano and a funnel cloud off Maui on Wednesday.

Maui firefighters began responding to several reports of flash flooding in Iao Valley at about 7:30 p.m.

Iao Valley Road resident Lisa Higa said her mother and her two children were trapped on the roof of their one-story home when floodwater swept in and surrounded it. Higa was on the road and couldn’t reach her home.

It had been raining all day, and her house was suddenly flooded in about 20 minutes while Higa was dropping off a son at a judo class, she said.

At home were her other two children, an 11-year-old son and a 10-year-old daughter, and her 74-year-old mother.

“I almost lost my family last night,” Higa said by phone Wednesday.

She said her children began calling her while she was away, sounding frantic.

“They were like, ‘The water’s coming. It coming up to the stairs. You’ve got to come home,’” she said.

About 10 minutes later, she arrived on her street to find the road flooded and tried to drive into her driveway, but her car went underwater, and she was nearly swept away.

Higa reversed and got to safety, but couldn’t reach her children, who were telling her by phone that the house was rapidly filling up with water.

“The river was raging,” she said. Her house sits near the Wailuku River.

Higa told her children to get to the roof. Her 11-year-old son donned a life jacket, put ones on his younger sister and his grandmother, and they escaped to the roof, where they stayed in the heavy downpour.

Arriving firefighters couldn’t reach her home because the road was flooded, and a neighbor, who is a fire battalion chief, tried to jump a fence, but he came back saying the water was at least 8 feet deep and that he couldn’t go any farther because he would be swept away.

“The next thing you know Fire Chief Jeff Murray comes speeding up in his Toyota truck,” Higa said. “They went against the river … and he saved both my kids and my mom.”

Higa said she called Murray for help; she knows him from her volunteer work with the GO PINK campaign, which supports cancer patients and survivors.

But Murray didn’t consider the incident a rescue.

“We got there just as everything was (subsiding) enough so we could walk in and get her kids and her mother out,” he said.

After the family was safe, firefighters went back to clear the area and found the family’s roughly 140-pound dog still alive, but tangled up in the backyard. Firefighters brought it out.

“He must have got tossed around quite a bit,” Murray said.

After helping the Higa family at about 8 p.m., Murray noticed a flashlight in a house next door, about 100 yards away. He said firefighters could get only within about 50 yards, and the married couple said they wanted to leave, but didn’t know whether it was safe. He said firefighters decided to get them out because they were expecting another downpour, and walked through water a few feet deep to reach the couple and the wife’s 92-year-old father. Murray said water had entered the house and also washed away three of their cars.

He said firefighters carried the 92-year-old out of the house in a litter basket and that the couple walked with firefighters.

In addition to the Higas and their neighbors, firefighters also evacuated seven people from different homes in the area of Mokuhau Road, using a four-wheel-drive vehicle or going on foot in areas where the road was washed out. They also helped six people escape from Ua Place.

Murray said the aforementioned battalion chief was nearly swept away while trying to help the Higas. He said the battalion chief was trying to get into a fenced area when the fence collapsed, but that the water switched directions and he “rode” the current to his vehicle.

Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa signed an emergency proclamation Wednesday after the “torrential flooding” in Iao Valley knocked out a waterline, flooded several homes with mud and debris, and destroyed a large part of the parking lot at Kepaniwai Park, a Maui County news release said.

Iao Valley was restricted only to residents because of the hazardous conditions, and Lahaina residents were being asked to conserve water for emergencies such as firefighting, the county said.

The Department of Water Supply asked customers in Central and South Maui to boil water for three minutes before consuming it because of possible contamination from flooding. Affected areas include Iao Valley, Kahului, Wailuku, Paia, Spreckelsville, Puunene, Kihei, Wailea, Makena and Maalaea.

Work crews were flushing lines and making repairs to clean the system and water samples were being taken, the county said.

Meanwhile, the state issued a brown water advisory Wednesday for the coastal waters of Maui and Oahu.

Makiki home flooded

On Oahu, the outer walls of a house on Maunalaha Road in Makiki Heights sustained flood damage Tuesday when a boulder and other debris clogged a culvert in a stream in front of the house about 9 p.m., causing a torrent of water to rush into the yard.

The house stands atop cinder blocks, but Christine Ka‘ai‘ai said that she and her three children saw their house and themselves surrounded by water. Firefighters had to help them get out, and the family spent the night at a neighbor’s house, she said.

The family received assistance from the American Red Cross. Wednesday evening, the water was still flowing through the property, which the Ka‘ai‘ais lease from the state, and into another segment of the stream along the side of her house.

“The stream is my yard right now,” she said.

The deluge was so powerful that one of the family’s mopeds ended up in the stream, she said.

Ka‘ai‘ai said state officials have not heeded her family’s repeated requests to clear the culvert, even though they acknowledge it’s the state’s responsibility to do so.

Meanwhile, the Hawaii State Archives building was forced to shut down Wednesday after a roof leak let rain enter through a vent in the second-floor stacks area.

“The rain was limited to one small row of records, all of which were housed in archival quality cardboard boxes,” state Archivist Adam Jensen said in a statement. The cardboard kept the water away from the records in the boxes and, while some records were damp, they did not appear to sustain lasting damage, he said. The agency is expected to reopen to the public today.

The rain closed West Loch Golf Course in Ewa on Wednesday afternoon, and traffic was unusually heavy westbound on H-1 freeway earlier than standard afternoon rush hour.

Meanwhile, Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam placed itself under a Thunderstorm Condition 2 from 1 to 10 p.m. Wednesday, urging military personnel to “take precautions for a state of readiness on short notice.”