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Hawaii Orders 5,500 Evacuations as 120-Year-Old Wahiawā Dam Faces Failure

Hawaii Orders 5,500 Evacuations as 120-Year-Old Wahiawā Dam Faces Failure
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More than 5,500 people on Oʻahu’s North Shore were ordered to evacuate Friday as catastrophic flooding from a powerful Kona low storm pushed a 120‑year‑old dam to “imminent risk of failure,” prompting air and water rescues and the largest emergency response Hawaii had seen in two decades nytimes +2. As of late Friday, the Wahiawā Dam above Waialua and Haleʻiwa was still holding, but officials warned that a breach could send a wall of water through already‑flooded communities downstream cnn +1.

How the Flood Emergency Unfolded

Torrential rain pounded northern Oʻahu on March 20, inundating streets in Haleʻiwa and Waialua, lifting homes off their foundations and sweeping vehicles into muddy torrents nytimes +2. The storm followed another Kona low just days earlier, leaving soil saturated and rivers swollen across the islands cnn.

As the Wahiawā reservoir, also known as Lake Wilson, rapidly rose toward critical levels, Oʻahu’s Department of Emergency Management issued a stark alert that the earthen dam, built in 1906, was at “imminent risk of failure” and ordered residents in low‑lying areas to evacuate immediately cnn +1. Officials said roughly 4,000–5,500 people fell within the highest‑risk evacuation zone, with as many as 10,000 affected by broader North Shore flooding npr +2.

Emergency crews carried out more than 230 rescues, including an airlift of 72 children and adults trapped at a North Shore camp surrounded by floodwaters apnews +1. Gov. Josh Green activated the Hawaii National Guard, closed most state offices and opened multiple shelters as he described the event as the worst flooding Hawaii had seen in 20 years bostonglobe +2.

A 120‑Year‑Old Dam and Longstanding Safety Warnings

The crisis zeroed in on Wahiawā Dam, an earthen irrigation structure owned by Dole Food Company that has a long history of safety concerns and even a collapse in 1921 that required reconstruction apnews +1. Engineers and regulators have for decades warned that its spillway is undersized for extreme storms, raising the risk that water could overtop the embankment and rapidly erode it pbs.

State records cited by local investigative outlet Civil Beat showed Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources had issued deficiency notices and fines to Dole since 2009, flagging structural issues and emergency planning gaps while lawmakers debated a state takeover and publicly funded repairs pbs. One state engineer previously warned, “It’s not a matter of if something happens. It’s a matter of when,” arguing the dam posed a “precarious” risk to roughly 2,500 people downstream pbs.

Dole said in a statement that the dam “has not failed” and that the system, including its spillway and temporary barriers, was operating as designed, while urging residents to follow government evacuation orders apnews +1. But critics argued the near‑disaster underscored how aging plantation‑era dams across Hawaii — about 132 are regulated statewide, many in poor condition — are increasingly outmatched by back‑to‑back extreme rain events linked to a warming climate apnews +1.

The Bigger Picture

With more rain forecast through the weekend, officials kept evacuation orders in place and warned residents not to return until the stability of the dam and surrounding slopes could be assured cnn +1. The near‑failure of Wahiawā Dam revived memories of the 2006 Ka Loko Dam disaster on Kauaʻi, which killed seven people, and sharpened questions about whether Hawaii has moved quickly enough to modernize century‑old water infrastructure in a warming world pbs. As floodwaters receded in some neighborhoods but rescue crews continued searching damaged areas, the state began to tally what Gov. Green suggested could be more than $1 billion in damage — and to confront whether long‑deferred repairs helped turn a predictable risk into a statewide emergency bostonglobe +2.