The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1915-12-31
CHRISTMAS KONA
HlDS'AfCRuG|AL
'M9MtEE8RC|TY
hhl-I lM Lll
Yuletide Deluge Floods LowIying
Sections-Stops JustAs Ser
eious Damage Threatens

From Wednesday Advertiser)

drehths inches of rainfall in Honolulu,
destruction of several big barracks at
Scho6ald and a scientific doubt to the
mind of A.. NJ HamTick, United States
weather director here.
Whether the kOna has passed is pro
hlematical. Mr.. Hamrick, who has seen
upset all the scientific signs of which
he has been taught to depend, refuses
to make a Representation rs to what
Honolulu or Oahu may expect now.
A steadily mounting barometer has
augured better weather ever since the
kona got fairly well started, on Christ
mas Eve, and it has seemed, almost,
that the higher the barometer has gone
the harder 1t has rained.
Threatened Malxid District
Providentially for many citizens Of
the city who live in the low lying dis.
tricts the fhin ceased about noon yes.
terday. Another inch of il and many
hundreds might have been driven from
their homes. That was the opinion of
City Engineer Whitehouse, who had ref
erence chiefly to people in the Makiki
district. Above that district a fiume
measuring seven feet in width and six
feet in depth was filed to the brim Just
as the tide of water from the maukn.
section of that region reached its high.
est level. Another few inches, some desI
bris to clog the mouth of the flume and
the entire stream would have broken
out of bounds behind the FIRE station, in
Wilder avenue, and flooded the district
along Piikoi, Kewalo and 'Biholiho
streets.
As il was, almost every street in that
portion of the city was a muddy tor
rental river yesterday morning, as were
also many Of those at the Kalihi side
of the municipality.
Makiki stream flowed bank full be
side Kalakaua avenue. PauOa and Nuu-
anu also were carrying as much as they
could without seriously damaging aid
joining property. Had another inch or
two of rain fallen after the noon hour
many thousands of dollars in damage
would have been recorded.
Youngsters surfed In Rivers
a All the lower parts Of the town were
flooded, in some places such as Athletic
Park, spot above Wider avenue near
the FIRE station and the region adjacent
TO the Moiliili baseball park lakes sew
eral feet in depth were formed. AT the
surf boards and held surfing and swim
ming races in the food. Athletic Park
was just one big pond.
Kamaainas last night gloomily pre-.
dicted more moisture. Shifting winds
are certain to bring it, they declared.
It Is true the wind has been variable
the last forty-eight hours. In the heavy
storm of Monday night the wind blew
q. Al o 1. Il ~.
north and east and southeast yesterday,
and last night was in the southeast,
though having force of not more than
one or two miles an hour, as reported
Hamfick. lN'l
The barometer rose steadily Yesterday
although it did that the day previous,
and at eight o clock yesterday evening
stood at thirty inches, or normal. The |
Temperature was seventy degrees Fa
hrenheit Mt the same hour, having drop,
ped from seventytwo, which it had re
corded in the afternoon.
Cantoniers Guard Floods
On Monday the temperature had
lowered between seventy and seventy
five degrees, dropping to sixty-eight
that night, with the wind shifting from
the south and east to west and north
west. The cooler atmosphere brought |
the heavy precipitation that evening,
Hamrick explains.
The total precipitation in Honolulu
for the" twenty.fOur hours to eight
O'Clock yesterday evening was four
and fourteen one .hundredth inches For
the twelve hours from eight in the
morning the rainfall was one and
eighty one -hundredth inches
To guard against heavy damage to
property the city engineer = office es
tablished patrols of cantoniers Monday
evening, beginning with three shifts of
sixteen men, each shift remaining on
duty eight hours. Yesterday after
noon these were increased to twenty.
two men each, and Sam Keliinoi, fore
man in the engineer department, said
they would be kept on vigilapt guard
throughout the night. Opinion in that
office was that the storm had not ended.
Hard work relaxed after two clock
in the afternoon, when the food sub
sided materially. BY that time all the
streams were back in their normal
beds. y"
Waialna Road Closed
From reports received yesterday, it
is expected great damage will be
No news has been received from the
wiIdward side. The route beyond Cast
ner is closed, howevel, the city engi-
neer receiving advice early yesterday
that a new .embankment leading into
kuakOBahua gulch on the way to Waia
lua had been so weakened by the wash
ing rain and streams that it was too
dangerous for traffic. it was ordered
officially closed.
The concrete bridge ia School street
over Pauoa stream, which was barely
completed, received its baptism yester
LAY morning. Temporary timbers un
derneath caught a tree which the tor
rent had torn loose farther up the
Ruleh and this formed the background
for a perfect dam that piled across the
sDan and forced the food up and over
the bridge. Adjacent doprvards were
fooded, but MS practically all the houses
in the vicinity stand high above the
ground the water did not enter them
Waikalulu bridge, over Nuuanu
stream at School street suffered from