The Garden Island. [volume] (Lihue, Kauai, H.T.) 1902-current, 1920-01-20
A RECORD RAINFALL
EVERYTHING AFLOAT

The rainfall this last week has been
almost unprecedented, not perhaps in
the amount that fell in any particular
hour, but in that it did it over and
over again. It eliminated Friday
night, and by that time the earth was
so saturated that it wouldn't stand
any more, and the flood soon reached
alarming proportions. Every stream
was a roaring torrent and more or
less damage was done along the beds
of these streams, as well as in the
fields, by tearing them up and wash
ing away the good soil.
Saturday morning the Wailua flats
were all afloat, the whole region from
the sand track to the crusher, on the
mauka side of the road, being a great
lake which one could have navigated
in a boat, and just this side of the
crusher the road was under water for
200 or 800 yards, so that cars plowed
through like steamboats,, throwing
a shower of spray on each side.
At Wailua there was another great
lake, to the North of the cocoanut
grove, the whole valley being afioat.
At Waipouli, the Broadbent cocoanut
grove was all afloat, the long isles of
overhanging palms giving charming
effects in the reflections below.
At the Wailua Bridge, what might
have been a serious accident occurred.
A Koloa chauffeur, one Sakai, return
ing from Kilauea about midnight, as
he was just coming onto the bridge,
took header of ten or twelve feet
through the bottom of the road, and
thought he was going through to
China. Though he didn't go that far,
the fetch up wrecked his car pretty
badly and gave him minor scratches,
but scared him nearly out of his
senses.
1t was a peculiar accident in that
the surface of the road was intact,
when he came along, and gave no
sign of danger. The fill, constituting
the approach to the bridge was an old
one, put in years ago with pile foun-
dation which, after all these years,
was supposed to be perfectly sound.
The inside core of the fill was of sand
which, when undermined by the flood,
at one small point, filtered out, like
water out Of tank, leaving great
hollow void behind it, the tenacious
macadam surface, however, held like
a vaulted roof over the hollow chamb-
er. but under the weight of the car,
it collapsed.
Billy" of the Kapaia Garage, was
called up, and came to the rescue, and
he in turn got Mr.. Moragne, who
reached there about four o'clock, and
in a few hours the breach was thor
oughly repaired, and without stopping
the traffic, as there was room to go
around.
1t is an ill wind that blows nobody
good Cords of drift-wood came down
the streams and is being gathered up
by thrifty householders, and there are
said to be loads of fish" in the flood
er territory, and the knowing ones
are out after them.
In the new homestead section, Wal
lua-mauka, one OF the fills crossing
a branch of the Opaekaa stream, a
long, low embankment on the road
way in the homestead tract, was car
ried out by the storm. This fill is at
the foot of a swampy region that in
ordinary weather contributes only
little trickle of water, but in such
storm as that of last week, it runs a
torrent. Generous provision will
have to be made for this run-off.
On the Waimea side the only report
of flood pilikas comes from Makaweli,
where the rush Of storm water down
the Mahinauli Valley overtaxed the
capacity of the concrete bridge on the
Government road, so that it banked
up and overfowed the road to depth
of some four feet, most effectively
closing the road for time; and when
it subsided, left deposit of mud that
was nearly as deep, and quite as much
of an obstruction. Crossing the road
the torrent poured down through the
adjacent cane field, tearing path
way through the field 25 yards wide
and several hundred yards long.
One of the Waimea trucks, with
drummers samples, tried to get
through when the water was at its
height, but unfortunately missed the
road and landed in the ditch up
against the fence. 1t had to be dug
out of the mud next day.
Beyond Waimea, more or less OF
the fiat country, all the way to Mana,
is under water. A great, long lake or
succession of lakes, dozen miles in