Up To Our Necks In Water During A Drought

It's a beautiful Sunday morning again on Maui. The sun is shining, the surf has subsided enough to again enjoy being in the ocean and people are flocking to the beaches to enjoy the break. At least those of us that don't need to spend the day cleaning up after the storm.Even the least hit areas have some clean-up involved. Just catching up on the normal chores is a challenge. With the power out for a half day yesterday at my house, many things were put off until today. The yard is full of debris that either originated in my yard or came from neighbors. Actually it's a good time to socialize or meet neighbors as you return belongings blown into your yard such as trash cans that traveled a block with the winds.

So after a week of incredible rainfall, I guess most of it ran into the sea because we apparently still have a drought. One friend I spoke with last night tells me that the property she lives on in Olinda was pretty well designed and managed to divert the water in a very efficient manner to avoid damage. She said that even with all the reain, the ground under her cottage was still dry and powdery.

It is unfortunate that when we have rainfall it tends to run down the mountain and into the ocean, rather then being absorbed and recharge the aquafier. As man tries to control nature and the environment while increasing development, it's usually nature that has the final say. Nature may not always be the winner, but it will give us all a quick slap and a wake-up call.

There were many people commenting about how this is the worst storm we have had in years. The way I see it is that its not that this storm was so much worse than others, but it took place at a time when Maui has been developed to the point where even an average storm could do plenty of damage.

To draw a comparison to the body, when we focus on individual parts of the body's health without regard to the body as a whole, we can often times do more damge than good. Maui has been developed with the focus on individual areas and most of the time without regard to Maui as a whole.

We are concerned with how development can affect the traffic, electric, water and just people in general, but Maui is an island. The island was formed over many thousands of years based on weather patterns that may have long periods between big storms It is not whether these storms will come, it's a matter of when.

Places like Kihei are the results of heavy run-off from many, many of these storms. When flying over the Kihei shoreline, it is possible to see the underwater siltation zones, such as the area surrounding the Maui Sunset.

The area around from Kula to Ulupalakua is very steep and while it rarely sees heavy rains, it is the most likely area to feel the full brunt of the heaviest Kona storms as evidenced by the last week. Driving through the area I noticed that much of the undisturbed pasture land was pretty much unaffected by the heavy rainfall and resulting run-off.

It seems that where development has taken place in the areas that were once pastures, the streams have been neglected and turned into small forests of Wattle trees and shrubs. Its this foliage that seems to be the debris that was uprooted and carried down to eventually hit the bridges, culverts and roads. As this debris blocked the culverts under the roads, water then diverted to run down the roads themselves.

In the case of the highway, the water and debris now found another new obstacle, the guardrails. These guardrails held up pretty well to the onslaught of storm driven debris and created a very nice retaining wall. With the newly created retaining wall, the road itself became the main stream and the debris-filled water then flowed to where the guardrails ended. This was either a road or an old-style cattle fence. The water then continued on downhill through the roads into subdivisions like Waiohuli or through pasture areas and on to either Kihei or any subdivions that laid in it's path.

On many occasions throughout the week, we saw streams flood and resede again, but a glance up on the slopes of Haleakala, when it could be seen that is, would bring the realization that there was a lot more water rushing down the slopes. It just hadn't reach the bottom yet. There really is a reason for those flash flood warnings.

I am sure there are many very capable people that work very hard to create and design Maui's development's, it just seems to me that there needs to be more attention to designing with Maui as a whole. I know that this ultimately means much more money up-front and would require an on going effort between public and private sectors to be sure Maui's streams are cleared, the roads are maintained and the natural terrain of Maui is kept in mind during the design stages, but what is the alternative? The money is either spent in the design or spent later to provide repairs to the areas that are ravaged by the resulting floods, mudslides and wind damages.

Ultimately we all pay to make the repairs after the fact, either in taxes or through increased insurance premiums. Many people not only have to help pay through their taxes or insurance premiums, but suffer damage that can not be recuped by government assistance or insurance.

The time to take note of the problems is while they are happening. There may be much to much going on for awhile to address the problems, but it is very important to try and keep a focus on them and strive to correct them during the stretches of good weather. I'm quite sure that in the days to come we will be faced with more days of heavy rainfall and wind. Will we act or just react?

In the meantime, despite that we were up to our necks in water over the last week, we do remain in a drought and water conservation measures are still needed.