Most of the weather around the state is back to its usual pattern of trade winds and windward and mauka showers. But heavy rains from the recent Kona low caused flooding in several areas — and headaches for local officials.
Honolulu Managing Director Mike Formby told HPR that intense rain is a reality that city planners, and residents, have to deal with.
"We made it through the last Kona storm with I think minimal impacts, which is good, but it's just a wake-up call to all of us, you know, as to what potentially is coming. And we have to have the ability, the financial ability to make improvements to our systems so that we're ahead of the curve," Formby said.
Flooding in Waikīkī caused closures on main thoroughfares like Kalākaua Avenue. Waikīkī is part of the larger Ala Wai Watershed that stretches from Makiki to Mānoa to Pālolo, mauka to makai.
The city has been working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the paused Ala Wai Flood Risk Management project. The 19-square-mile watershed houses thousands of residents, public and private schools, the University of Hawaiʻi, and much of the tourism industry.
Formby said that while the latest cost estimate of about $1.1 billion was already a challenge, the 2023 ruling in Ideker Farms v. United States has forced the Army Corps to reevaluate flood mitigation plans nationwide.
Thousands of miles from Hawaiʻi, farmers and landowners along the Missouri River successfully sued the federal government for damages after a Corps plan led to "government-induced flooding" and damaged crops.
"What it basically does is it says if you induce flooding, even if it's not annual or consistent, that flooding event requires the U.S. government to consider whether or not that's a taking under the U.S. Constitution, which requires payment to the landowner," Formby said. "And that's just going to drive up costs."
"What I really suspect is at some point Congress will have to act because I don't think Congress will be able to accept the Ideker result and the impact that it might have to flood mitigation projects," he said. "They're probably going to have to say, we have to plan for climate change, and we have to be able to afford the plans for climate change, and if this is what the court believes is required, then we need to somehow limit that."
Formby said the city is waiting for the Corps to look at new cost estimates in light of the Ideker decision.
"We may not have a project that is perfect in mitigating all risk, but any risk that we can mitigate, in light of the cost of these flood mitigation projects, is something that we need to evaluate and consider because we simply can't be in an environment where we live on an island, and we say, 'Sorry, we're financially unable to deal with climate change and the risk that it poses to our residents.' That's just unacceptable."
This interview aired on The Conversation on May 21, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1. Sophia McCullough adapted this story for the web.
