Cleanup starts after a long day’s rain

The weather yesterday was in sharp contrast to Wednesday’s downpour.

Residents and cleanup crews took advantage of the clear skies and sunny conditions yesterday to try and get back to normal following the day of deluge.

Jay Gardner, a worker at the Kalawai Park, was on his way back to work following his lunch break when he was slowed by the closure of one lane of Kaumuali‘i Highway near Kali Road in Lawa‘i.

Pulling off in a driveway, the park worker whipped out his cane knife, and with the aid of the single police officer who was directing traffic, crossed the busy highway.

A banyan tree blocked one lane of the highway after being toppled in a landslide yesterday morning.

Gardner took a quick assessment of the situation and started hacking. A branch here, a limb there, his efforts received praises of “good samaritan” from motorists traversing the restricted highway.

The officer had time to offer his help by moving some of the larger rocks off the highway, and with a few more well-placed chops, the highway was clear.

Traffic resumed its flow through the Lawa‘i gulley, Gardner hopped into his pickup, back to work.

“It’s OK,” he said. “I work for the county, too.”

Runoff from the Wednesday rains created a lake in the outfield of the ‘Ele‘ele ball park from the first base line out until the berm leading to Kaumuali‘i Highway.

“You should have been here earlier in the day,” one of the park caretakers said. “The basketball court was totally underwater.”

With the help of a passing motorist, the caretaker worked with a shovel to try and locate the drainages in the park, wading in near waist-deep brown water littered with grass clippings and other debris from the runoff.

Further down Kaumuali‘i Highway, Carl Richie also used a shovel to scrape away some of the red gooey mud that had accumulated in his Country City Motors operation at the Moi Road intersection.

“At least people can see that I’m working,” he joked while piling up the accumulated mud along the highway.

Ernie Barba used a backpack blower to try and spread out the puddle of red water accumulated in the parking lot of the Hanapepe Place.

“The rains stopped so it’s time to clean up,” he said.

However, with the full house at Da Imu Hut restaurant, Barba said he would wait until the restaurant closed before proceeding with his next step in the cleanup process — powerwashing to remove the sticky red mud.

Traffic on Kaumuali‘i Highway in Kaumakani was restricted to one lane as workmen using a backhoe cleared mud and debris from a portion of the highway near the Kaumakani Avenue intersection that also sustained damage from Wednesday’s rains.

At one point, the runoff was heavy enough to force the closure of the highway in both directions, Wednesday afternoon.

The flooding also created damage to the highway with pieces of asphalt trapped between the guardrails and sidewalk.

Richie said, “At least it wasn’t as bad as last year when the guys from Lappert’s Ice Cream came back with my sign after it floated down to their place.”

Weather forecasts from the National Weather Service Web site predicts more rain and showers through at least Monday.