Winter storm abates after continuing to batter Hawaii on Tuesday
Honolulu, HAWAII — Torrential rains and strong winds from a cold front pounded parts of the state for a second day on Tuesday, flooding roads and closing schools.
A flash flood warning for Maui remained in effect until 2:15 p.m. Forecasters said while rain rates decreased, flash flooding was ongoing. Areas in the warning included Kihei, Pukalani, and Makawao.
The state Department of Education said most public schools on Maui and Molokai were closed Tuesday due to flash flooding and road closures.
The winter storm over Maui and Hawaii Island battered Oahu on Monday, bringing heavy rains and high winds that forced flight disruptions, flooded roadways and downed trees.
There was even a short-lived tornado warning in place for Molokai.
In the most serious incident, a large tree that fell in Kailua on Monday night caused a car crash that left four kids seriously injured. An adult and a teenager were in stable condition following the crash.
Adding to the headaches on Monday night, HECO instituted rare rolling outages because of power generation issues. The severe weather contributed to the problem, but wasn’t the main cause.
What was clear: The outages made for dangerous driving conditions on waterlogged roadways.
HECO (Hawaiian Electric Company) reported on Monday that 2,630 customers in the Makaha area remained without power and 720 in Waipahu.
An outage was also reported in Hawaii Kai and a check of HECO's outage map showed more than 13,000 affected from Aina Haina to Waimanalo.
According to HECO's outage map Monday morning, there were outages from Temple Valley to Kahaluu and Mokuleia.