lacking infrastructure (again, yet, still)

[kalakoa]

Recent flooding in Kona suggests poor planning and/or lacking infrastructure.

http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/news...pener-many

The prospect of building flood canals has popped up sporadically at the county level for at least 20 years. But the projects would be expensive and nothing concrete has emerged from the talks.

http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/news...ppen-again

Nat Giesbrecht says he has heard that development up mauka filled in a drainage way some years back, causing flooding to divert in their direction. That could be the source of waters that inundated a bedroom on Sept. 5 and returned with a vengeance on Tuesday and Wednesday. But he is not sure, and the Department of Public Works hasn't provided any answers so far.

Similar to the "diversion wall" built above Hawaiian Acres -- heavy rains now end up at the community center. A few decades later, County did spend $2.1M to build a culvert, so that the flooding doesn't affect 8 Road.

I've heard of similar happenings in Hilo; older mauka areas (Kaumana, etc) have a network of ditches and canals so that heavy rains have somewhere to go. Long-time residents understand this and leave them alone; newcomers sometimes fill in their part of the ditch, and flooding ensues.

This leaves me wondering why these waterways aren't protected by the rules and laws given the public safety and property damage issues, along with the usual questions about spending priorities -- maybe all these shiny new parks can be used as campgrounds for people who get flooded out of their homes?

[Seeb]

A lot of places groundwater runoff is job 1 of the planning department

[punaticbychoice]

Seeb @ 08:06:35

Agree. With our rainfall and geography, it is not incomprehensible that these events can happen.
But where is the planning to prevent and mitigate such damage?
How exactly is the Planning Department tasked and organized to carry out its responsibilities?
What relations exist with the State and Federal agencies that deal with this and related issues?

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

It's not just Hawaii.

I had a friend who owned a home in Las Vegas. She didn't have (and couldn't buy) flood insurance because she wasn't in a designated flood zone. Las Vegas grew, houses and streets were built, there was a flood, and her home was destroyed. She couldn't collect insurance ("you didn't have flood insurance") and the bank insisted she pay off the mortgage for a condemned home that no one could live in. No one considered what the new construction would do, and no one changed the flood maps.

[pahoated]

How dense do you have to be to know you are in a flood zone, so that is why insurance won't cover it? It is just another bit of evidence that most people come to this island and never have the realization it is an island, not the mainland. Sad for that family but reading their story, it was such an old, tired story about the mainland malihini wanting their share of the dream, regardless if it made sense or not.

"Aloha also means goodbye. Aloha!"

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

How dense do you have to be to know you are in a flood zone, so that is why insurance won't cover it?

From the article:
that development up mauka filled in a drainage way some years back, causing flooding to divert in their direction.

He may not have been in a flood zone, but new construction might have created a water flow diversion that turned his location into new flood zone.

[punaticbychoice]

HOTPE:

Sometimes it's hard for some to comprehend things.
Like circumstances and conditions change.
Try to be nice to those who are slow on the uptake.