Latest / The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi / DFM Deputy Director Warren Mamizuka on the Kona Low storms and cleanup

Transcript

DFM Deputy Director Warren Mamizuka on the Kona Low storms and cleanup · The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi

• 0:14
  Welcome to the One O'ahu podcast.
• 0:16
  I'm your host, Brandi Higa.
• 0:17
  And this week we're sitting down with Warren Mamizuka, deputy director
• 0:22
  for the city's Department of Facility Maintenance.
• 0:24
  Warren, you're a different color these days.
• 0:27
  You're a few shades darker.
• 0:29
  Just a few.
• 0:30
  How much time have you been spending out in the field?
• 0:33
  Yeah.
• 0:33
  You know, I've been out in Waialua since, May 24th.
• 0:38
  Sorry. May 24th.
• 0:40
  March 24th. Yeah.
• 0:42
  Just a couple of days.
• 0:44
  A couple of days after, you know, that, Kona low two.
• 0:46
  We've been getting a lot of sun. Yeah, yeah, and getting a lot of sun.
• 0:49
  Yeah.
• 0:49
  But, yeah, that night of 1 or 2 that that you just mentioned,
• 0:52
  can you take us back to that night and explain what you were going through?
• 0:57
  Because as people were being evacuated, you have equipment, you have staff,
• 1:00
  you have things that you need to be worried about as well. Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:04
  You know,
• 1:05
  I was on the phone with our, Waialua superintendent, Kaipo Burney
• 1:09
  and, you know, the
• 1:12
  we we knew that the dam, the, the, the, the water levels in the dam was rising.
• 1:17
  Rising pretty fast. Yeah.
• 1:19
  But what, what our concern was also, road flooding
• 1:23
  and also our, our Waialua Corporation yard.
• 1:26
  It's actually in a flood zone.
• 1:28
  So, you know, we we have to relocate all of our vehicles,
• 1:32
  all of our equipment, refuse trucks, hop tools, loaders, dump trucks,
• 1:38
  you know, so, we kept the most important equipment
• 1:41
  that we, we would need the the next day after the storm, you know, with the,
• 1:46
  AWS site, you know, which is on higher ground,
• 1:48
  you know, the refuse trucks and, you know, things that we weren't going to use,
• 1:52
  for storm cleanup actually went up to our Wahiawa yard.
• 1:56
  So we made that call.
• 1:57
  You know, maybe around 8:30 p.m..
• 2:01
  You know, it was getting a little dangerous.
• 2:02
  You know, our guys were on standby.
• 2:05
  But, you know, once we relocated everything,
• 2:08
  you know, we sent our guys home, with the understanding that, they will be
• 2:12
  coming back to work the next morning just to assess damages and,
• 2:17
  you know, check roadways and flooding areas, you know, from the night before.
• 2:20
  Yeah.
• 2:21
  I mean, I know as people were being evacuated and rescues were happening,
• 2:25
  it kind of sounds silly to, you know, make sure that the machines are okay
• 2:28
  and that they're safe.
• 2:29
  But in the hours following a major disaster like we saw in Waialua,
• 2:33
  how critical are those apparatuses?
• 2:36
  Oh, it's very critical, very critical.
• 2:38
  You know, we knew that they needed high water vehicles.
• 2:41
  There was always one call that was made.
• 2:43
  You know, to the, emergency operating center.
• 2:45
  You know, so we actually our, Wailua
• 2:49
  Yard, if they could actually get a dump truck in there, you know,
• 2:54
  but the
• 2:54
  waters were still moving quite fast, and, you know, they got into one area,
• 2:59
  I, I don't know the name of the road that they were on, but it actually started
• 3:04
  to lift their trucks up, so they had to pull back.
• 3:07
  You know,
• 3:07
  we we have a limited amount of vehicles, you know, big trucks and heavy equipment.
• 3:12
  So, you know, we we really can't afford to have any, any of these equipment
• 3:16
  go down, you know, especially for, storm cleanup.
• 3:20
  And that's just the resources and heavy machines.
• 3:23
  But when you talk about personnel, like you mentioned,
• 3:25
  those guys had to make sure that, you know,
• 3:26
  everything was safe and then, have to work on weekends.
• 3:29
  They have to work, you know, for how many weeks on end?
• 3:32
  We're not
• 3:32
  we weren't even sure how long the cleanup was gonna take at that point,
• 3:34
  because there was another storm right behind it.
• 3:37
  So what did it look like for you personnel wise?
• 3:40
  Personnel wise?
• 3:41
  You know, everyone showed up.
• 3:43
  Whilo was the most affected, right?
• 3:46
  Throughout the island.
• 3:48
  But, you know, we need, you know, they got just as much rain.
• 3:52
  So our weenie crew was out there. There?
• 3:54
  They were working, you know, they were working long hours
• 3:58
  to to clean up some of these roads.
• 4:00
  Just to have it open, right?
• 4:02
  Some of these city roads.
• 4:03
  And then they actually went and help some of the private roads.
• 4:06
  You know, it took us a while to get there, but eventually we we actually got there.
• 4:10
  And then, you know, our labor district, you know,
• 4:14
  you know, from the sunset people carrier all the way down to harbor,
• 4:18
  you know, they also received a lot of rain.
• 4:20
  So they're out there working, you know, but Wailua,
• 4:24
  I think what they assess was how on the street.
• 4:28
  Yeah.
• 4:28
  No, no, no, the first, you know, after
• 4:31
  I went to the bridge and I met with, you know, state D.O.T.
• 4:35
  Director Ed Sniffin and, you know, Levi,
• 4:39
  you know, I, we toured, how on the street and you could just see the,
• 4:42
  the devastation you could see with, the mud, the water.
• 4:46
  You know, how high when you know, on these homes
• 4:49
  and and how we got into the homes and, just the,
• 4:53
  the the amount of mud and debris that was on Homeowner Street was.
• 4:58
  Yeah. Was first time for me to see something like that.
• 5:01
  Yeah.
• 5:01
  And I ask this question, I think it's kind of similar to like HSD right.
• 5:05
  So EMS they don't perform rescues.
• 5:08
  But your guys when they're trying to navigate, you know,
• 5:11
  the water that's probably higher than they're used to navigating.
• 5:15
  What's the direction that you give them.
• 5:17
  Like is it just kind of like make the best judgment.
• 5:19
  Like don't put the machines in debris, don't put yourself in jeopardy,
• 5:22
  but do what you gotta do kind of thing or yeah,
• 5:24
  you know, are you guys we're not first responders.
• 5:26
  Yeah.
• 5:27
  You know, so we don't expect our, our personnel to
• 5:32
  to go in and save anyone because they're, they're not trained for that.
• 5:36
  You know, we don't want them getting hurt,
• 5:38
  you know, and like I said, if, if, if we go in there
• 5:42
  with our heavy equipment, dump trucks and, and, you know, we get water
• 5:46
  damage to it, then, then that'll be down for weeks or even months.
• 5:49
  So, you know, we we tell them to pull back, and let the first responders
• 5:53
  go in and, you know, we, you know, while you're, you know, very resilient.
• 5:58
  A lot of the, ranchers, farmers, you know, so, you know, like,
• 6:03
  River Rita, you had other people
• 6:06
  like Noah paying, you know, they were out there with their equipment,
• 6:09
  their trucks, their loaders, hop tools, you know, going in and saving people.
• 6:14
  And, as well as our HFD, NH PD, you know, so,
• 6:18
  it was a huge effort, community and and government.
• 6:23
  And so you mentioned going around with Ed and Levi.
• 6:26
  So what did the next few days, even weeks look for you
• 6:30
  following that March 19 into 20 event?
• 6:34
  Well, you know, started off as a, storm cleanup.
• 6:37
  Yeah.
• 6:38
  goal was to start dredging the whole stream.
• 6:41
  on the macro side of the stream, that state, on the south side of that city.
• 6:46
  So, you know, we started on the on the mauka side, Otaki camp area.
• 6:50
  Right.
• 6:51
  And then, once we got that area, you know, took us about a week or so
• 6:55
  to kind of get that one area On the side of the bridge, you know, dredged.
• 6:59
  And then we moved to the side, you know,
• 7:02
  and then, sharks, we we
• 7:05
  we were working seven days, you know, for a while, you know,
• 7:09
  sniffing had his guys out there as well, you know, clearing ditches.
• 7:13
  You know, our guys with our dump trucks, we were, you know, our Wailua crew.
• 7:18
  They were on all night trying to clear storm drain.
• 7:21
  Storm drain pipes, trying to,
• 7:24
  vacuum.
• 7:25
  You know, we have vacuum trucks
• 7:26
  that can suck up all the mud and silt that, you know, water off of the street.
• 7:31
  So that's what we're trying to do.
• 7:32
  And then.
• 7:33
  And then we heard there was another storm coming in, so now it was,
• 7:36
  storm cleanup, plus storm prep.
• 7:39
  So during a storm prep, director sniffing and, we got together and he, he's like,
• 7:43
  oh, here, I'm bringing my equipment. Can you guys help?
• 7:45
  You know, let's let's cross jurisdictions and let's, let's, combine resources,
• 7:50
  which we did.
• 7:50
  So, you know, we cleared some, some, ditches along Franklin Highway,
• 7:55
  you know, just just past the Wailua High School,
• 7:58
  you know, streams were, were getting cleaned out
• 8:01
  by the state city and the contractor and,
• 8:07
  you know, we we felt that we were prepared for the next storm.
• 8:10
  Yeah.
• 8:11
  And it did prove successful with those ditches,
• 8:13
  you know, did what they were supposed to.
• 8:15
  And you had mentioned, you know, kind of this collaboration.
• 8:17
  So state city was here, guys.
• 8:20
  And then also there were some federal resources
• 8:22
  while we saw the National Guard out there.
• 8:23
  But in your career, I know that you've been in this industry for a while.
• 8:27
  Have you ever seen something like that happen
• 8:29
  before, especially at the rate that it happened,
• 8:31
  where these resources were all put into play?
• 8:33
  have you ever seen that in your career? In my career?
• 8:35
  No, I've never seen that.
• 8:37
  Great collaboration. I have to say.
• 8:39
  You know, once the National Guard got involved, I mean, boots on the ground,
• 8:43
  these guys were, you know, up to their elbows in silt
• 8:47
  and debris that they were pulling up and which made it easy,
• 8:50
  for us and a contractor to actually, haul debris to the debris pile.
• 8:55
  You know, there was a huge debris pile, at, at Goodell and Farrington.
• 9:00
  That intersection was a triangle.
• 9:02
  You know, and that that debris pile must have lasted, like a good 3 to 4 weeks.
• 9:08
  Yeah.
• 9:08
  I mean, just when we thought we got the pile down,
• 9:11
  you know, more debris would, you know, arrive and
• 9:14
  and a lot of it was, you know, by residents, of Waialua.
• 9:18
  Yeah.
• 9:19
  And then you
• 9:20
  had mentioned, you know, a Wailua wasn't the only area that was affected.
• 9:23
  When we talk about, like.
• 9:25
  Yeah, why can't
• 9:26
  I know you're a windward side guy, your family and home and everything.
• 9:29
  Okay?
• 9:30
  Yeah. Everybody was okay.
• 9:31
  You know, we received quite a bit of rain the week before, right? Or.
• 9:35
  Yeah, four weeks before, and, pretty.
• 9:37
  I'm very proud of our crews, you know, for for the stream maintenance,
• 9:42
  you know, Kaneohe, you know, when they had, like, over 24in of rain,
• 9:45
  you know, I saw videos of the streams, covered stream, come over
• 9:51
  quality stream, you know, it it got to the almost to the top.
• 9:56
  Yeah.
• 9:56
  And it didn't flood, you know, but we did get some torrential rain.
• 10:00
  Not as much as Waialua, but, you know,
• 10:03
  they're pretty proud of our, you know, our guys.
• 10:05
  Yeah.
• 10:06
  And then kind of tailing on that, you had mentioned,
• 10:09
  you know, the the Levi's, you know, the Brandon Wolff's of the world
• 10:13
  because all the guys out there, you know them,
• 10:16
  your friends that a lot of them family with some of them,
• 10:18
  the private truck drivers, a community member shoveling.
• 10:22
  What did it mean to you to see that help
• 10:25
  coming from all directions, neighbor helping neighbor type of deal?
• 10:28
  Well, I was in all, you know, the Rito family, they they came out,
• 10:31
  you know, the night of the storm, and they started, with their loaders, right?
• 10:35
  I mean, have this, this heavy equipment, you know, they can get into some high
• 10:39
  water areas, you know, rescuing people, helping each HFD, helping HPD, you know,
• 10:45
  and the next day, you know, longshoreman came out, you know, Brendan Wolf,
• 10:51
  Kale Ornalles.
• 10:52
  You know, these guys were out there.
• 10:53
  They they brought, like, 150 guys to help clean up.
• 10:56
  You know, the first couple of days.
• 10:58
  And then, you know, for the first couple of weeks, you know.
• 11:01
  Well, the first couple days, I seen, like, hundreds of volunteers,
• 11:05
  people coming from all over the island, right.
• 11:08
  And then, we met people who actually came from, South Korea
• 11:13
  to help with the cleanup and repairs, like, just on their own dime.
• 11:16
  Just on their own dime? Yeah.
• 11:18
  what do you think we've learned from this event?
• 11:21
  And that can be as government as, community members, even as individuals.
• 11:25
  You know, Ed Sniffen and I, you know, in the past,
• 11:29
  you know, whenever there's a storm event coming, a severe storm coming,
• 11:32
  you know, we we we do contact one another and we try to help each other out,
• 11:37
  you know, with stream shrimp cleaning from opening, you know, just just
• 11:41
  just to prepare, you know, for any runoff that that could cause any flooding.
• 11:46
  But, I think moving forward,
• 11:48
  I think you'll see, more collaboration between state and city.
• 11:52
  Agencies, which is, I think is a great idea.
• 11:55
  You know, hopefully we can, you know, prevent some of the major flooding
• 12:00
  in, in the prone areas, you know, throughout this island.
• 12:04
  So I'm kind of excited.
• 12:05
  I think we're going to continue the conversation.
• 12:08
  I know there's a lot of people that will want to get involved.
• 12:11
  you know,
• 12:11
  I'm sure, mayor and governor, you know, they'll they'll lead the conversation.
• 12:16
  Yeah, there's that massive debris island that was downstream.
• 12:20
  Right. So you mentioned I'll take it.
• 12:22
  And then downstream from the bridge, that thing was like, like bigger
• 12:26
  than Molokini what what needs to happen to, like, maintain that area now?
• 12:29
  And, well, we're actually in that area now.
• 12:32
  Yeah.
• 12:33
  So we're widening the stream, you know,
• 12:36
  so a per manent fix to widen this.
• 12:39
  But you know what?
• 12:40
  We're we're we're trying to create some access areas, some roads,
• 12:44
  some temporary, you know, Yeah.
• 12:45
  So, our crews can actually get in there with the machines to.
• 12:49
  With machines, but also to cut vegetation, you know, keep the flow moving.
• 12:54
  Yeah.
• 12:54
  The stream will be widened quite a bit.
• 12:57
  It, I think the last time,
• 13:00
  it was dredged was 1972 or 1974.
• 13:04
  So, you know, I was, probably like a year old when that happened.
• 13:08
  So it's happening again.
• 13:10
  Yeah.
• 13:10
  You know, we want people to to to rest easy, you know, and let them know that,
• 13:15
  you know, we do care, you know, and, and so with this collaboration with,
• 13:20
  with the state, it's, it's really showing and now it's paying dividends.
• 13:25
  Yeah.
• 13:25
  And do you have any advice for residents ahead of the next major disaster?
• 13:29
  Because really it's not if but but when.
• 13:31
  Yeah.
• 13:33
  we're going to try and do everything that we can on our side,
• 13:35
  you know, make sure that ditches and storm drains are clear.
• 13:39
  But, you know, the amount of rain that fell,
• 13:43
  you know, on the White Mountains, Monte Carlo.
• 13:45
  Yeah.
• 13:45
  You know, the waterfalls that you saw the next day.
• 13:49
  It was so intense, you know,
• 13:52
  you know, don't don't wait to to to be told to evacuate, you know.
• 13:56
  Yeah, I know it's easy for to say that now, you know, but,
• 14:01
  you know, we don't want anyone to get stuck, you know, if there's,
• 14:04
  you know, water flooded, you know, get out as soon as possible.
• 14:07
  you know, sometimes we can never tell.
• 14:09
  We can never predict how bad or how much rain we'll get.
• 14:14
  if you see the water rising, you know, six inches, eight inches,
• 14:17
  you know, it might be ready to pack a bag and get ready to leave.
• 14:20
  So much attention was paid, to Waialua and Otake in general.
• 14:25
  Just because there were homes they got, so does their foundations.
• 14:27
  But when you talked about areas like Haona
• 14:31
  logistically, you know, tactically, how did you approach that situation?
• 14:34
  Because it really is it's a tiny residential area
• 14:37
  and they need machines to get in their crews to get in there.
• 14:41
  Like you mentioned, volunteers are flooding to the area,
• 14:43
  but there's still like a task at hand.
• 14:45
  You need to get all that debris out.
• 14:46
  And how did you guys manage that one?
• 14:48
  Well, you know, we have to be very careful.
• 14:50
  You know, we we had our, we had a dump truck.
• 14:53
  We had a vacuum truck, we had a hop toll.
• 14:56
  And like I said, there were hundreds of people moving around, you know,
• 14:59
  just just helping neighbors, you know, clearing mud out of their yards.
• 15:04
  Debris.
• 15:05
  There was another vacuum truck from a private contractor that was out there.
• 15:09
  So we had to be very careful, you know, we had to have someone spotting,
• 15:14
  the heavy equipment just so that, you know, we.
• 15:16
  No one would get injured.
• 15:18
  So everything was done very carefully, you know, maybe not.
• 15:22
  You know, we weren't moving as fast as I would like our guys to move,
• 15:26
  but, it it took us, I would say, a good two weeks
• 15:30
  before we got all the storm drains and storm pipes cleared.
• 15:35
  Yeah, yeah.
• 15:36
  And, you know, when you talk about vac trucks,
• 15:38
  and I know that that was also the case in areas in Leeward,
• 15:42
  Oahu and I, Nanakuli, where, you know, some of the farmers needed help as well.
• 15:46
  When you talk about private property and city resources,
• 15:49
  I know that you were at the neighborhood board meeting when mayor kind of, got
• 15:52
  an earful from the community
• 15:55
  asking government to do more.
• 15:57
  Right. But like you said, private, public.
• 16:00
  It's, you know, sometimes there's a little bit of a line to be cross there,
• 16:03
  how did that make you feel as a member of city leadership, knowing
• 16:06
  that, you know, we're trying our best.
• 16:07
  And in this case, we did help out on private and private areas.
• 16:11
  Just your take on that, you know, I understand, you know,
• 16:14
  you know, people are still up, you know, so, you know, we just have to listen.
• 16:20
  It'll be patient and and do what we can, you know,
• 16:23
  we're trying to throw us as much resources as we can.
• 16:26
  Yeah.
• 16:26
  You know, but, we still have all the other districts that
• 16:30
  that, you know, have to recover from the storm as well, you know?
• 16:33
  So, it's difficult that, you know, and and hard that knowing
• 16:37
  that we can get to a lot of the private properties,
• 16:41
  you know, but like I said, you know, we'll we'll
• 16:44
  we'll be meeting with the state and collaborating and, and t
• 16:49
  you know, how far do we cross jurisdictions,
• 16:52
  without, losing resources in other districts, you know.
• 16:56
  Yeah.
• 16:57
  You know, so, but you know why law is resilient, like I said,
• 17:01
  you know, a lot of the ranchers and farmers, they have heavy equipment.
• 17:04
  So they helped out.
• 17:05
  So without that, I think, you know,
• 17:08
  we'd probably be struggling a little bit more,
• 17:11
  but, you know, I can I can see the light at the end of the tunnel,
• 17:15
  actually, hope hoping by the end of, May, early June.
• 17:20
  I think the island,
• 17:21
  that large island, behind house on a street, may be gone.
• 17:26
  Yeah, We're in.
• 17:27
  Is there anything that we missed?
• 17:29
  know, I just want to give a shout out to our, our roads division.
• 17:33
  You know, all of the cooperation yards, we, you know, that got hit.
• 17:37
  You know, once they got all, you know, their district situated,
• 17:41
  they actually send guys boots on the ground out to help Waialua,
• 17:45
  our Pearl City folks, you two yard as well.
• 17:48
  You know, they send guys, you know, boots on the ground.
• 17:50
  You know, we had, heavy equipment operators coming from other districts,
• 17:54
  you know, a lot of trucks from other districts.
• 17:58
  You know, the state for all of their hard work and, you know, collaboration.
• 18:02
  It's been it's been wonderful.
• 18:04
  Got to meet a lot of people out there.
• 18:06
  And while we were a lot of nice people, you know, and,
• 18:11
  you know, I'd like to see, you know, you know what?
• 18:14
  I forgot to mention that Friday when that that last rain we had in April,
• 18:18
  you know, it's this thing, and I was out on a bridge,
• 18:22
  you know, and, I want it to be there.
• 18:24
  I want it, you know? I want it to be there.
• 18:26
  When it rained really hard, it didn't rain as hard as it did.
• 18:30
  And corner two.
• 18:31
  But the amount of rain that came down,
• 18:34
  you know, watching the stream, it did rise a little,
• 18:38
  you know, but everything flowed, you know,
• 18:41
  we we prep we did so much prep work
• 18:44
  that, you know, I think both Ed and I really wanted to be out there
• 18:49
  in the middle of
• 18:49
  this storm, and, I I'm pretty, you know, I'm
• 18:53
  very happy and pleased with all the work that we've done, you
• 18:57
  you know, I really hope that, you know, the next storm, you know,
• 19:01
  all the residents can feel comfortable, you know, that that we do prep, you know,
• 19:05
  we prep, we prep all of our streams, we prep all the stream mouths.
• 19:09
  You know, we before any every storm that, that, that we,
• 19:12
  you know, that's coming to our island.
• 19:14
  We're out there.
• 19:15
  Our crews are out there.
• 19:16
  Catch basins, storm drains, Boulder basins.
• 19:19
  They're clearing it, you know, and, it's nonstop.
• 19:23
  We go until we get hit and we have our guys on standby.
• 19:28
  So, I like to say that we are prepared.
• 19:31
  Maybe maybe our response time.
• 19:34
  You know, we need to get out there quicker.
• 19:37
  And I think that's something that, that, that, we've learned
• 19:41
  and I can assure people that, you know,
• 19:43
  the next storm, next heavy severe storm, you know, we'll have our crews out there,
• 19:49
  you know, not just assessing, but but standby.
• 19:52
  Yeah, yeah, we'll be on standby. We'll be ready to go.
• 19:55
  You know, yeah, I think that's, you know, that's what we should do, you know.
• 20:00
  Yeah, I, I think there's a lot of things that go on
• 20:02
  behind the scenes that folks don't know about, right?
• 20:04
  When something fails or something,
• 20:05
  you know, becomes an issue, people start to say something.
• 20:09
  But If you could kind of explain the work that goes into making
• 20:13
  sure everything is letting the water flow as it's supposed to.
• 20:17
  Yeah.
• 20:17
  So I mean, normally we'll we'll start like, you know, on the west
• 20:20
  side, you know, there's, Pokai Bay ditch one and two,
• 20:25
  Malipaloa, you know, in Maili.
• 20:28
  And then we have, we have a channel, so.
• 20:31
  All right. Well, that was a big one. Yeah, that's the big one.
• 20:32
  So so we'll start off there with the, heavy equipment,
• 20:36
  there's a bulldozer, Long reach excavator.
• 20:38
  Yeah, yeah.
• 20:39
  You know, our guys are out there
• 20:40
  and in an ever, ever beach, there's an evolving channel, so.
• 20:44
  most times, you know, if we can't, if we can't get to that private property,
• 20:49
  our guys, you know, our city yard will be out there, shoveling.
• 20:54
  And normally, if they take those, if they take the sand
• 20:57
  down like, halfway, water from the canal will push it down.
• 21:00
  like, let's say, like there's a storm coming, you know, next Saturday, like.
• 21:04
  And they'll go out there on Wednesday and they'll they'll dig the sand.
• 21:08
  By night, the sand is back.
• 21:10
  So our guys will be back out there like Thursday, Friday,
• 21:13
  just before the storm to dig that sand halfway across way again.
• 21:18
  Yeah.
• 21:18
  when that storm hits, it'll actually open up,
• 21:22
  you know, blow that sand out into the ocean and water will flow,
• 21:25
  so we're trying
• 21:26
  to take that preventive measure, you know,
• 21:28
  so our guys are constantly going out checking the streams,
• 21:31
  you know, and from there, we actually go out to Lake Kahala.
• 21:34
  There's two streams in Kahala.
• 21:36
  Same thing, right? Same thing.
• 21:38
  And then, you know, we work our way, you know, wailupe, kuliouou
• 21:45
  you know, and then right around you know, kaelepulu in Kailua is a is a major.
• 21:50
  Right, stream that, you know, we're trying to open
• 21:53
  and, you know, all the way up, you know, Punaluu.
• 21:56
  Haula. Yeah.
• 21:59
  You know, they're opening stream outs normally, you know, we work with the
• 22:03
  Department of Emergency Management, for approval, to open up, the stream.
• 22:08
  And, once we get the approval and then we notify
• 22:11
  the United States Army Corps of Engineers of what we're doing,
• 22:14
  you know, and, we just follow, the guidelines,
• 22:17
  the permits that that's, been permitted to to the city.
• 22:21
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 22:22
  So so getting the the sand out of the way and making sure that these waterways
• 22:26
  are at a level where water can move so it doesn't cause catastrophic flooding.
• 22:31
  We know that
• 22:31
  sometimes it does create some flooding, but as long as it's serving its purpose.
• 22:35
  And I know another area where that happened, this made the news as well.
• 22:39
  Is if you could just explain to me that was the first time I heard of
• 22:42
  what is a duck bill and what is its purpose?
• 22:46
  So a duck bill.
• 22:47
  So it's a it's a it's a valve.
• 22:50
  It's the shape, but it almost looks like a duck.
• 22:52
  It's like a giant rubber, pipe. Right. It's.
• 22:55
  Yeah, it's like like an inch thick. Right.
• 22:58
  And, you know, it's connected to, like, an outfall, like a, like a, catch basin.
• 23:03
  Right? Yeah.
• 23:04
  And then, it's connected.
• 23:06
  It's posted on. Yeah.
• 23:08
  Which looks like a plug, but it's not. Yeah.
• 23:10
  It looks like a plug. You know, it's kind of folded.
• 23:12
  It's folded like this, you know, and so when,
• 23:15
  when there's water with enough pressure, with enough pressure, it opens.
• 23:18
  Right.
• 23:19
  But the, so you need water from, you know, from the back to open the duck bill.
• 23:24
  But the duck bill's purpose is, you know, it remains closed.
• 23:28
  It remains closed.
• 23:29
  So that way, the ocean, the ocean water doesn't get into it
• 23:33
  and debris doesn't come in and right to plug it and then it.
• 23:36
  Yeah, they then it plugs into this, this, this drain outlet.
• 23:40
  You know, when you see it close, I guess people are alarmed.
• 23:43
  It looks like it's. Yeah, it looks like.
• 23:44
  And that rubber so thick. Right.
• 23:46
  And there's a lot of pressure coming from behind.
• 23:49
  It does open it.
• 23:50
  You know, maybe everyone thinks it.
• 23:51
  It should open as wide as the pipe, but it doesn't,
• 23:55
  you know, it opens, I know it's open.
• 23:57
  It opens more than 12in, you know.
• 24:00
  Yeah.
• 24:00
  But, there's so much volume, you know, and,
• 24:04
  this happened at Ke Iki on the North Shore.
• 24:06
  So, we want to make sure they tested it. I'm.
• 24:10
  It was working properly.
• 24:12
  Yeah. From what I understand.
• 24:14
  And, you know, we we have duck bills, you know, all around this island, right?
• 24:20
  Because a lot of our storm drains enter into the ocean.
• 24:24
  So we want to prevent ocean water coming in
• 24:27
  with debris, you know, and and clogging these pipes.
• 24:30
  And and it'll lead to major flooding behind.
• 24:33
  Yeah, but I think the the the volume of water that we saw that night,
• 24:40
  what was, was quite a bit then, you know,
• 24:42
  maybe it didn't perform to the expectations of a lot of people.
• 24:46
  And maybe there's something that we have to look into and, and,
• 24:49
  you know, monitor and see if there's something else that we could do,
• 24:53
  I'm sure that, you know, the help of design and construction,
• 24:56
  you know, hopefully we can come up with, with something.
• 24:58
  Maybe there's another design out there. Yeah, yeah.
• 25:01
  And they mentioned that, you know, it might look like.
• 25:02
  It looks like it's plugged. It looks like it's close.
• 25:04
  But, you know, don't mess with it. Don't try to take it off.
• 25:06
  It is it is serving its purpose and and worked as designed.
• 25:09
  Yeah.
• 25:10
  Well Warren, thank you so much for your time.
• 25:12
  Any final words?
• 25:13
  You know, we're going to work hard, you know, as,
• 25:16
  you know, the Department of Facility Maintenance, I want people to,
• 25:19
  you know, to feel comfortable that before a storm.
• 25:22
  We are out there. We are storm prepping.
• 25:24
  You know, that's our job,
• 25:26
  we can maintain all the storm drains and and catch basins and stream.
• 25:30
  mouths.
• 25:31
  But, you know, we need people's help as well.
• 25:33
  You know, if if you see people dumping,
• 25:36
  you know, debris into our catch basins, our, our storm drain systems,
• 25:41
  you know, give us a call, let us know, so we can go out there, we can unclog it.
• 25:45
  we're trying to be out there, you know, everywhere, but it's almost impossible.
• 25:50
  But if you see something going on, let us know.
• 25:52
  And then and and we'll go out there.
• 25:54
  Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Brandy.
• 25:57
  And again, if you are looking for resources or ways to help,
• 26:01
  you can find us anytime at one oahu.org.
• 26:04
  Mahalo for listening. And until next time Aloha.