The Manoa Flood

[Albert]

Much of the UH-Manoa campus is littered and muddy, electricity is off in some areas, but the greatest damage appears to have been at Hamilton Library, especially in the Annex Building. A number of windows are broken and it appears that furniture and everything inside has been tossed around (some chairs partly out the broken windows).

Busy days ahead ....

[craigwatanabe]

And that's just a typical Manoa day! :D Can you imagine when it really rains?

[Glen Miyashiro]

Just saw on the UH web site (http://www.hawaii.edu) that the Mānoa campus will be CLOSED tomorrow -- no classes. Apparently there's been a LOT of damage.

[helen]

I saw the headline in the Advertiser that Maona Stream overflowed but where the stream flows by the UH isn't the height around 8 to 10 feet or so? Or just that water came from another direction?

[Miulang]

Just "Mother Nature" paying us back for not taking care of her land, I guess. The people who really get me are the ones who pay big bucks for the land to build equally big buck houses on view lots that overlook high cliffs and who don't do any infrastucture reinforcement. So the first bad rainstorm comes along with the erosion and then their houses are at the bottom of the cliff! And then they have the nerve to sue their municipality for negligence? Um, I believe the homeowners are the negligent ones. :rolleyes:

The other people who are idiots are the ones who insist on building on flood plains and then don't get flood insurance because it's too expensive! Duh.

Miulang

[pzarquon]

Just saw on the UH web site (http://www.hawaii.edu) that the Mānoa campus will be CLOSED tomorrow -- no classes.Holy moly, then it must have been a lot of rain. I remember UH-Hilo closed because of heavy rains once, and I joked, "That's like the University of Siberia closing because of snow!"

But for the whole hawaii.edu domain to be yanked and replaced with a single information page... including the ominous notice that "the UH Library Information Systems, including Voyager, sustained extremely severe damage"? Whew.
A number of windows are broken and it appears that furniture and everything inside has been tossed around (some chairs partly out the broken windows). Seriously? Did the whole ground floor fill up with water or something? That's amazing. I used to hang out at SLIS in the basement, and always wondered how the place would handle drainage in a flood...

[craigwatanabe]

This isn't the first time lower Manoa was flooded (near Manoa Longs). About 9-years ago the same thing happened with the same areas getting flooded and the same kind of damage happening. Seems like it's a 10-year thing in Manoa. I remember Manoa Shopping center's parking lot fronting Longs Drugs covered in mud. That's about where Manoa stream was diverted and allowed to run along the Koko Head side of the valley.

I would also imagine that filling in the quarry down by the Les Murakami stadium (Rainbow Stadium) may have had an impact as that area had a very large pond fed by an artesian well. That pond is pretty much a puddle now as that whole area has been backfilled to it's present condition.

[AuntieNellieKulolo]

But for the whole hawaii.edu domain to be yanked and replaced with a single information page... including the ominous notice that "the UH Library Information Systems, including Voyager, sustained extremely severe damage"? Whew.
So UHM uses Voyager now? I haven't gone to their OPAC in a long time. Maybe there's hope for me getting a job there, if they need a serials person... :)


I remember for the Library Management class(taught by Prof. Jackson) we had a mock disaster drill. Guess the students get to do it fo' real this time... :D

[Glen Miyashiro]

Gerard Fryer of UH Mānoa posted his initial observations (http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&group=soc.culture.hawaii&selm=1099289400-sch%40news.lava.net) of the flood damage on soc.culture.hawaii. It sounds pretty bad.

[Linkmeister]

The video Channel 8 had at 10:00pm last night was good, showing horrible pictures.

[Glen Miyashiro]

This would be a good time, I think, to mention that you can donate to the University of Hawai'i Foundation (http://www.uhf.hawaii.edu/) online. You can even specify exactly which UH program you want your money to go to. There's a category for "UHM Libraries - General / Unrestricted", which I suspect would be the best for helping Hamilton Library rebuild its collection. Please kōkua, folks. This flood is a real disaster for UH.

[pzarquon]

Gerard Fryer paints a gut-wrenching picture of the scene in a post to soc.culture.hawaii (http://groups.google.com/groups?dq=&hl=en&lr=&group=soc.culture.hawaii&c2coff=1&safe=off&selm=1099289400-sch%40news.lava.net):About 8:30 p.m. Saturday, after about an hour of torrential rains, a wall of water hit Hamilton library and broke through the windows on the mauka side. A flood of water and mud surged into the basement. A class was in progress at the time, but the water blocked their escape route up the stairs. The students and the instructor had to break out through the windows along the Mall side. The water surged through and around Hamilton basement, swept out across the Mall, sped around Art and the Chemistry building and created a raging torrent across the Sustainability Courtyard. Sakamaki Hall and Krauss Hall were flooded...

Huge areas of the campus are covered in mud and everywhere you look there are government documents, maps, books and pamphlets: all stuff that was in the basement collections of Hamilton. The Mall is littered with broken computers, office supplies, and bits of furniture. In the zone 13 parking lot between Physical Sciences and Chem I found a bunch of muddy, ripped-up late-19th century geological maps of Pennsylvania. All the way through the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics building and into Sakamaki there was a trail of loose pages written in Gujerati. In Sakamaki, all the first-floor rooms have mud on the floor, and the two conversation pits in the atria are full to the brim with muddy water. The picturesque outdoor carp pool at Krauss Hall is full of mud.

[craigwatanabe]

Hmmm when I went to UH Manoa many moons ago I always wondered what would happen at Hamilton if the basement got flooded, oh well now we know.

So I wonder who'll be blamed for this carnage of historical documents? I'm sure the Army Corp of Engineers will come up with the same results as from the last flood there and in Mapunapuna last year...clogged streams filled with overgrown brush and accumulated silt. I've seen Manoa stream and can attest to the fact that it did indeed need a good cleaning a long time ago.

What's really sad is that isn't AYSO starting up around now? Where will the Manoa kids play?

[Albert]

Further inspection this morning revealed that the damage is much worse than it first appeared. There is still no electricity in the area around Hamilton and a number of large generators have been brought in. The force of that water must have been incredible ... I even saw computer equipment which had been washed out into the grounds.

[Glen Miyashiro]

This article (http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Nov/01/ln/ln01p.html) in today's Advertiser has more details, and a couple of photos. Man, what a mess.

[Glen Miyashiro]

Ka Leo, the UHM student paper, has more details and more photos here (http://www.kaleo.org/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/11/01/4185e690886da). Judging from the mudline on a wall in one photo, it looks like the basement of Hamilton Library was submerged up to six feet or so.

[craigwatanabe]

It's ironic that a UH student paper has University of Phoenix banner ads on their website. Thanks for the link to the flood photos. This photo gives new meaning to the phrase: clean your computer of viruses and spyware! Please don't do this at home:

http://imagesavers.com/041102/1099431864.bmp

[mel]

http://imagesavers.com/041102/1099431864.bmp

I wonder why anyone would bother hosing down a mud soaked computer. Can these machines be used again? I would think not.

Anyone ever tried to recover data from hard discs that are mud soaked such as these?

With all the brilliant minds at the U.H. you would think why anyone never kept a backup copy of important data offsite?

It is a shame to read about years of research being wiped out by this flood. This will be an economic blow for the U.H.

[craigwatanabe]

believe it or not, if the hard drive is sealed (as it should), minor water soaking shouldn't affect the drive platter. Actually flushing electronics with fresh water and giving it a good air blasting and drying should bring most electronics back to life.

When my cell phone got hit by a rogue wave, I immediately removed the battery, flushed the whole thing in a bucket of water at the showers, took the entire thing apart and dried it with an air compressor (you can use compressed air from a can), put everything back together and it powered up with no problems.

As for other computer electronics, as long as the power was off when getting doused with water/mud, a good soaking and proper drying should be okay. Practically everything on a circuit board is made of plastic or metal, just unpug everything and allow the water to dry out and not bridge any contacts.

[memorylane]

I'm glad i saw this thread...........my mom has just been having a cow *something about flooding on oahu on the weather channel* ever since she saw it because she knew i was coming there next week! Accck, worrywarts!

[pzarquon]

Hosing down computer components might seem drastic, but if your choices are "screwed" (totally trashed) or "slightly less than screwed" (a few recoverable components), you do what you gotta do. Hell, you can put a soda- or juice-ruined keyboard in a dishwasher, and as long as you let it dry completely, it'll work better than ever. I'm sure some mud-clogged parts can be salvaged after a wash and dry.

They're still cleaning up in Manoa, and school will remain out (http://starbulletin.com/2004/11/03/news/story13.html) for at least another day.

[Albert]

Classes cancelled again today and Ka Leo says Hamilton Library will "remain closed until further notice".

[paulyboy]

Your ignorance is truly remarkable.


Just "Mother Nature" paying us back for not taking care of her land, I guess. The people who really get me are the ones who pay big bucks for the land to build equally big buck houses on view lots that overlook high cliffs and who don't do any infrastucture reinforcement. So the first bad rainstorm comes along with the erosion and then their houses are at the bottom of the cliff! And then they have the nerve to sue their municipality for negligence? Um, I believe the homeowners are the negligent ones. :rolleyes:

The other people who are idiots are the ones who insist on building on flood plains and then don't get flood insurance because it's too expensive! Duh.

Miulang

[paulyboy]

Perhaps this link will enlighten you a bit Craig:

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/hnl/pages/events/ManoaFlood20041030/

Overgrown brush and silt had little to do with the stream overflowing its banks. I've lived in Manoa Valley my entire life and am a weather spotter for the NWS...the Mapunapuna flooding and the Manoa flooding had similar weather dynamics but very different flooding elements...truly unfair to compare the two.

By the way...about 5 years ago the Hamilton Library Administration decided to relocate the historical maps, etc. from the top floor to the basement....unwise?...perhaps, but it would be unfair to blame ANYONE at this point in time.


Hmmm when I went to UH Manoa many moons ago I always wondered what would happen at Hamilton if the basement got flooded, oh well now we know.

So I wonder who'll be blamed for this carnage of historical documents? I'm sure the Army Corp of Engineers will come up with the same results as from the last flood there and in Mapunapuna last year...clogged streams filled with overgrown brush and accumulated silt. I've seen Manoa stream and can attest to the fact that it did indeed need a good cleaning a long time ago.

What's really sad is that isn't AYSO starting up around now? Where will the Manoa kids play?

[Glen Miyashiro]

This would be a good time, I think, to mention that you can donate to the University of Hawai'i Foundation (http://www.uhf.hawaii.edu/) online. You can even specify exactly which UH program you want your money to go to. There's a category for "UHM Libraries - General / Unrestricted", which I suspect would be the best for helping Hamilton Library rebuild its collection. Please kōkua, folks. This flood is a real disaster for UH.
On second thought, maybe not. Or at least, not because of the flood. An article (http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Nov/03/ln/ln03p.html) in today's Advertiser pointed out that the state has insurance that will cover all of UH's flood response costs. Now, the rare documents and the spoiled research experiments, that's another story. No amount of money can help with those losses.

[Glen Miyashiro]

Perhaps this link will enlighten you a bit Craig:

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/hnl/pages/events/ManoaFlood20041030/

Overgrown brush and silt had little to do with the stream overflowing its banks. I've lived in Manoa Valley my entire life and am a weather spotter for the NWS...the Mapunapuna flooding and the Manoa flooding had similar weather dynamics but very different flooding elements...truly unfair to compare the two.
Interesting. Sounds a lot like the 1987 New Year's Eve Flood (http://books.nap.edu/openbook/0309044332/html/index.html), which also had a storm system that got "stuck" and dumped its load all in one place.


By the way...about 5 years ago the Hamilton Library Administration decided to relocate the historical maps, etc. from the top floor to the basement....unwise?...perhaps, but it would be unfair to blame ANYONE at this point in time.
If I recall, that was because the roof was leaking and the documents were getting dripped on every time it rained. Now that was clearly something that could have been fixed. :(

[craigwatanabe]

so basically this flood was the result of a storm situated directly over Manoa? Anyone who has lived there for any length of time will attest that there are many isolated showers within the valley itself. Heavy rain near the back but always seemingly hugging the valley walls leaving the lower central part (near Manoa Valley shopping center) fairly dry.

I've seen that kind of storm (albiet not that intense) over many valleys in Honolulu. I too used to live in Manoa for several years and along the stream behind the Chinese Cemetary and I tell you there is a lot of overgrown bushes in the waterways. The fact that the bridges near the flooded areas were nearly touching the top of the stream before the flooding began tells you that there needed to be some major cleaning of that artery since where did all that mud come from if the stream was clear of silt?

As for floodplains, virtually all of urban Honolulu is a flood plain if the deluge is intense enough. Even before the great New Year's flood, Waialae Nui valley (above Kahala Mall) experienced one of those direct hit storms back in the early 70's. Boulders, some as large as 6-feet in diameter came crashing down the stream tearing apart the concrete basin. Most of the rocks and debris plugged the Maile street bridge where Wilson Park ends. The stream rose above it's 10-foot high bank and flooded the park. More boulders came down and destroyed the chainlink fence along the park. One little girl was killed when she was caught playing in the stream by Hiikala street and was swept out to sea from the flash flood.

In that incident it was the boulders and debris that clogged the bridgeway at Maile street that caused the flooding.

And don't forget there was a major flood in that same area (next to Long's Manoa) just about 10-years ago with mud covering the parking lot fronting Longs.

What ever caused the intense rain still leaves one to question the adequate drainage of the valley. Whenever you reroute the original flow of a stream, you gotta remember that when that mega storm comes in, that rerouted flood control stream had better handle that volume of water. Waialae Nui valley's stream was rerouted without sufficient water handling conduits and the manmade stream overflowed. Manoa's stream looks as if it was rerouted around Manoa Valley shopping center and it comes to no surprize to me that the flooding started around there (Lowrey Avenue).

[helen]

Destipe the loss of research data and the damage to area and the close calls, it was fortunate that no one got seriously hurt during the flood.

[pzarquon]

This is true, Helen. Classes (probably library sciences!) were in session in the basement when the water came through, and there was apparently a mad scramble to find a way out. Even if the risk of drowning was low, the risk of injury due to panic could've been high. Glad everyone got out safely, if only a little wet.

[craigwatanabe]

never mind just getting out, can you imagine if any of the circuit breakers failed during the flooding while those students and faculty were wading in rising water while copying machines and computer equipment become submerged underwater?

The impact could have been much worse if a failure such as that occured. I'm glad those breakers tripped.

[Albert]

It was indeed fortunate that no deaths occurred, either amongst humans or, so far as I can determine, amongst the feline population. I did feel a shudder when hearing about those people trapped in the basement of Hamilton, having to break windows to escape the rising water.

And it does, given this event, make one wonder whether or not sensible research was done before building the Hamilton Annex.

[Glen Miyashiro]

This would be a good time, I think, to mention that you can donate to the University of Hawai'i Foundation online. You can even specify exactly which UH program you want your money to go to. There's a category for "UHM Libraries - General / Unrestricted", which I suspect would be the best for helping Hamilton Library rebuild its collection. Please kōkua, folks. This flood is a real disaster for UH.On second thought, maybe not. Or at least, not because of the flood. An article (http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Nov/03/ln/ln03p.html) in today's Advertiser pointed out that the state has insurance that will cover all of UH's flood response costs. Now, the rare documents and the spoiled research experiments, that's another story. No amount of money can help with those losses.
On third thought, maybe donating to UH (https://www.uhf.hawaii.edu/giving-gift.aspx) for the flood might not be such a waste after all. Officials are now worrying that UH's damage claim will exceed the state's $25 million insurance coverage limit (http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Nov/14/ln/ln10p.html).

[craigwatanabe]

Perhaps this link will enlighten you a bit Craig:

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/hnl/pages/events/ManoaFlood20041030/

Overgrown brush and silt had little to do with the stream overflowing its banks. I've lived in Manoa Valley my entire life and am a weather spotter for the NWS...the Mapunapuna flooding and the Manoa flooding had similar weather dynamics but very different flooding elements...truly unfair to compare the two.

By the way...about 5 years ago the Hamilton Library Administration decided to relocate the historical maps, etc. from the top floor to the basement....unwise?...perhaps, but it would be unfair to blame ANYONE at this point in time.


Hmmm been reading up on the damage assessment to the Manoa Flood and it looks as if debris did have a factor in the flooding after all!

[pzarquon]

Earlier this week, Ian Lind posted a link to these from-the-frontlines photos (http://www2.hawaii.edu/%7Esmurata/flood/) of the Hamilton Library flood collected by Susan Murata. Even though it's a user-unfriendly Javascript-based slideshow setup, the scale and impact of the damage comes through painfully clear.

[Coffeeguru314]

man, what a disappointment. how could they have been so stupid? who would ever put the most important documents in the entire damn library,excepting the fifth floor war records room, into a basement into an area with a history of flooding?
it really stinks for students with papers due, bad timing and all. but it also stinks for people that enjoyed browsing, not that hamilton had any books on recent bestseller lists but still.
i think UH should provide free library cards to the state library to students and faculty

[craigwatanabe]

Hamilton Library was a mistake to begin with. First off it's too far from the dorms and it had very poor air circulation even with the AC system on! There were pockets of warm air in the 5th floor when I used to study there in the early 80's making research study very frustrating. Then at 10:30 pm every night they would stop the air handlers in preparation to shut down at 11pm.

By 10:45 you were literally gasping for fresh air as the AC ducts stopped bringing in anything. At 10:50 all the lights would flick off then on for an unnerving long five seconds giving you the final 10-minute warning to pack up and leave. If you were in the stairwells during that time and didn't know the procedure, panic would ensue.

Making the trek back to your dorm was an event in itself with the Manoa rain at 11pm. By the time you got back to your dorm room or your car you were drenched and cold.

And they wonder why they have mold and mildew problems there. When you shut down an AC system in a humid environment, two things happen, condensation (try stepping out of a car with AC into the rain with glasses and have them fog up), and the second thing that happens is the dry air (produced when an ac system dehumidifies the room air in order to cool efficiently) is replaced with damp humid air when the ac system shuts down.

Damp air and paper books are a bad combination. Manoa is really a terrible place to keep paper documents of any type (including priceless historic documents). Cool and dry is the appropriate place for paper, electronics, and medicines. Manoa is hot and humid, the exact opposite.

It all comes down to one fault: Poor government planning! As usual. :rolleyes:

By the way aren't Hawaii State Library cards free? I don't know my wife usually takes care of that.

[pzarquon]

UH's Hamilton library loss catastrophic (http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Dec/13/ln/ln03p.html)
Beverly Creamer, Honolulu Advertiser, Monday, December 13, 2004
The Halloween Eve Manoa flood wiped out an estimated 95 percent of the 2.8 million items from the first floor of University of Hawai'i's Hamilton Library — including 800,000 government documents, books and pamphlets and a vast collection of microforms, videos, CD-ROMs and DVDs. I'm curious, though... how does a flood destroy CD-ROMs and DVDs? Unless they're stomped on, optical media like that should be fine despite an unscheduled bath. Even microforms, properly recovered, can be put back into service.

[kimo55]

I'm curious, though... how does a flood destroy CD-ROMs and DVDs? Unless they're stomped on, optical media like that should be fine despite an unscheduled bath. Even microforms, properly recovered, can be put back into service.

they may have gotten scraped up and damaged by the force and activity of the flood...

As a researcher who loves digging through archival material, this is a heartbreaking tragedy.

[Albert]

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Dec/13/ln/ln03p.html

[Miulang]

I just hope the UH can figure out some way NOT to keep valuable materials on the 1st floor or in the basement, because we just know there are going to be floods in the future in Manoa that cause the same damage as last month's flood.

I guess one of the good things is that a lot of that stuff had been microfilmed and there were copies stored somewhere, but still, losing all that original stuff is hard :( . I hope they don't do what some companies do when they "archive" stuff. They keep the originals and the copies in the same place! How lolo is that???

Miulang