Heavy rain across Kauai prompts rescues from floodwater, but no immediate reports of injuries

HONOLULU (AP) — Several people on the Hawaiian island of Kauai needed to be rescued from floodwaters during heavy rain, authorities said Friday, but there were no immediate reports of injuries.

Heavy rain beginning Thursday afternoon prompted the closure of public schools Friday across Kauai and the opening of shelters. Crews worked Friday to reopen various roads closed from landslides, leaning utility poles and overflowing stream waters.

Firefighters were busy Thursday night rescuing people, primarily in the communities of Koloa and Wailua, Kauai Emergency Management Administrator Elton Ushio said. He did not yet have an estimate of many people needed to be rescued or evacuated. But he noted that there was a report of 4 feet (1.22 meters) of water in at least one house.

“And these are residential areas where at first the water was starting to rise up, and then it started approaching, you know, getting up to the lower level of the houses in several cases, getting up and into the houses themselves, where people needed to be, you know, taken out of those houses,” he said.