Boat grounded at Kewalo Basin as high surf wreaks havoc
Honolulu police also reported that a 66-year-old man was found unconscious after his 18-foot boat capsized in choppy water off Kalaeloa. Emergency Medical Services paramedics were summoned at 8 :18 a.m. to a Hanua Street location and transported the man to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. There were no signs of foul play, police said.
The National Weather Serv ice in Honolulu warned of large, breaking waves of 10 to 14 feet and strong currents that make swimming dangerous, and flooding of beaches that are normally dry, minor coastal erosion and saltwater inundation.
The high surf was expected to peak Saturday night, but a remains in effect until 6 a.m. Monday for all Hawaiian south shores.
A coastal flood statement is in effect through late tonight for low-lying coastal areas throughout the state. The Weather Service said water levels should fall below thresholds during peak afternoon high tides today.
State, city and U.S. Coast Guard crews responded Saturday morning to the grounding of the 50-foot Atlantis vessel on the shallow reef outside the Kewalo Basin harbor, inside the surf spot known as Kewalos, according to the Honolulu Ocean Safety Department. Two people remained on the vessel at the time with no injuries, officials said.
Atlantis Adventures executives said in a statement, 'There were no passengers aboard the Discovery shuttle boat when it ran aground this morning. The two experienced crewmembers aboard the shuttle boat were not injured. There has been no leaking of fuel or oil from the vessel. We are working closely with all government regulatory agencies to have the shuttle boat safely removed from where it was grounded, towed back to its pier location, and thoroughly inspected before it is returned to service.'
A Coast Guard spokesperson said that PENCO removed all petroleum products and eight marine batteries from the vessel, which mitigated the 'substantial threat of discharge.' Cates Marine Services is expected to try to tow the vessel today around high tide, which is at 1 :42 p.m., according to the Coast Guard.
Meanwhile, Honolulu Ocean Safety officials said that by mid afternoon Saturday, city lifeguards had rescued 336 people and made 3, 866 'preventative actions ' to warn beachgoers of the dangers.
The Honolulu Fire Department responded to a 911 call at 7 :09 p.m. about a male swimmer in his 30s who was swept off the rocks at Spitting Cave in Hawaii Kai and unable to get back to shore due to large surf and impending darkness. It was reported that a bystander had thrown a rescue tube to the swimmer.
Seven HFD units staffed with about 22 personnel were dispatched, with the first unit arriving on scene at 7 :16 p.m. to send rescuers down the trail to the water's edge, according to a news release.
Two HFD personnel entered the water and reached the swimmer about 200 yards offshore at 7 :22 p.m. At the same time, HFD launched a rescue boat from the Hawaii Kai boat ramp while its Air 1 helicopter provided light to assist with navigating in the darkness and rough seas, the release said.
The rescue boat then brought the uninjured swimmer and the pair of HFD personnel safely to shore. The swimmer's medical care was transferred to an Emergency Medical Services team at 8 :04 p.m.
On Maui, coastal flooding Saturday forced the full closure of busy South Kihei Road from North Kihei Road to Ohukai Road due to safety concerns, according to the Maui County Department of Public Works. Only local traffic is being permitted.
The partial closure is expected to last through this week while repairs are made. The county said the makai shoulder of the roadway experienced undermining from heavy surf and high tides in the area south of the pier.
Solve the daily Crossword
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Associated Press
18 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Parents and child killed when tree falls on car amid heavy rain, flooding in Tennessee
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — A mother, father and child were killed when a tree fell on their car amid heavy rain and flooding in Tennessee, an official said Wednesday. The three were killed when saturated ground caused a large tree to fall in the Chattanooga suburb of East Ridge just after midnight, Hamilton County Office of Emergency Management spokesperson Amy Maxwell said by telephone. The full extent of the damage isn't yet known, Maxwell said. County officials will tour the damage in the East Ridge area on Wednesday morning, she said. The flooding prompted rescues of people stuck in homes and swamped vehicles on Tuesday, and the region was bracing for more rainfall and flooding Wednesday. Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp declared a local state of emergency Tuesday night as first responders responded to flash flooding and urged people to exercise extreme caution. The National Weather Service issued a flood watch for much of middle Tennessee through Wednesday night, warning of scattered flash flooding with tropical-like heavy rainfall and the possibility of training storms, especially over already saturated areas. Chattanooga Fire crews rescued motorists trapped in vehicles and residents stuck in their homes, fire department officials said. Flooding closed parts of Interstate 24 in the area, but it reopened once floodwaters receded. Swiftwater rescue teams rescued residents of three East Ridge homes trapped by rising flood waters, according to the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff Austin Garrett said the flooding was more extensive than he had seen before, noting that it is usually concentrated in one area, The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported. 'This is extremely widespread. It made it difficult for us to even get here ourselves to try to help other people,' he said. 'So no, I've never seen it to this extent, this widespread in so many areas and impacting travel the way it is.'
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Parts of Juneau brace for flooding from water slipping past Alaska's Mendenhall Glacier
Alaska Flooding-Glacial Dam Sections of Alaska's capital city are bracing for the arrival of what could be record floodwaters due to rainwater and snowmelt flowing downstream from a basin dammed by the Mendenhall Glacier. Some Juneau residents in the flood zone have evacuated, heeding warnings. On Tuesday morning, authorities confirmed water had started escaping the ice dam, with flooding expected into Wednesday. The Mendenhall Glacier is about 12 miles (19 kilometers) from Juneau, home to 30,000 people, and is a popular tourist attraction due to its proximity to Alaska's capital city and easy access on walking trails. Homes on the city's outskirts are within miles of Mendenhall Lake, which sits below the glacier, and many front the Mendenhall River, into which the glacial outburst is flowing. The National Weather Service said it expected flooding to to peak around 8 a.m. to noon on Wednesday. 'This will be a new record, based on all of the information that we have,' Nicole Ferrin, a weather service meteorologist, told a news conference Tuesday. Basin flooding is a yearly worry Flooding from the basin has become an annual concern since 2011, and in recent years has swept away houses and swamped hundreds of homes. Government agencies installed temporary barriers this year in hopes of protecting several hundred homes in the inundation area from widespread damage. The flooding happens because a smaller glacier near Mendenhall Glacier retreated — a casualty of the warming climate — and left a basin that fills with rainwater and snowmelt each spring and summer. When the water creates enough pressure, it forces its way under or around the ice dam created by the Mendenhall Glacier, enters Mendenhall Lake and eventually flows down the Mendenhall River, as it did Tuesday. Before the basin began overtopping, the water level was rising rapidly — as much as 4 feet (1.22 meters) per day during especially sunny or rainy days, according to the National Weather Service. The city saw successive years of record flooding in 2023 and 2024 — with the river last August cresting at 15.99 feet (4.9 meters), about 1 foot (30 centimeters) over the prior record set a year earlier — and flooding extending farther into the Mendenhall Valley. This year's flooding was predicted to crest at between 16.3 and 16.8 feet (4.96 to 5.12 meters). Last year, nearly 300 residences were damaged. A large outburst can release some 15 billion gallons of water, according to the University of Alaska Southeast and Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center. That's the equivalent of nearly 23,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. During last year's flood, the flow rate in the rushing Mendenhall River was about half that of Niagara Falls, the researchers say. A temporary levee is installed City officials responded to concerns from property owners this year by working with state, federal and tribal entities to install a temporary levee along roughly 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) of riverbank in an attempt to guard against widespread flooding. The 10,000 'Hesco' barriers are essentially giant sandbags intended to protect more than 460 properties completely during an 18-foot (5.5-meter) flood event, said emergency manager Ryan O'Shaughnessy. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is at the start of what's expected to be a yearslong process of studying conditions in the region and examining options for a more permanent solution, such as a levee. The timeline has angered some residents, who say it's unreasonable. Outburst floods are expected to continue as long as the Mendenhall Glacier acts as an ice dam to seal off the basin, which could span another 25 to 60 years, according to the university and science center researchers. ___ Associated Press writer Becky Bohrer in Juneau contributed to this report.
E&E News
3 hours ago
- E&E News
A ‘glacial outburst' is flooding Alaska's capital
Officials in Juneau, Alaska, urged residents to evacuate Tuesday as a nearby glacial meltwater lake overflowed and flooded nearby neighborhoods. It's an event known as a glacial lake outburst flood — that's when a pool of meltwater that collects at the base of a shrinking glacier suddenly drains or overflows. And it's becoming a familiar event in Alaska's capital city. This is the third year in a row that Suicide Basin, which pools at the edge of Juneau's Mendenhall Glacier, has burst and sent its icy contents surging into the nearby Mendenhall River. And it likely won't be the last. Climate change is sending summer temperatures skyward, accelerating glacial melting and increasing the risk of sudden floods. Advertisement Juneau's average summer temperatures have risen by about 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit since the 1970s, according to an analysis by the climate science nonprofit Climate Central. And a recent study found that the Juneau ice field — a 1,500-square-mile frozen expanse just north of the city, and home to Mendenhall Glacier — is melting twice as fast today as it was before the year 2010. Between 2010 and 2020, it lost an average of nearly 6 billion metric tons of ice each year.
