Hawaii, Dam and Wahiawa
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: 11:10 a.m. All of Oahu is now covered by the National Weather Service’s updated flash flood warning until 2 p.m. today, and a flash flood emergency is ongoing for northern areas of the
Owner Dole Food Company Hawaii said in a statement, “These thresholds are intentionally conservative and based on the time required to safely evacuate downstream areas; they do not reflect a loss of structural integrity.
Whether Wahiawa Dam was safe or about to fail was top of mind throughout these storms. It became a flashpoint for what officials now acknowledge were “mixed messages” about the risk.
Amid massive flooding concentrated on Oahu’s North Shore Friday, a warning of potentially deadly catastrophic danger went out in the morning over concern that the Wahiawa Dam might fail.
The private owner of a dam in Wahiawa that city officials warned could fail and endanger North Shore residents amid a deluge on Friday contends that the dam functioned as designed, is safe, and
Dole representative Trisha Kehaulani Watson says reservoir levels are trending downward, and "we remain quite confident that the dam will hold up."