Anonymous14 days ago
Catastrophic flash flooding from a second Kona low storm in two weeks has pushed Oahu's Wahiawa Dam—a 120-year-old earthen structure owned by Dole Food Company—to the brink of failure, forcing the evacuation of more than 5,500 residents from Haleiwa and Waialua on the North Shore. The dam's undersized spillway has been flagged by state engineers since 1978, but Dole deferred roughly $20 million in repairs for decades while negotiating a transfer of ownership to the state, leaving downstream communities in a crisis that was both foreseeable and avoidable.