When we saw a flashing blue light as we walked along Kamehameha Highway this morning, we first assumed it was one of our local officers manning the speed trap across from Kaaawa School, where many a morning driver has had their day start off badly. But as we got closer, we saw there were more blue lights. And flares.
Aha. The flares were marking about a quarter-mile stretch of highway where debris had been swept onto, and in some cases right across the roadway by a high tide and storm surf. This must have been a real mess just a little earlier, when the tide was higher and the visibility much worse. By the time we arrived, only an occasional set of waves had enough oomph to make it out onto the road.
As usual, click on any picture to see a larger version.
Photo #1: You can see new erosion in the area near the restrooms at Kaaawa Beach Park. It looks like about a foot of sand has been washed away.
![[text]](http://www.ilind.net/images_2013/debris0112/IMG_0498.jpg)
Photo #2: Sand washed across the road in several places fronting Kaaawa Elementary School.
![[text]](http://www.ilind.net/images_2013/debris0112/IMG_0499.jpg)
Photo #3: The highway runs right along the ocean. Any increase in sea level is going to pose serious problems for transportation along our coastline.
![[text]](http://www.ilind.net/images_2013/debris0112/IMG_0503.jpg)
Photo #4: Just on the Kaneohe side of Kaaawa School.
![[text]](http://www.ilind.net/images_2013/debris0112/IMG_0508.jpg)
Photo #5: Lots of crud that’s been floating out there is now deposited on and along the highway.
![[text]](http://www.ilind.net/images_2013/debris0112/IMG_0511.jpg)
I bet you didn’t know when you bought your house years ago that you were buying beachfront property.
The Department of Planning and Permitting, City Council, Mayor, Turtle Bay Resort, Envision Laie consultants should be out there today!
You want more hotels and cities out there, do you?
Show me the money!
Wonder how the’re gonna spin this one ?
I ran into the tail end of this cleanup about 8 heading to two. There were water trucks hosing the sand off the road.
My tide app on my iphone said the high tide last night was 3 feet about 4AM. It predicts just under 3 feet about 4:30 AM.
And bring along the climate change deniers to see what has happened who haven’t a clue as to the impacts of rising seal levels.
Ian, be prepared for this to happen at least six more times this year and a 25 % increase each year for the next XXXX years until the current roadway is under water all the time
Examine online the UH SOEST sea level rise maps showing the bluelines.
Instead of a Prius, perhaps you should have gotten an All Terrain Vehicle (ATV).
Global warming does not just mean rising sea levels, but probably more frequent and more intense tropical storms.
There have been suggestions to raise the hurricane strength rating from a maximum rating of Category 5 to a new Category 6.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saffir%E2%80%93Simpson_hurricane_scale#Category_6
One would expect the southern shore of Oahu to be much more vulnerable to a hurricane than the north because hurricanes come from the equatorial regions.
The worst-case scenario would be a super cyclone with winds over 200 mph sweeping across southern Oahu from Hawaii Kai to Barbers Point, and destroying most of the structures between the shoreline and the mountains.
It would not take years, but decades or even generations, for the entire State to recover from such an impact to Oahu.
The scary thing is, this scenario is inevitable. It will happen sooner or later, whether it is next year or ten years from now, or ten thousand years from now. But global warming makes this more probable.
Even worse, as soon as the State would finally recover many decades after such a traumatic event … it might happen again.
It might be that catastrophic storms that happen once every one thousand years will become once-in-a-century events; likewise, storms that are now once-in-a-century events will happen once every ten years.
http://web.mit.edu/press/2012/storm-of-the-decade.html
I think that historically, hurricanes in Hawaii have been once-a-decade events, and that we are overdue for one by historical standards. But the old standards might not apply anymore.