Thousands evacuated after rising water at the 120-year-old Wahiawa Dam pushed officials to warn of possible catastrophic flooding.
OAHU, HI — A flood emergency on Oahu’s North Shore eased Saturday after water levels at the 120-year-old Wahiawa Dam stabilized, but the storm left wrecked homes, muddy roads and shaken families after officials carried out more than 230 rescues during Hawaii’s worst flooding in about 20 years.
The danger centered on Wahiawa Dam, a 1906 structure above communities that include Waialua and Haleiwa. Heavy rain from a Kona low pushed the reservoir above a key evacuation threshold, sending thousands of residents out under emergency orders and forcing state and city officials to treat the situation as a possible dam-failure event. By Saturday afternoon, the immediate evacuation order had been lifted, but a flood watch remained in place and crews were still checking damage, restoring power and searching flood-swollen waterways.
The crisis built quickly late Thursday into Friday as repeated rounds of rain hit ground that was already soaked by earlier storms. State officials shut down government offices on Oahu on Friday as flash flooding worsened and evacuation orders spread across the North Shore. The warning around the dam became the most urgent part of the response. Gov. Josh Green said the reservoir had been climbing toward 85 feet, the point at which officials want downstream residents out. “At 85 feet, everyone’s got to be out of there,” Green said. He added that higher levels could turn “perilous” and, in the worst case, raise fears that water could go over the top and damage the dam. By 6:30 a.m. Saturday, Green said, the level had steadied at 81.83 feet, and the city lifted the evacuation order for Waialua and Haleiwa at 2:41 p.m.
Even with the order lifted, the flooding emergency was far from over. Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi said first responders had carried out more than 230 rescues during the storm, with no confirmed deaths reported at that stage. Rescue teams pulled people from rising water, stranded vehicles and cut-off areas. The National Guard and Honolulu Fire Department also airlifted 72 children and adults from a spring break youth camp at Our Lady of Keaau on Oahu’s west side after floodwater blocked the road. About 10 people were treated for hypothermia, according to statewide reporting on the response. Green said damage across Hawaii could top $1 billion, hitting homes, roads, schools, airports and other public facilities. On the ground, floodwater shoved houses off foundations, overturned walls, filled homes with mud and sent debris into bridges and streams. Some roads remained underwater well after the worst rain had passed.
The dam itself has been a known problem for years, which is why Friday’s warning carried so much weight. State land and natural resources records describe Wahiawa Dam as a high-hazard structure in poor overall condition. The dam, an earthen embankment about 88 feet high and 660 feet long, stores up to 2,998 million gallons of water and drains a 17-square-mile watershed. State documents say a failure could put 2,492 people and 865 parcels in the direct flow path, including two schools and a fire station. Officials have kept the reservoir restricted to 65 feet since 2016 because of safety concerns. The records say the spillway is undersized and the embankment shows signs of instability that could worsen if left uncorrected. From 2009 to 2020, the state issued four notices of deficiency to the owners for failing to bring the structure into compliance, and Dole was fined in 2021 over missed dam-safety deadlines.
That long history helped shape the public response as the water rose. Dole Food Company Hawaii, one of the owners tied to the dam system, said Friday that the structure had not failed and remained stable. Trisha Kehaulani Watson, a representative for Dole Foods, said the water had risen above 85 feet and that the mandatory evacuation followed long-established safety protocols, not a sign that the dam had already broken. “It’s good news, or at least as good a news as it gets right now,” Watson said as levels began trending down. The company later said it remained confident the dam would hold. But officials did not treat the warning lightly. Green said the state added “extra eyes” at the site, and city officials continued readings every two hours as weather systems kept moving through the islands. The National Weather Service extended a flood watch through Sunday for Oahu and other islands, warning that more heavy rain could still trigger new flooding in already saturated areas.
The human toll was visible as soon as residents were allowed back. Families returned to soaked floors, broken furniture and belongings covered in silt. At one North Shore home, more than a foot of water had entered the house even though it was built on stilts. Jasmine Lucero said some of the damaged items belonged to her late father, a military veteran who died in 2020. “My dad was a collector. He loved antiques very much, and just seeing this is like the first thing I really noticed from one of his, and that was really shocking,” she said. Nearby, Otake Camp showed the force of the water. Parts of a swept-away home were still jammed against a bridge two days after the worst flooding. A cinder block wall had been pushed over, and a two-story house had been shoved off its foundation. At the shoreline, runoff turned the water brown and thick with mud.
Officials now face two tracks at once: short-term recovery and the longer process of dealing with the dam itself. In the near term, crews were restoring power, inspecting roads and bridges, searching at least one rushing stream after a report that a woman had been swept away, and urging people to stay off dangerous roads while scattered heavy rain continued. In the longer term, Wahiawa Dam still needs major safety work. State board records show Dole had been operating under a remediation timeline with engineering milestones running from 2022 through 2025, while the state also pursued a broader effort to acquire and repair the system. Earlier reporting said lawmakers had approved funding tied to the planned acquisition and repairs, but the transfer had not yet been completed. That means the weekend’s scare may renew pressure on state officials and the owner to settle responsibility, finish permitting and move the project from warnings and extensions to actual construction.
For now, the dam warning that drove the mass evacuation has eased, but Oahu’s North Shore remains in recovery mode. The next milestone is the weather: forecasters kept the flood watch in place through late Sunday, while local and state officials continued monitoring Wahiawa Dam and surveying the losses left behind.
Author note: Last updated March 22, 2026.