Video Shows Looming Boulder Crashing Onto Hawaii Road Following Hurricane

Zachary Stieber
8/26/2018
Updated:
8/26/2018

A newly released video shows a boulder crashing onto a roadway in Hawaii following Hurricane Lane.

The video footage was released by the Hawaii Department of Transportation on Aug. 25.

The department stated that the rock came down on Highway 19 near Kaawalii Gulch.

Workers were letting traffic through intermittently while they cleared the remains of the boulder from the road.

The boulder was actually pushed by workers who spotted it as a possible threat to vehicles and decided to have it crash down so they could remove the threat.

The boulder toppled down around 3 p.m. local time, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

Crews worked for the next several hours to remove the remains of the rock.

Also on the Big Island on Aug. 25, one lane was closed on Highway 11 near the 30-mile marker due to damage from the hurricane. That repair work is expected to last about two weeks, as workers are scrambling around dealing with a number of secondary road closures.

In this photo provided by Jessica Henricks, is flooding and damage from Hurricane Lane Friday, Aug. 24, 2018, near Hilo, Hawaii.  (Jessica Henricks via AP)
In this photo provided by Jessica Henricks, is flooding and damage from Hurricane Lane Friday, Aug. 24, 2018, near Hilo, Hawaii.  (Jessica Henricks via AP)
This Friday, Aug. 24, 2018 photo shows firefighters take care of damage at the Hawaiian Dredging base yard in Puamana, Hawaii. (Matthew Thayer/The Maui News via AP)
This Friday, Aug. 24, 2018 photo shows firefighters take care of damage at the Hawaiian Dredging base yard in Puamana, Hawaii. (Matthew Thayer/The Maui News via AP)

More Damage

Hurricane Lane was downgraded to a tropical storm by officials but still hit Hawaii with enough force on Aug. 23-24 to impart damage to a number of areas.
Some of the damage stemmed from heavy flooding after the storm unleashed more than 46 inches of rain in some areas, reported USA Today. Firefighters rescued 39 people from floodwaters over the weekend.

More rain is forecast for Aug. 27-28, which could spark more mudslides and more damage to bridges and roads.

AccuWeather President Joel Myers said told the news outlet that Lane has the potential to be the single-costliest hurricane in the recorded history of Hawaii.

While moisture was a concern in many parts of the state, winds whipped up brush fires across Maui and Oahu, burning nine homes to the ground and forcing hundreds of people to evacuate while knocking out power.

“It will also be more humid by Hawaii standards across the islands early this week, which will put a strain on crews and those without electricity,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson said.

Rudy Salazar told Maui News that his family had never seen anything like the storm since moving to the area three years ago.

“With the wind and rain, it was crazy,“ he said, noting that he and his wife went without power for 26 hours and felled trees prevented them from leaving. ”We were trapped.”

In Keaau, south of Hilo, resident Gary Dalton told NBC that he used an excavator to build a drainage ditch around his parent’s house as the waters rose on Friday night.

“I have never seen the flooding this bad. I wasn’t expecting the water to rise,” Dalton said. “I’m a long time local in the area and I’ve never seen something like this before.”

“The situation was very scary. There was lightning going off. … I kept thinking, ‘please don’t strike, please don’t strike,’” Dalton added.

From NTD.tv