Credit unions on the Hawaiian Islands are in recovery mode this week after Hurricane Lane set multiple rainfall records last week and over the weekend.
According to Weather.com, Lane deposited more rain than any other tropical storm or cyclone in Hawaii’s history. In addition, Lane’s downpour in the Aloha State ended up being the second-highest rain total in U.S. history by a tropical storm – 52.02 inches, behind only to Harvey’s 60.58 inches last year.
Even after Hurricane Lane was downgraded to Tropical Storm Lane, it still was dumping rain on the island of Kauai on Monday.
Rainfall was heaviest on Hawaii Island, also known as the Big Island. In Hilo, on the east side of the island, $286 million-asset CU Hawaii experienced flooding on Friday as Lane passed by. Cheryl Marzo, AVP and marketing manager, said the credit union had two feet of water in the basement of its main branch on Hinano Street.
“We worked the whole weekend securing the water and cleaning up as best we could,” Marzo told Credit Union Journal. “In the basement we house accounting, IT, our call center, HR and training, and our internal auditors. We found some spaces upstairs for most of those people, and sent our call center to the boardroom at the Kea’au branch nine miles away.”
Despite having to drain all that water and clean up, she said the branch managed to open for a half-day on Saturday and was open normal hours on Monday.
“We have eight branches total. No others were damaged,” Marzo reported.
After lashing the Big Island with feet of rain, Lane weakened and made a sharp turn to the west – sparing the island of Oahu from similar flooding.
Drake Tanabe, CEO of $277 million Hawaii Central Credit Union in Honolulu told CU Journal none of the credit union’s branches suffered damage. “We were very lucky,” he said.
Storm shuts down league office
After announcing its office would remain open on Friday, Aug. 24 earlier in the week, officials with the Hawaii Credit Union League eventually decided to close that day.
As of Tuesday Hawaii Time, an HCUL spokesperson said rain was still falling on the Big Island.
“We are checking with the CUNA Mutual Group rep, but from what we have heard so far is two credit unions on the Big Island were affected. They are both open, but they had some flood damage.”
The island of Maui had a fire break out during the storm late last week, but the HCUL spokesperson said the blaze was in a residential area and did not threaten any credit unions.
"Here on Oahu we had gusty winds, but not the heavy rains that hit the Big Island,” the spokesperson said. “There was heavy rain in Kauai on Monday. There are six credit unions on Kauai, which also had a big storm in April. We are still checking, but no damage has been reported so far [Tuesday].”
Lane is the strongest hurricane to track within 300 miles of Hawaii, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s historical database. While 1994's Hurricane John had stronger maximum sustained winds, Lane's lowest pressure was lower than John's, and John only came within 319 miles from South Point on the Big Island.
According to NOAA's best track database, prior to Lane there was no record of a hurricane track within 65 nautical miles of either Maui or Honolulu since statehood.
