Even in Hawaii...

We DO have bad weather.  In case anyone has heard about the crazy weather that has been hitting Hawaii the last 6 days, have no fear, we are trying to stay dry but still safe and sound.

I know, you are saying "Oh, poor Hawaii...what's a little rain...you guys are wimps!"

Well, in the last 6 days, our area of Oahu has had something like 20 inches and on Kauai, they got 30 inches during the last 48 hours...yes, you read that right.

The absolute worst came this morning starting around 5:00 a.m. while I was in the shower.  Suddenly the wind and rain hit and next thing I know, there was marble size hail landing on the lanai and pelting the big window in the kitchen.  Just south of us in Kailua they got hail like this:

Despite the booming thunder, pounding hail and wind, the girls were sleeping soundly through it all when I left the house at 6:00 a.m. still in the midst of a torrential downpour.  I got soaked just trying to get out to my truck.  I tried to turn down the road just below our house but was already being blocked by this firetruck guarding anyone from driving into this:

This is at the bottom the hill that Grandma Saccenti enjoyed walking up and down during her last visit.  So, I backed my truck up the huge hill and caught the next road down to Kamehameha hwy - a 2 lane winding country road that drops off to the ocean on one side.  I got in line between 2 other pick-ups and we slowly wound our way through the quickly flooding roadway and at one point had to drive out around a rock/mud slide that had blocked one lane of the road - glad I wasn't driving the Prius today.  By the time I got to work I heard they had closed this portion of the highway.

The crazy supercell storm continued for about another 90 minutes and produced this:

 Those are the Moke Islands off of Kailua beach where we all paddled out to in our kayaks last time everyone was here for a visit.  That water spout did eventually come on land as a small tornado and take part of a roof off of a house.  Many folks who have lived here forever are saying this is the fiercest storms they've seen.  This was the flood level at the Marine Corp Base right down the way from our house:

So, it is not raining at the moment which seems like the first time in a week.  But this forecast isn't all that encouraging...Wait, what is that orange ball showing up on Thursday?