COM 0493.003 2004-2006 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

- Pages 1 of.! Pari$, Charlotte Sent: Monday, November 01, 2005 3.10 PM To: Hoffmann, Pete Subject: drart letter of testimony, for your input (Thank you for our chat. This is a rough draft of a letter, however I'm now seriously considering turning it info a speech and basically reading it in tomorrow's testimony period, from your office. You are a very persuasive manl Please give input on what to keep, toss, or edit - I'd very much appreciate your confidential guidance on the content and strategy. I thought Linda had a wonderful point the more I thought about it, so I threw In a coupe sentences to reflect that too. Dear Councilman Hoffman, I, and many of our neighbors, joined you and spoke at a citizens' forum in October 2005 in V~Jaimea to express serious concerns about flood conditions in Waimea and about proposed residential building in our neighborhoods. This testimony is to state strongly that, before one more home or development is approved by the County fC~ the Waimea area, the conditions MUST be fixed that presently and historically cause for our homes to flood. hlr~re structures will increase the terrible problem that has already damaged many homes and threatened human ivc s. It would be negligent of the County to allow more homes to be developed before fixing a problem we clearly have. You have heard hours of testimony on these problems. Let's not pretend they don't exist. Our own experience: Steve and 1 own a home on just under six acres south of Mamalahoa by Hohola Street In March 2004, and again in April 2004, in rains that initially were rumored as "100 year" but eventually were d~~flred as "25 year rains," a section of our home was flooded in fast rivers of water. The flow was so strong that an aeult fit male residing in an adjacent property tried but could not cross to help us. The road was blocked to all trafric. Clogged culverts above us with huge amounts of accumulated debris were photographed by another Height ar, reflecting inadequate protection and poor County maintenance It took us several months, and more than se>vera! thousand dollars, to recover from the incident. This was the first time in history that our property had ever flooded, to anyone's knowledge or by any recordv. Our particular home and property structures are not located within agovernment-designated flood zone. As such. we never anticipated such flooding on our property, and to our knowledge it never occurred previously on C~ s parcel. Through the events that followed, Steve and I came to understand that this problem would most likely have ievar occurred had the County more responslbry done Its job in recent year in maintaining Culverts and granting (c r I should say not granting) building approvals on plans to develop housing in the hills above us. with scanty drainage provisions. The Federal Agricultural Department walked and studied our property and the sunounding area for damage shortly after the storms. They sent in their local staff (Gerry Williams and others, stationed here on our Island; as well as supervisors and specialists who flew in from Honolulu. We were told in absolute terms that the flootl!nc was caused by housing having been developed in recent years in the hills above us (on the north side of the highway) without proper planning by the government and by developers. It was explained that as housing aid structures go up. more and more impervious land surfaces are created, and that, simply stated, building approvals were given without the necessary provisions for proper drainage to protect what already existed. When nett Ovate' has no land to soak into or planned avenues to flow, It flows to lower points, and homes (dr markets, or stree~~ } flood. That is what happened to us, and others. At the time of the 2004 floods, our daughter was seven years old. There is no question that a child could potentially drown In water conditions that are so severe that strong men cannot pass due to the intensive ru::h of the water. As a mother, this is perhaps where my deepest concerns fall. We do have videotape of the rushing Comm. No.__ ~'f q 3.3 11/8/2005 Ref. TosPresestwd ~ - Re#. Uate,~iOV R ~nn~