Waialii Stream (Ditch) in Wailupe rolls downhill, but curves west, splits into two, then reunites under Kalanianaole Hwy. The stream is quite wide on the makai side, and exits on the east border of Wailupe Beach Park.
There was major flooding during New Year’s Eve, 1988, in East Honolulu. Homes along Waialii Stream below Kia’i Place were damaged extensively. Because the current ditch was constructed as a concrete channel, I wonder if the original stream’s path was straight, north-south (in yellow).
Was the channel designed to adhere to property lines? Or was the stream always in a southwest path? To this day, it is relatively narrow, though residents have built higher walls. The topography map indicates the channel is where the original (?) stream was, veering southwest, slicing through the old Coast Guard (radio station) property.
Should they have built another channel north-south long before the area was zoned residential and developed? Something here just doesn’t make sense.
My luck with old maps is mediocre, mostly, except tonight. I stumbled across this 1925 map of Wailupe. What shows up? Mauka is the west border of the Wailupe Fish Pond, exactly where the current stream meets the ocean — on the east border of what is now Wailupe Beach Park: Waialii Stream. The writing is a bit blurry, but it is there.
What’s more, the stream is north-south. It wiggles a bit, but it is a direct line from where Poola Street and Kia’i Place currently are, to the fish pond. No southwest veering.
So what happened? Why did the channel venture in an unnatural direction?
Map courtesy of Ho’okuleana (Peter Young).
http://totakeresponsibility.blogspot.com/2013/10/aina-haina-ili-of-wailupe.html?m=1
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