Two Feet of Rain Floods Hawaii

FoxNews is showing some impressive ground footage on-air this hour, of the recent flooding in Hawaii. Many roads have been washed out and the governor has declared a State of Emergency.

This Channel 9 article is accompanied by an aerial photo, but it was not enlargeable so here's a direct link to the photo. WeatherWatch4 also has a small photo and article. This article from WBIR reports "nearly a foot of rain in 48 hours."

Here is a list of official rainfall totals that exceeded 10 inches as of 5 AM HST Friday, broken down into 24 / 48 / 72 hours:

PUNALUU: 12.14" / 22.47" / 22.84"
MOUNT WAIALEALE*: 2.22" / 13.64" / 20.61"
HAKIPUU MAUKA: 6.57" / 16.02" / 16.02"
KAUPO GAP: 11.55" / 14.48" / 14.64"
KAHUKU MAUKA: 5.67" / 12.09" / 12.26"

Flooding near Hilo, Hawaii, November 2000 (USGS)

Mount Waialeale, of course, is touted as one of the wettest spots on earth (info), so heavy rains there are no surprise. That said, the rains still don't normally cause flooding in populated areas.