Anxious Palolo residents worry about home stability as erosion worsens

HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - Anxious residents say the hillside erosion in Palolo is expanding.

They say the collapse along Kuahea Street has moved to other streets in the neighborhood.

“It’s never been this bad,” said attorney Mike Glenn, who’s home on Kuahea Place has shifted significantly.

“My foundation is basically dangling in the air right now. My house is pretty much unlivable but I have no place to go and I can’t move out until the road gets fixed.”

Ashley Noji said when she and her family first moved into their home on Kuahea Place six years ago, they could drive up the road to park their cars in their garage.

Since then, her street has collapsed, forcing her and her family to walk down a steep hill and cross a makeshift bridge just to get to their cars.

“I think it’s challenging from everywhere from where to park and how to get up and down and wondering if going to have water pipes burst every night or whether we will have water," said Noji.

“I also worry for my neighbors. We have many people in this neighborhood who are over 70. Some need hiking poles to get up and down.”

Back in February, the city said it planned to spend up to $20 million dollars to condemn some of the homes on Kuahea Street and repair the falling hillside.

“We’ve acquired some properties because we couldn’t practically maintain that road. By doing that, it has allowed us to do some earth stabilization work," said then-city Design and Construction Department Director Robert Kroning.

But residents said more needs to be done.

“There’s no one doing anything today. We haven’t seen any workers out there for months,” Glenn said.

The city had no immediate comment.

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