"We never had the water running across the street into our property like we do now," said Bob Thurston, 63, who has lived in the area all his life. "And now, since the improvements, we're getting more water."

CITY TO SURVEY PARK

The city plans to send surveyors to the park this week to determine the cause of the flooding, said Bill Brennan, city spokesman.

City surveyors will look at a number of things, including the trench dug recently, the elevation of homes in the area and whether new homes were built at a higher elevation than their neighbors, Brennan said.

"We're going to go out and look at it and see what, if anything, the city should or needs to do to help rectify the problem," Brennan said.

About 10 inches of rain fell in Kailua on the morning of Nov. 4, some of it pouring off the hill along Alala Road and into the Lanikai side of the park, which was completely underwater at the height of the storm.

The water flowed toward the stream at the other end of the park, but the backup was too great and the water found a low spot in the park that channeled the flow across the street and into neighboring yards and houses.

Neighbors said floodwaters from the park weren't a problem before. Water from Ka'elepulu Stream has flooded the small beach community on Kawailoa Road before, but it's been 15 years since that happened, they said.

"I've been after these guys (the city) and telling these guys for three years they have to do something," Thurston said. "They tell me they have to do a study."

Residents remember a time when they could look from their mailboxes on Kawailoa and see Popoi'a Island (Flat Island) and the Marine base. The park all the way to the beach was at the same elevation as the parking lot, said Eddie Frias, 63, who has lived in the area all his life. Residents would keep the dune low, Frias said.

"In the '50s when I was a kid, they knocked it all down," he said. "Now the sand is stacked so high it keeps closing the river."

The sand dunes also impede any runoff from the park to the sea, said Frias, who lives on the lane next to Buzz's Original Steak House.

All the water running off the park, through the neighborhood and on the road must flow over the surface to get to the stream.

"The whole parking lot (in the park) was like a stream" that day, he said.

ALL DRAINS CLOGGED

The Fire Department reported that all the drains in the park and on the road were clogged with debris, preventing water from flowing underground to the stream and ocean outlets.

The city should be checking those drains regularly, Frias said.

"Cannot have that kind of stuff happening because we eat it," said Frias.

Once crews cleared the drains, the water began to recede, but not before flooding nearby homes. Between 10 and 15 homeowners reported problems.

Peter Holst, who has lived in the area for about 22 years, said that on the day following the storm, prisoners were clearing a storm drain at the entrance to the parking lot near the boat ramp.

Holst said he remembers when the water would collect at the Lanikai end of the park after a storm and drain out to sea in a ditch that was there. But that end of the park was raised when the city's renovations were done in 1999 and a new bike/walk path was installed.

"I think they altered the park before they looked at the way the water goes," he said.

Marion Mullins, who lives across from the park, said a trench the city dug earlier this year, apparently to solve a drainage problem, made the flood situation worse.

"The city dug that trench and it drains the whole park onto the street," Mullins said.

Thurston said many things contribute to the problem: the bike path, the clogged drains and even the sand dunes.

"It's a combination of things, and I just want the city to do whatever they can to help us out," Thurston said. "We can't live like this."

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com.