Bay Area tourists caught in middle of Hawaii’s worst flooding in 20 years: Here’s what happened

NAPA, Calif. (KGO) — On Sunday, Hawaii remained under a statewide flood watch as the islands faced their worst flooding in two decades. More than 200 people have been rescued and thousands have been told to evacuate as heavy rain even threatened a dam on Oahu, the state’s most populated island.

Among those caught in the middle of the storm were two Napa residents whose vacation quickly turned into a week of historic rainfall, power outages and widespread flooding.

Michael Cuffe and Jesse Prohaska were visiting Oahu when the storms hit. A video they posted documenting their trip has now been viewed more than 1.5 million times on Instagram, as of Sunday evening.

“They were speaking about how historic the rain was, even for them,” Cuffe said. “That’s when we knew we were in something different.”

Despite the conditions, the couple said they tried to explore as much as they safely could.

“We were trying to explore as much as we could, despite everything,” Prohaska said. “That’s what brought fun to it.”

Their upbeat attitude drew hundreds of comments online, with many praising the pair for embracing the aloha spirit even as floodwaters rose around them. Cuffe said that positivity came naturally because of the people they met on the island.

“They made the trip great,” he said. “Even with everything going on around us, they were the most accommodating, hospitable group of people I’ve met in a very long time.”

At one point, restaurants, malls and tourist attractions shut down. The couple said some of the area where they were staying lost power.

“They all shut down, understandably, for about three days,” Prohaska said. “Flooded roads, it completely made sense.”

Now back home in Napa, the two say they’re about the people still dealing with the aftermath.

“We live in Napa Valley. We’ve been so impacted by fires since we’ve lived here,” Cuffe said. “We understand what it’s like to evacuate and how scary things can get really quickly. We’re sending our thoughts to people on the North Shore and parts of Maui, which look like they were hit even harder.”

As of Sunday night, thousands of residents in Hawaii remain without power. Hawaii’s Governor Josh Green said damage from the storm could exceed $1 billion. No deaths have been reported, and officials say the worst of the weather appears to have passed.