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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, January 22, 2010

Boulders slam into Kalihi Valley public housing; no one injured


Advertiser Staff

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Two boulders came down on units at Kamehameha IV Housing in Kalihi Valley this morning. Fortunately, no one was injured.

DEBORAH BOOKER | Honolulu Advertiser

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Two boulders — one the size of a car — rumbled down a mountainside today and crashed into a Kalihi Valley public housing complex, but no one was hurt.

Nine families are being displaced from their apartments in Kalihi Valley Homes, on Kamehameha IV Road, until state officials can assess the hillside and public housing officials determine the safety of the building. In the meantime, the families will be moved to vacant units in the housing complex, said Ligo Letuli, deputy manager of the Kalihi Valley Homes, a public housing complex.

"We were lucky," Letuli said, as a helicopter buzzed overhead examining the hillside. "These are family units and usually there are adults doing laundry or children playing out here."

The boulders appear to have come from an area owned by the Honolulu Board of Water Supply, the agency said tonight. The agency hired a geotechnical engineering firm to assess the area and make recommendations for immediate corrective action, agency spokeswoman Moani Wright-Van Alst said in a news release.
The agency was also working to hire a contractor to remove the fallen boulders, she said.