Hawaii officials rescued over hundreds of people from muddy floodwaters as severe rains inundated streets, pushed homes off their foundations and swallowed vehicles on Friday. More rain is expected for Saturday. 

Crew searched by air and by water for people who had been stranded — efforts that were hampered by people flying personal drones to get images of the flooding, said Ian Scheuring, a spokesperson for Honolulu.

Dozens — if not hundreds — of homes had been damaged but officials have not been able to fully assess the destruction, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi said in an afternoon news conference. Some 5,500 people were under evacuation orders. There were over 233 rescues so far, Blangiardi said. 

"There's no question that the damage done thus far has been catastrophic," he said.  The flooding has already caused over $1 billion worth of damage, Blangiardi said. 

Governor Josh Green said that one hour saw over three dozen people rescued, including two with serious injuries. Ten people who had been rescued earlier in the storm had hypothermia, he said. Some rescues were made "directly from rooftops," he added. 

The National Guard and Honolulu Fire Department airlifted 72 children and adults who had been attending a spring break youth camp at a retreat on Oahu's west coast called Our Lady of Kea'au, according to city and camp officials. The camp is on high ground but authorities didn't want to leave them there, the mayor said. Kimberly R.Y. Vierra, a spokesperson for St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawai'i, which owns the retreat property, said floodwaters had cut off the entrance road to the camp.

On Maui, officials issued an evacuation advisory for some Lahaina neighborhoods after nearby retention basins neared capacity. Parts of those neighborhoods were burned by  that destroyed much of Lahaina in 2023.

Most of the state was under a flood watch, with Haleiwa and Waialua in northern Oahu under a flash flood warning, according to the National Weather Service. More rain is still expected: Blangiardi said 6 to 8 inches of rain is forecast to fall on Oahu in the next two to three days.

Officials have been closely watching the Wahiawa dam, which has been vulnerable for decades, saying it was "at risk of imminent failure." Honolulu officials told residents Friday morning to leave the area downstream of the dam, which has been long known to be vulnerable. 

Overnight into Friday, the dam's capacity went from 79 feet to 84 feet — just 6 feet shy of what it can handle, authorities said. Water levels receded late Friday, but that could change if more rain falls. 

The state has said Wahiawa dam has "high hazard potential," and that a failure "will result in probable loss of human life." Blangiardi said officials felt confident in the stability of the dams on the island, but that it was hard to predict how much rain would come and what it might do.

As she prepared to evacuate to a friend's home on higher ground, Waialua resident Kathleen Pahinui told The Associated Press in a phone interview that the aging dam is a concern every time it rains.

"Just pray for us," she said. "We understand there's more rain coming."

The earthen dam was built in 1906 to increase sugar production for the Waialua Agricultural Company, which eventually became a subsidiary of Dole Food Company. It was reconstructed following a collapse in 1921.

The state has sent Dole four notices of deficiency about the dam since 2009 and five years ago fined the company $20,000 for failing to address safety deficiencies on time, according to records. Afterward, Dole proposed to donate the dam, reservoir and ditch system to the state in exchange for the state's agreement to repair the spillway to meet and maintain dam safety standards.

The state passed legislation in 2023 authorizing the dam's acquisition. It also provided $5 million to buy the spillway and $21 million to repair and expand it to comply with dam safety requirements. But the transfer has not been completed. A state board is due to vote on the acquisition next week.

"The dam continues to operate as designed with no indications of damage," Dole said in an emailed statement.

The state regulates 132 , most of them built as part of irrigation systems for the sugar cane industry, according to a 2019 infrastructure report by the American Society of Civil Engineers.