After two powerful storms struck Hawaii over the past week, officials are warning that one of the largest dams on the island of Oahu is at risk of imminent failure.Water was flowing over the top of the Wahiawa dam on Thursday morning local time. Officials issued evacuation notices for two towns, Waialua and Haleiwa, which were already dealing with local flooding but could get inundated if the dam fails.“We’ve got a little over 4,000 people directly within the dam evacuation area,” said Molly Pierce, a spokesperson for the Oahu Department of Emergency Management.AdvertisementAdvertisementHawaii Gov. Josh Green urged residents to follow the guidance from emergency officials.“If you are in these areas, please evacuate now,” he said in a statement.The 660-foot-long earthen dam can hold up to 9,200 acre-feet of water (roughly 4,600 Olympic sized swimming pools). It is equipped with a 183-foot wide spillway.“It could fail,” Pierce said of the dam. “At this point, we don’t have a good way of determining if it is a risk of imminent failure or just overtopping.”The dam was built in 1906 and is owned by the Dole Food Company. It holds back irrigation water, forming a reservoir named Lake Wilson, but was considered in “poor” condition at the time of a 2020 inspection, according to Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources. The department said in an email on Friday that its flood risk management team was not available for interviews because they were handling imminent public safety issues.AdvertisementAdvertisementWilliam Goldfield, director of corporate communications for the Dole Food Company, said in an email that the company “is working closely with authorities and continues to monitor the reservoirs including Lake Wilson,” with public safety as the top priority.“The dam continues to operate as designed with no indications of damage,” he continued.More in U.S.The state of Hawaii had been in talks to acquire the dam from Dole for several years. State records show that dam safety officials had been tracking the structure’s deficiencies for more than a decade.“In a major storm event, the undersized spillway may not be able to pass t …
