Seven months after flooding sent four feet of water through its gym floor, Konawaena High School reopened its gymnasium this week, even as a sister campus gym in West Hawaii remains open for practices but unavailable for games while repairs continue and frustrated families say they were kept waiting far too long for answers.
The Hawaii Department of Education reopened the Konawaena High School gym on Wednesday, following repairs tied to the March Kona low storms that damaged and forced the closure of the facility, according to Hawaii News Now. The outlet reports that the West Hawaii community had sought answers from school officials for seven months, with families saying they were left in the dark the whole time.
Among them is Siu Clark, a Konawaena High alum and parent who had three children at the school when the storms hit — a son who has since graduated and two daughters who play basketball at the school, per the same report. Clark said families were nervous, comparing the uncertainty to something almost like PTSD because of COVID-era disruptions, and said the gym closure harmed students' mental health and cost some star athletes valuable opportunities. Clark said schools should clearly communicate from the beginning about all the impacts on students, adding that the repairs should not be a temporary band-aid fix.
What the Storms Left Behind
The damage traces back to two back-to-back Kona-low storms that battered Hawaii between March 10 and March 24, dumping heavy rain and triggering widespread flooding, according to the Hawaii Tribune-Herald. Konawaena's gym, already vulnerable from roof leaks, was swamped by up to four feet of water and its floor was rendered unusable, as reported by Spectrum News Hawaii. The flooding left campuses across the region inundated with several feet of water, mud and debris that ruined carpets, flooring, electrical wiring, furniture and equipment, per the Hawaii State Department of Education.
With the gym unusable, Konawaena's volleyball team was forced to play home games in Waimea and practice at an elementary school gym with a concrete floor, Hawaii News Now reports. Spectrum News Hawaii had earlier reported the team practicing late at night at Kealakehe High and playing its home games at Parker School in Waimea, while the squad also launched a fundraiser that had pulled in more than $5,000 within two days of going up.
Mold Testing and a New Timeline
Per a school notice cited by Hawaii News Now, the Konawaena gym had reported roof leaks and water intrusion, and the Department of Education conducted mold mitigation and air-quality testing after new growth appeared in the facility. Testing results found that the growth did not pose a health hazard at the time, according to the same notice. The gym is expected to be fully operational from Monday through March or April 2027, after which it will close again for roof repairs and construction, Hawaii News Now reports.
Kealakehe High's gym, meanwhile, remains unavailable for games while repairs continue. The Department of Education says the gym is open for basketball and volleyball practices, per Hawaii News Now's reporting, while design consultants are working with the department to finalize roof and floor repair plans and specifications. Final designs and specifications are expected by the end of the week, and the department says it will execute a construction contract once those are reviewed, with a joint scope meeting anticipated next week to set a construction schedule.
That timeline echoes an August report from the Hawaii Tribune-Herald, which found that Kealakehe High, Konawaena High and Old Kona Airport gyms had all been closed to the public due to water-intrusion damage from the March storms. At the time, Kealakehe was using its gym for practices only, Konawaena's teams were working out at Konawaena Elementary, and both schools were holding home games at away sites until repairs were finished.
County Gym Floated as a Stopgap
Hawaii County Mayor Kimo Alameda, who described himself as a parent, longtime coach and teacher, told Hawaii News Now that he feels for the affected families and will support the Department of Education, while acknowledging that bureaucratic processes take time. Alameda said sports is important to students' character development and that the department should prioritize the Konawaena and Kealakehe gyms.
Alameda pointed to Kekuaokalani Gym, a county-run facility at Kailua Park, as a possible alternative venue. The gym is currently open as a non-sports event space while crews repair water damage to its flooring and replace its bleachers, according to Hawaii News Now. Alameda said the county gym could serve as an alternative school venue once it gains approval to host sanctioned games, a process he said could take about four months.
A Costly Season Statewide
The West Hawaii gym saga is part of a far larger statewide repair bill. The Kona-low storms generated 224 work orders at 54 schools statewide, and the Department of Education has estimated roughly $162 million in public-school repair and maintenance costs tied to the storms, according to the Hawaii Tribune-Herald. Hawaii's Department of Education had earlier reported receiving nearly 300 work orders tied to storm damage, with roof leaks and water intrusion accounting for about half of all reports, per the department's own post-storm damage assessment.
Beyond the schools, preliminary estimates from Hawaii Emergency Management put public-infrastructure damage from the storms at $44.8 million statewide, including $13.7 million in Hawaii County, according to The Garden Island. The storms also damaged 463 homes statewide, including 17 destroyed and 210 with major damage, the Tribune-Herald reported. The Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported that FEMA eligibility determinations for the storm damage remained pending.
