Worst flooding in 20 years hits Hawaii; evacuations say 'LEAVE NOW'

Catastrophic flooding keeps hitting Hawaii astwo back-to-back storms pummeled the islandswith rain and damaging winds.

Authorities say it's the worst flooding the state has seen in 20 years, as torrents of water wash out homes, damage roads and threaten to bust through a dam.

The threat of the dam failure in northern Oahu prompted an emergency evacuation of thousands on the morning of March 20. TheHawaii Emergency Management Agencylater clarified that the 120-year-old dam had not failed but "is at imminent risk of failure."

Evacuations were ordered for Haleʻiwa and Waialua, where an alert warned that all roads out are at risk of "imminent failure."

"LEAVE NOW," the alert said.

Gov. Josh Green said there have been no deaths or people unaccounted for during the flooding, but called it the worst the state has seen since the early 2000s. Some 200 people have been rescued from the flooding and about 10 presented at hospitals with hypothermia, he said.

"This is a major threat to our people and to our state," Green said at a news conference March 20.

The morning of March 21, the National Weather Service in Honolulu said two systems are continuing to drive rain (sometimes as heavy as 2 to 4 inches per hour), thunderstorms and an increased risk of flash flooding through the weekend. A flood watch was in place for the whole state through the afternoon of March 22.

The dam is in Central Oahu near the Schofield Barracks, off the Kamehameha Highway. Assembly areas had been established for people required to evacuate or who were unable to get home. Oahu (Honolulu County) has 13 dams, according toUSA TODAY's dam-tracking database. Of those, seven have a "high" or "significant" hazard potential classification. The Wahiawa dam is private, built in 1906 and used primarily for irrigation. It's considered in poor condition, with a high hazard potential.

Water in the Kaukonahua Stream near Wailua just northwest of the reservoir rose more than 10.5 feet on March 20, several inches higher than it had reached on March 13, according to weather service data.

On March 20, the weather service reported that a foot of water was flowing over a road one mile east of Waialua, inundating several cars and homes. "Civilians had to be rescued and transported on a bulldozer," the bulletin stated.

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Kona storms – Hawaii's winter cyclones

A series of low pressure systems have struck Hawaii in March. They're a winter phenomenon, often called kona lows or kona storms, for the Hawaiian word "kona" for leeward. The winter storms typically impact the leeward side of the islands that are usually sheltered from tradewinds and intense rains, according to Steven Businger, a professor in the meteorology department at the University of Hawaii.

On average, one to two kona storms impact Hawaii during the November-to-March season, but it's very rare for two to form within the same month, let alone within a week, AccuWeather meteorologists said.

The first round of stormsimpacted the islands from March 10 to March 16, the outlet reported. It brought local rainfall totals of over 4 feet.

Worst flooding in 20 years

The flooding in Hawaii is the worst the state has seen since the 2004 Manoa Flood, Green said. A flood on Oct. 30, 2004, was one of several flash floods amid a storm that brought heavy rain. Rain peaked at a rate of 1.29 inches in a 15-minute span and 8.71 inches in 6 hours.

Manoa Stream overflowed in several areas. The worst flooding happened when a flood wave tore through a residential area and onto the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus. Floodwaters destroyed irreplaceable documents in the basement of Hamilton Library and caused damage to several laboratories with critical experiments, according to the National Weather Service.

No deaths or injuries were reported, but damage reached about $85 million at the time. About 120 homes were damaged, and a foot bridge over Manoa Stream was destroyed.

Damage from the March 2026 flooding could total $1 billion, Green said. That includes damage to numerous homes, roads, schools, airports and a hospital on Maui, he said.

One home on Kaihulo Drive in Mokuleia near Waialua was swept onto the beach in a flash flood on the morning of March 20.

"Remnants of the house appear to be split in half, and parts of the house appear to have collapsed," according to a storm report from the weather service.

A road in Makaha Valley on Oahu was closed in both directions March 20 after part of it collapsed, sending vehicles over the edge, another storm report said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Catastrophic flooding in Hawaii as Oahu faces evacuations, dam fears

byDaniel Coleman

in

March 21, 2026

Worst flooding in 20 years hits Hawaii; evacuations say 'LEAVE NOW'

Catastrophic flooding keeps hitting Hawaii astwo back-to-back storms pummeled the islandswith rain and damaging winds. ...

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Officials say 14 were killed in fire at South Korean auto parts plant

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) —South Koreanrescue workers on Saturday recovered the remains of 14 people from the charred wreckage of an auto parts factory in the central city of Daejeon, where an explosion and fire injured at least 59 others.

South Korea Fire

Fire officials said 25 people were seriously injured but it wasn't immediately clear whether any were in life-threatening condition. More than 500 firefighters, police and emergency personnel were deployed to contain the fire and conduct rescue operations after it broke out Friday afternoon.

Videos and photos from the scene showed thick gray smoke billowing from the complex and some workers jumping from a building belonging to Anjun Industrial.

Nam Deuk-woo, fire chief of the city's Daedeok district, said the blaze destroyed a factory building that firefighters initially could not enter over fears it might collapse. Searches for the missing workers began late Friday after officials deployed unmanned firefighting robots to cool the structure and conducted a safety inspection.

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Nine of the 14 dead were discovered in what is believed to have been a gym on the third floor, while three were found near a water tank on the second floor. All the missing have now been accounted for.

South Korean PresidentLee Jae Myungvisited the site Saturday afternoon, meeting with relatives of the victims and calling for safety measures to prevent the damaged structure from collapsing during search operations.

The fire was reported at about 1:18 p.m. Friday. Nam said the cause was not immediately known, but the blaze appeared to have spread rapidly, with witnesses reporting an explosion. Firefighters focused on preventing the blaze from spreading to an adjacent facility and isolating explosive chemicals. Nam said workers recovered more than 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of highly reactive chemicals from the site.

Some people were injured when they jumped from the building to escape, while others suffered smoke inhalation, officials said. As of Saturday morning, 28 people were hospitalized and four of them underwent surgeries for broken bones and other injuries.

About 120 vehicles and pieces of equipment, including aircraft, an unmanned water cannon vehicle and two firefighting robots for hard-to-reach areas, were deployed, along with hundreds of personnel.

byDaniel Coleman

in

March 21, 2026

Officials say 14 were killed in fire at South Korean auto parts plant

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) —South Koreanrescue workers on Saturday recovered the remains of 14 people from the charred wreck...

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It’s been 18 months since the last war in Lebanon. This time it’s different

Lebanonis a nation that's no stranger to war, but this conflict feels different.

Just 18 months ago, Israeli bombs rained down across the country for weeks. Intent on defanging the Iran-backed militia Hezbollah and uprooting it from its strongholds, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) invaded the country's south.

Now, the country is wracked by the terror of a new, heavier bombardment, with more than 1,000 dead since March 2, when Hezbollah fired projectiles into Israel to avenge the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, sparking Israeli retaliation.

In the capital Beirut, walls bear the scars of conflicts past. Although much of the city lives under an uneasy calm, the conflict is impossible to miss.

"I keep thinking it's traffic," one taxi driver told CNN. "And then I remember it's all the parked cars."

Along nearly every major road in central Beirut, cars shelter families displaced by war, turning normally gridlocked lanes into impromptu camps for desperate people.

In the southern village of Irkay, CNN attended the funeral of five children aged between six and 13, killed in a single strike on their grandparents' house.

Both grandparents died in the blast – which flattened the house – as well as two uncles, one of whom was in a house across the street.

The relatives were laid to rest as Israeli strikes blasted in the background. "May God destroy you, Israel!" yelled one woman in the congregation.

There was no sign that the destroyed house had been used for military purposes.

Just over 100 children died in the 2024 conflict, according to UNICEF figures, a number that has already been topped during Israel's ongoing strikes.

The Israeli military has killed at least 111 children since the war began, according to Lebanese health ministry figures – a death toll that has raised questions about the number of child or other civilian casualties that the IDF is willing to accept when prosecuting airstrikes.

But IDF international spokesperson Nadav Shoshani put the blame for the civilian losses on Hezbollah.

"We have a terror organization who have a strategy to put our civilians in the line of fire and their civilians in the line of fire. We're doing everything we can to avoid that," he told CNN.

"We've seen it with Gaza, there's a heavy price of war – it doesn't mean that one side or the stronger side is conducting it in the wrong way."

Mohammed Rida Taqi, father of four of the killed children, who was also hurt in the attack, said there was no Hezbollah presence at the home.

"Were there any Hezbollah martyrs?" he asked. "We're a family."

"The people of the south do not bow down," he added. "Not to Israel and not to America, which is supporting them with weapons."

While strikes are generally preceded by alerts from the IDF, there was no warning for the blast that struck at the heart of Irkay.

"It feels like we're living our whole lives waiting for that post or that message or that WhatsApp forwarded message that says 'Alert,'" Kim Moawad, 38, told CNN from Beirut.

"Then you're all worked up," she said. "You're almost disappointed if there's no strike because you're just waiting for it."

"You weirdly feel comforted when they strike because you feel like, okay, it's over."

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The precision of some assassination strikes in Beirut – often hitting a single window without warning – has added a new psychological terror to the conflict. These strikes have become a staple of this round of fighting, with no apparent limits: central Beirut, Christian neighborhoods, even near IDP tents of displaced people, have all come under fire.

After watching the utter devastation wrought by Israel on Gaza, with much of the Palestinian territory transformed into an uninhabitable moonscape, many in Lebanon fear the IDF has similar plans for their country.

"Lebanon used to be prosperous. But now Lebanon is destroyed; there is no Lebanon anymore," grandmother Sanaa Ghosn told CNN at a Beirut shelter for displaced people.

"Hopefully what happened in Gaza won't happen to us."

Israeli rhetoric has only inflamed those anxieties.

"The southern suburbs will become like Khan Younis," Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in early March, referencing the Gaza city largely reduced to rubble in the Israeli campaign.

Tearing society's fabric

The influx of 1 million displaced people has strained relations locally with the communities that welcomed their compatriots.

CNN heard stories from multiple displaced families of landlords questioning them on their family names or how they looked – questions they believed were designed to root out Shiite renters, who may have links to Shiite Muslim Hezbollah.

The United Nations haschartedspikes in online attacks on internally displaced people around these assassination strikes, with some sectarian cracks beginning to show. It has also tracked similar calls by prominent Lebanese.

"There is a risk that this initial shock will turn into anger, frustration and potentially tensions between communities," Karolina Lindholm Billing, representative of the UN refugee agency in Lebanon, told CNN in a Beirut school sheltering displaced families. The shelter, in the Sin El-Fil area of the capital, houses some 170 families, and filled to capacity within an hour of opening on the night the war started.

Lindholm Billing said that many displaced people had not had the chance to properly rebuild or recover after the last war. According to the UN, some 13% of displaced persons returned to the shelters that housed them in 2024.

Shifting opinions

While the 2024 war saw relative unity in Lebanon behind Hezbollah's clashes with the IDF – feelings driven by anger at the war in Gaza – this latest conflict has seen emboldened opposition to the armed group.

With the government promising to crack down on Hezbollah's arsenal, there was tangible support for that on the streets, at least in the early days of the IDF strikes.

"Young men, children, and babies are dying. I mean, there was no need to get into this war. And then they're saying that they're supporting Iran. I mean, what's that got to do with us?" mechanic Sako Demirjiane told CNN in an ethnically mixed neighborhood of Beirut.

"We saw before, the support was for Gaza, and we saw what it brought us. And now they are supporting Iran too, and we saw what it brought us," he said. "It's unliveable here."

This all comes as international aid organizations weather brutal cuts to their budgets, after the US government under President Donald Trump slashed its contributions.

"I've worked almost 30 years for UNHCR and I don't want to sound alarmist, but I can't remember having been as concerned and worried about the situation as this," Lindholm Billing said, using the formal name of the UN refugee agency.

Hand to mouth

Along Beirut's waterfront, lines of tents have appeared, each sheltering a family.

"I've never seen it like this," one volunteer, Samr Zahwi, who was leading a team offering evening iftar meals to those breaking their Ramadan fast, told CNN. Some had come from the city's southern suburbs – areas with close ties to Hezbollah – and others from across the country's south.

The newest residents of some of the city's most expensive real estate pitched their shelters in the shadow of the port where, in 2020, a massive blast rocked most of Beirut, killing hundreds and destroying a chunk of the capital.

In Lebanon, trauma piles on trauma.

Additional reporting by Lisa Courbebaisse and Elina Baudier Kim.

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byDaniel Coleman

in

March 21, 2026

It’s been 18 months since the last war in Lebanon. This time it’s different

Lebanonis a nation that's no stranger to war, but this conflict feels different. Just 18 months ago, Israe...

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College student shot and killed while walking with friends near campus

A Chicago college student was walking with friends near campus when an unknown suspect walked up to them and fatally shot her, authorities said.

Police said they responded to a report of someone shot at about 1:30 a.m. on March 19. The 18-year-old victim was walking outside near Tobey Prinz Beach Park with a group of friends when an "unknown male offender" approached them. He "displayed a firearm" and shot in the direction of the group, the Chicago Police Department said in a statement. The victim was shot in the head and pronounced dead on the scene. Nobody else was injured, police said.

Detectives are "currently questioning a person of interest," the Chicago Police Department told USA TODAY in an update the morning of March 21.

The victim was identified as Sheridan Gorman, 18, by her hometown in Yorktown, New York. She was a student at Loyola University Chicago.

She was "loved by all who knew her," Yorktown Central School District Superintendent Dr. Ron Hattar said in a letter to district parents, reported theRockland/Westchester Journal News, part of the USA TODAY Network.

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"On behalf of the Town of Yorktown, I, our municipal staff, and Town Board extend our deepest condolences to Sheridan's family in this time of profound loss," Yorktown Town Supervisor Ed Lachterman said on Facebook. "We pray that law enforcement will quickly apprehend the perpetrator of this heinous act."

Loyola University Chicago President Mark C. Reed said in a statement that the university is in close contact with law enforcement amid the investigation, and that there appears to be no ongoing threat to the campus community.

"This is a tragic loss, and our hearts go out to Sheridan's family, loved ones, and all who knew her," Reed said.

Gorman was a graduate of Yorktown High School and was a member of the girls' varsity bowling team while there, the town said.

"She was a ray of sunshine, and this darkness cannot diminish her light," the town said in a statement.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News:Chicago student shot and killed while walking with friends near campus

byDaniel Coleman

in

March 21, 2026

College student shot and killed while walking with friends near campus

A Chicago college student was walking with friends near campus when an unknown suspect walked up to them and fatally shot...

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Tennessee plans rare execution of a woman. She's fighting back.

Christa Gail Pikewas just 18 years old when she committed a crime that dominated headlines for years: She tortured and murdered her romantic rival in Tennessee and later showed off a piece of the 19-year-old woman's skull to schoolmates.

The killing in the woods of Knoxville demonstrated a brutality and callousness rarely seen in a woman, let alone one so young. Now 30 years later, Pike is back to making headlines as the state of Tennessee prepares to execute her.

Pike, who just turned 50 on March 10, is set to be executed by lethal injection about six months from now on Sept. 30 for the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. On Jan. 12, 1995, Pike and two others lured Slemmer into the woods and carried out a ritualistic murder that lasted about an hour.

If the execution moves forward, Pike will be the first woman put to death in Tennesseein more than 200 yearsand only the19th woman executedin modern U.S. history.

She's now fighting back and suing the state to stop her execution.

Pike's attorneysfiled a lawsuitin a Tennessee court in January challenging the state's lethal execution method, arguing that it violates her religious beliefs and constitutional rights, and could cause her excessive pain. In response to Pike's arguments, the state says in a court filing on Thursday, March 19, that she hasn't presented any evidence that the lethal injection presents an unconstitutional risk to her and that death row inmates have never been guaranteed a pain-free execution.

During Pike's time behind bars, she has taken responsibility for the murder and has "changed drastically," she wrote in a 2023letter she wrote to The Tennessean− part of the USA TODAY Network.

"It sickens me now to think that someone as loving and compassionate as myself had the ability to commit such a crime," she wrote.

USA TODAY is looking at Pike's arguments for a reprieve from execution, what the state has to say about them and how the victim's mother feels.

What was Christa Gail Pike convicted of?

Christa Gail Pike and Colleen Slemmer were both students at the Knoxville Job Corps, a career-training program, when Pike began dating a 17-year-old boy in the program. She later came to fear that Slemmer was trying to steal him, prosecutors told jurors at trial.

Pike, her friend and the boyfriend, lured Slemmer away from the Job Corps center and into the woods before the attack, largely carried out by Pike over an hour-long period on Jan. 12, 1995, according to court records.

Pike later bragged about killing Slemmer, telling another student at the center that she had cut the teenager's throat six times with a box cutter, cut her back with a meat cleaver, carved a pentagram into her chest, and continued the violence even though Slemmer "begged" her to stop, according to court records.

Pike said she had "thrown a large piece of asphalt at the victim's head," believed to be a fatal blow, and kept a skull fragment, later showing it off to fellow students, court records say.

Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Pike's boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, was convicted of first-degree murder, sentenced to life in prison and recently was denied parole. Pike's friend, Shadolla Peterson − who prosecutors say kept watch during the attack − testified against Pike and was sentenced to probation.

Who is Christa Gail Pike?

Christa Gail Pike, 50, is the only woman on Tennessee's death row and has been living there for 30 years following her sentencing in April 1996. Pike and her mother, Carissa Hansen, sobbed uncontrollably in the courtroom during the sentencing, according to archived news reports.

Pike's trial attorneys had tried to mitigate her crimes by describing Pike as a cast-off child from a dysfunctional family who bounced between her divorced parents' houses depending on who was sick of her at the time, according to an archived news report in the Knoxville News-Sentinel, part of the USA TODAY Network.

Hansen told jurors that she was a bad mother who smoked pot with her daughter and even allowed Pike to have a live-in boyfriend at the age of 14. "I should be the one in her seat. I should be punished for her crime," Hansen said, according to the News-Sentinel.

A University of Tennessee police officer countered the sympathetic testimony, telling jurors that Pike returned to the scene of the crime after Slemmer's body had been found and "seemed amused."

"She was giggling," he testified, the newspaper said.

Pike's current attorneys arguethat had she been tried today, Pike never should have been sentenced to death because of her young age and mental illness at the time of the murder, and her disturbing history of being sexually abused as a child, starting before she could even talk. They believe she deserves life in prison without the possibility of parole.

On Pike's website, created by supporters who are arguing for her clemency, Pike says that she doesn't want to use her childhood trauma as an excuse for Slemmer's murder.

"There is no excuse for what I did ... I take full responsibility for my actions, and regret everything that happened that night," she says. "I only want my situation to be looked at now through the eyes of logic instead of anger and answered the question of if I deserve to die for a crime committed by three people."

Christa Gail Pike sues Tennessee officials over execution

In a lawsuit filed against the state in January, Pike's attorneys argue that Tennessee's lethal injection method is likely to cause her unnecessary pain and added terror and suffering, a violation of the U.S. Constitution's protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

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One of Pike's medical conditions,thrombocytosis, can lead to unusual bleeding and "death by drowning in one's own blood," they argue, citing a report by an anesthesiology expert. Additionally, Pike cannot request to be executed by the state's only other approved method − electrocution − because doing so would violate her Buddhist beliefs, which prevent her from "participating in any process leading to her own death," her attorneys argue.

They also say that the state could botch Pike's lethal injection, citing concerns over the state's new execution protocol.

Tennessee began using the new protocol in 2025, three years after the statehalted all executionsover a "technical oversight" in the lethal injection ofdeath row inmate Oscar Franklin Smith. The new lethal injection protocol usesthe single drug pentobarbital, as opposed to three drugs under the previous method.

Pike's attorneys cite a number of "botched" executions using only pentobarbital,including that of Byron Blackin Tennessee for the murder of his ex-girlfriend and her two daughters in 1988.

Reporters who witnessed the execution,including one from the Tennessean, reported that Black appeared to be in pain and distress during the lethal injection, which is required to be free from cruel and unusual punishment under the U.S. Constitution.

"It's hurting so bad," Black told his spiritual adviser at one point during the execution, the Tennessean reported.

Pike's attorneys slammed the state's new lethal injection protocol as being "plagued with the same issues that have marked botched executions for decades: secrecy, intentional omission, inattention to detail, and untrained and unlicensed prison personnel attempting to fill medical role."

What does the state say about Pike's lawsuit

Regarding Pike's arguments about cruel and unusual punishment, established case law says that "the Eighth Amendment does not guarantee a prisoner a painless death" and that "some risk of pain is inherent in any method of execution − no matter how humane," according to the state's response to Pike's lawsuit filed on Thursday, March, 19.

The state also defended its lethal injection protocol, citing "the overwhelming history affirming the use of lethal injection generally and pentobarbital specifically."

Besides, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said that Pike "carried around a piece of Colleen Slemmer's shattered skull in her pocket and showed it to her friends as a trophy after luring Colleen into the woods to torture and murder her."

"Pike has offered nothing but speculation that the well-established, constitutional lethal injection method poses any unique risk in her case," he said in a statement to USA TODAY. "We wish Pike's commitment to the sanctity of life had arrived in time to save Colleen Slemmer."

Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, has been vehement in her support of the death penalty for Pike. She has fought for decades to obtain the last remaining piece of her daughter's skull so that it can be buried with the rest of the teen's remains; investigators have been holding it as evidence in the case.

"My heart breaks every single day because I keep reliving it and reliving it, and I can't no more, and I want this to happen before I die,"Martinez told WBIR-TVin 2021.

"There's not a day goes by that I don't think about Colleen or how she died and how rough it was," Martinez continued. "I just want Christa down so I can end it, relieve my daughter, so she finally can be resting."

How many women have been executed in the U.S.?

Just 18 women have been executed in the United States since 1976, compared to 1,623 men, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. That means women represent just 1% of all modern U.S. executions.

Pike is not only the only woman on Tennessee's death row, but she's among just 48 female death row inmates in the nation. That's compared to a male population just under 2,100 − roughly 2%.

The last execution of a woman in the United States was that ofAmber McClaughlin in 2023. McClaughlin, who was the first transgender person executed in the nation, was convicted as a man of raping and fatally stabbing 45-year-old Beverly Guenther on Nov. 20, 2003. Guenther was McLaughlin's ex-girlfriend.

How many women has Tennessee executed?

Citing the Death Penalty Information Center, Pike's attorneys say thatonly three womenhave ever been executed in Tennessee.

They list the hangings of three Black women in 1807, 1808 and 1819, though they didn't identify their crimes. Only one of the women's names is known: that of Molly Holcomb in 1807. Two of them are listed as slavesby deathpenaltyusa.org, which names the crimes as murder, though many slaves were unjustly killed themselves over false accusations or for no reason at all.

Pike is both the last person in Tennessee sent to death row for a crime they committed when they were 18 and is the last woman sentenced to death in the state,reported the Tennessean.

Contributing: Evan Mealins and Kelly Puente, The Tennessean

Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter who covers breaking news, cold cases and executions for USA TODAY. Follow her on X at @amandaleeusat.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Tennessee plans rare execution of a woman. She's fighting back.

byDaniel Coleman

in

March 21, 2026

Tennessee plans rare execution of a woman. She's fighting back.

Christa Gail Pikewas just 18 years old when she committed a crime that dominated headlines for years: She tortured and mu...

Read More