Cleanup is underway in Hawaii after the state was hit with its worst floods in two decades.
Heavy downpours on Monday swept homes off their foundations, sent cars floating out of driveways, and left behind a blanket of thick red mud. Authorities said hundreds of homes were damaged, along with some schools and a hospital.
No deaths have been reported yet, but more than 230 people had to be rescued. Hawaii Governor Josh Green said the focus now shifts to recovery, estimating the cost could exceed $1 billion.
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"We had between 40 and 50 inches of rain. That would be like 35 feet of snow, just to give people perspective if it was back on the mainland," Green said. "So it's an enormous amount of water."
"We lost one hospital but thank God all the people survived on Oahu," he added. "We are missing one individual right now that fell into a river on Maui — a beautiful person that was homeless. So we're hanging together. I just thank everybody on the continent for their support. I mean, people reach out to Hawaii in many ways to help us through these kinds of things, like with the wildfire. So we're hanging in there but we have a lot of damage to repair."
Meanwhile, Green noted that the resiliency of Hawaiians is what has helped them recover after past natural disasters, and that resilience will help them through this storm.
"The Hawaiians lived for generations through these kind of challenges without as much technology — back hundreds of years ago," Green said. "And so there is this inherent resilience, I almost want to say genetic resilience. ... There seems to be something in the fiber of the community that gets kicked around and then builds back fast."
Watch Scripps News' full interview with Hawaii Gov. Josh Green in the video player above.
