Hawaii County, HI Hurricane Preparedness: Flood Elevation (2026)

Zones V and VE are the county's storm-surge zones, and Section 27-23 layers hurricane-specific standards on top of the general freeboard rule in Section 27-18. New construction and substantial improvements must be elevated on adequately anchored pilings or columns so the lowest horizontal structural member, not counting the pilings themselves, sits at or above the base flood level, with the whole foundation engineered to resist the flotation, collapse, and lateral movement that wind and water loads with a one-percent annual chance of occurring, the standard hundred-year design storm, can produce.

Fill cannot be used for structural support in these zones, and altering sand dunes or mangroves in a way that raises flood risk is prohibited outright. Any enclosed space below the lowest floor can only be reached with breakaway walls, open wood latticework, or insect screening designed to fail under storm loads without damaging the elevated structure above; Section 27-23(4) caps an ordinary breakaway wall at ten to twenty pounds per square foot of resistance, and anything stronger needs a licensed structural engineer's certification that it will still collapse before the base flood hits without taking the building with it.

That enclosed space is limited to parking, building access, or storage, never habitation, and furnaces, water heaters, and other mechanical equipment are barred from it. Recreational vehicles get their own hurricane-readiness rule: under Section 27-23(8), an RV on a V or VE site must be elevated and anchored, or else fully licensed, highway-ready, and on site for less than 180 consecutive days. Certification for all of this runs through Section 27-17, the same elevation and floodproofing paperwork used countywide.