The city has begun work to ease a flooding problem at Kailua Beach Park that has damaged neighboring homes for years whenever there was a big rainstorm.

A year and a half after one of the worst storms to hit Kailua in recent memory, the city is installing an expanded drainage system along Kawailoa Road that will channel water to nearby Kaelepulu Stream. Residents hope this will fix the flooding problem that has plagued the community for at least five years.

"I kept on telling them if you guys just take away 50 percent of the water that comes into our neighborhood we won't flood," said Robert Thurston, who grew up in the area.

Thurston, 65, and others blamed the flooding on renovations to the park about eight years ago, new homes that impede the flow of water and water from a hillside that flows into the park and into yards on Kawailoa Road.

Five years ago a particularly heavy rain flooded the area and that's when Thurston started asking the city to fix the problem. But it wasn't until November, 2007 — when 10 inches of rain swamped the park and damaged 20 homes — that the city decided to take action.

"Every time it rains I can't sleep at night," Thurston said. "Last year my son came over (during a storm) because it was getting kind of high and we lifted everything up."

City spokesman Bill Brennan said work began in May.

"Improvements were needed because the existing sump drain system is unable to handle the large storm runoff from the developed area abutting Kawailoa Road," Brennan wrote in an e-mail.

Two city departments are working together on the project. Design and Construction has designed improvements to the existing sump drain and Facility Maintenance is making maintenance access boxes and installing drain lines, Brennan said.

The plan calls for connecting the existing sump drains serving Kawailoa to an outlet along Kaelepulu Stream and installing drain lines in the roadway shoulder that will connect to a manhole just before to the Kaelepulu Stream drain outlet, he said.

The work is expected to be completed in about three to four weeks at minimal cost, he said.

"Usually with in-house there's no cost involved," Brennan said. "And (the city) just pays the guys what we would pay them no matter what it is they're doing."

Marion Mullins, who lives across the street from the park and whose home was flooded in the 2007 storm, said she's pleased and hopeful that the solution will work.

"It looks like they've identified the problem and are addressing it," Mullins said. "We'll see when it rains again."