The Navy disputes his assessment, saying this year's humpback whale season was normal, and more whales than ever before were seen in March 1998, when biologists studied humpbacks' response to the Navy's Low-Frequency Active Sonar (LFAS) equipment in Hawaiian waters.
Once waters recede, crews sometimes have to use hair dryers to get water out of signal equipment and other circuits that are essential to the transit system, Mr. Foley said.
It also closed the private Spanish Hospital, a complex that covers an entire city block, after waters rushed into the basement, cutting power and destroying X-ray machines and other diagnostic equipment.