Mechanical problems with a water treatment plant in Hawaii have left thousands of soldiers without central air conditioning in the barracks, a spokesman for U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii confirmed Tuesday in a statement to Military Times.

Four thousand soldiers in Area North Barracks are opening windows, turning on fans or using other tools to beat the heat while the base grapples with pump issues.

On July 10, deep-well pumps supporting Army installations in central and northern Oahu started experiencing problems.

According to the garrison, only one pump is currently pushing water to the surface. To maintain essential water services, water chiller systems have been turned off. Without the chiller systems — which make up almost 40% of the daily water use — the barracks do not receive central air conditioning. The incident was initially reported by Task & Purpose.

According to the National Weather Service, temperatures for the remainder of the week range from the mid-70s to the upper-80s.

Units are able to move troops to MWR facilities with central air conditioning, according to the service, but as of Sunday, no units had done so.

Repairs are underway, but an exact timeline for when the pumps will be fully functional again was not provided.

The cause of the issues has not been definitively identified, however “age and extreme heat due to ventilation system repairs are believed to be part of the cause,” said Nathan Wilkes, the garrison’s external communications chief.

The installation is prioritizing keeping safe drinking water available.

Barracks and residential housing have access to drinkable water, and plumbing and sanitation systems are operational. Wilkes also said the installation has paused irrigation systems pulling from Area North water supply.

Family housing still has air conditioning and water access, Wilkes added.

The garrison’s commander, Col. Rachel Sullivan, was scheduled to host a town hall on the installation’s Facebook page on Tuesday.

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Other than brush, overgrown grass, some birds singing in the distance, and perhaps a gust of wind coming in, there’s really not much going on in Honouliuli Gulch these days.

More than 80 years ago, it was a different story.

Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a hasty prisoner of war compound was built in this barren area of Oahu and named the Honouliuli Internment Camp.

Some of the Japanese Americans who were imprisoned here had another name for this place: “Jigoku dani,” or “Hell Valley.”

“There is a reason why the Japanese Americans nicknamed it Hell’s Valley. It’s a very rugged environment. It’s deep in the gulf to the valley,” said Christine Ogura, superintendent of the Honouliuli National Historic Site.

Now, for the first time, the public will be able to understand the “hell” internees experienced through guided tours into what is now known as the Honouliuli National Historic Site.

“You’re going to have an opportunity to actually walk original historic roads that people who were incarcerated there, their family members walked as well,” Ogura said. “Even though the camp was closed and we don’t have any original structures left, because when the military closed in 1946, they actually took everything down. But we do still have original, like the concrete slab foundation of the mess hall, where families were able to reunite with their mothers and their fathers during visitation.”

The internment camp opened in 1943 and was the largest and longest-used incarceration site in the islands. At its peak, Honouliuli held over 4,000 prisoners of war from Italy, Taiwan, Korea, Philippines and had the largest contingent made up of Japanese Americans.

For Superintendent Ogura, what happened here is personal since she is a second-generation American of Japanese ancestry.

“When I found out that this happened here and being Nisei myself and my parents are Issei, I reflected: had I been born a generation earlier it could have been me and my mom,” she said. “I think locally it’s an important history to conserve and perpetuate because it is important that our communities know that this happened locally.”

Tours at the Honouliuli National Historic Site will begin on July 18, and demand has been overwhelming with every tour fully booked and waitlists in the hundreds.

“I will say the response has been humbling when we released the dates. It booked up within 25 minutes and we currently have a waiting list of over 1,700 people,” Ogura said.

The park is working toward more availabilities for next year.

Officials are looking for volunteer docents to help expand tour capacity.