The torrent of rain that passed over Oahu and Kauai in recent days took a heavy toll on some farms, wiping out lettuces, taro, bees and more.
Fields of greens and 3 million bees were lost at Nalo Farms in Waimanalo, according to owner Dean Okimoto.
“It’s a mess,” he said. “It was crazy. I had stuff float 200 yards away.”
On Kauai, Lyndsey Haraguchi-Nakayama of W.T. Haraguchi Farm reported that the wetland taro farm as well as artifacts in a nonprofit museum for a historic rice mill connected with the farm in Hanalei were damaged by flooding.
“I’m in the midst of mass clean up,” Haraguchi-Nakayama said in an email. “Lots of devastation.”
Both farms are seeking donations through online sites to help them recover.
Haraguchi-Nakayama, who also operates Hanalei Taro & Juice Co., said she plans to post information regarding donations on Twitter and Instagram.
Nalo Farms started a GoFundMe campaign Saturday with a goal of raising $100,000. As of Monday evening more than 200 people had contributed over $40,000. Okimoto estimates that the recovery could take two months and that it could cost more than $200,000 to keep paying employee wages and other expenses, including seeds for replanting.
Okimoto said the damage is more severe than any past rainstorm he’s experienced because the force of the water broke irrigation lines and fencing, and left debris from neighboring upland property in his fields, including tires, an infant seat and coconuts. Nearly 100 percent of his crop — baby mesclun lettuces sold to numerous restaurants and grocery stores in Hawaii — will need to be replanted. Also, about half the beehives on the farm were washed away.
“Over 3 million bees are lost,” he said.
Small family farms like Okimoto’s and Haraguchi-Nakayama’s, both of which go back multiple generations, often don’t have crop insurance. Such insurance, according to Okimoto, is more suited for large commodity crops.
The flooding was from what Okimoto estimated was about a foot of water that on Friday night rushed over a 14-acre parcel that is the larger of two sites operated by Nalo Farms. Some parts of the farm were left under 4 feet of water. About a mile away on the 2.5-acre sister property where Okimoto raises herbs, there were no crop losses.
Waimanalo got hit badly with rain Friday night along with Niu Valley, Aina Haina and Hawaii Kai on the opposite side of the Koolau mountain range in East Honolulu.
National Weather Service rain gauges collected 5.6 inches of rain over 24 hours through 3:45 p.m. Saturday in Niu Valley, and 5 inches in Waimanalo. On Kauai, reported rainfall in the Hanalei area totaled 27 inches in the 24 hours through 8:45 a.m. Sunday.
Flash flooding, which can involve far higher amounts of water channeled into a destructive force, was reported Friday and Saturday for parts of East Oahu and on Saturday and Sunday for areas of Kauai that included Hanalei, Haena, Kapaa and Wainiha. In Hanalei, one National Weather Service report said, there was standing water up to 8 feet in parts of the town.