Following the Kona Low storm, Aloha State Daily talks with several farms on various areas of Oʻahu to learn about the storm’s impacts and how the community can support.
The storm’s aftermath
“That was the heaviest, intense wind we experienced on the farm … in our history, I believe.”
Dominic Kadooka — who owns Waimānalo Country Farms with his wife, Shawn — recalls how the wind came “whipping down the mountain” during the Kona Low storm. Waimānalo Country Farms has been in business since 1948 — nearly 80 years — and while it’s weathered its fair share of storms, Kadooka notes that they are getting “more intense.”
“Usually our storms are right before winter, around Christmas time,” he says. “It’s rare to get storms this time of the year. We’ve had hurricanes (before), but this one was, to me, a lot more intense. Where the farm is located — we are at the base of the Koolau Mountains — that’s where the wind picks up speed. That was the biggest impact; the rain was super heavy, but we’ve had heavy rains before.
“I can honestly say the weather is getting more intense every year; it’s crazy,” he adds.
Nai Vasha — owner of Waimānalo-based Get Redy Farm, which focuses on red-hued crops that are rich in antioxidants — lives in Kailua, and was dealing with power and phone outages. She says her farm is located on the Waimānalo Research Center Property site, and there are other farms in that area.
“For the farm, it was devastating — to drive through and see how the wind picked up and destroyed infrastructures, uprooted trees and broke a lot of plants throughout our site,” she says.
“I didn’t have the time to assess it (damages) because it’s still storming,” she adds. “It’s still a mess out there.”
Preparation
While there are certain precautions farmers can take before a storm — like having back-up generators, taking tractors out of the fields, tightening down greenhouses, evaluating farm conservation practices and understanding the impact of flooding — it’s difficult to predict how bad a storm will be, according to Brian Miyamoto, executive director of Hawaiʻi Farm Bureau, an organization that advocates for the agricultural industry.
“It’s hard to anticipate the levels of flooding,” he says. “When there’s a flood, what can you do? Put everything up, put sandbags, but if the water rises higher than you expected … it’s Mother Nature we’re dealing with.”
Even though she acknowledges Sweet Land Farm is not in a flood zone, business founder Emma McCaulley says the Waialua-based goat farm can experience bad winds.
“I’m surprised we didn’t lose power,” she says. “We have a generator that’s powered by a tractor. If we do lose power, we hook that up that tractor’s PTO dry shaft to a generator, and it powers the whole farm. We can lose power, but we can get it right back. We have so much at stake with our milk and cheese. We have to be prepared; there’s just so many animals.”
“The animals are all fine,” she adds.
For general manager Kyle Suzuki of Sumida Farm in ʻAiea, once they knew the weather was going to be bad, he made the call to close the farm on Friday.
“We knew it was coming; we plan ahead as best we can,” he says. “Our top priority is the safety of our team, our field workers. We want to make sure that whatever we do doesn’t impact them; that might mean we’re going to cut back on harvest. We made that decision (to shut down the farm on Friday) for the field workers; we didn’t want them out in the rain harvesting.
“We’re fortunate that we’re kind of a protected space, in a lot of ways,” he adds. “Our water exits out through the canal. There’s a place for it to go if we have excess water. The spring water flows out the bottom of the farm to off the farm.”
During the days prior to the storm, Suzuki says the field workers tried to harvest as much watercress as possible.
“Farming is really hard,” he says. “The only thing predictable is there’s something unpredictable that will happen. We can control what we want to control, but we can’t control the weather.”
If he knows there’s going to be a lot of wind, Kadooka says his team does their best to tie and strap the roofs of their shacks and barns down. He also notes the importance of his irrigation reservoir.
“I don’t want it getting extra full; if my irrigation pumps go under water, I’m going to have to shut down long term and find a way to get rid of all the water,” he explains. “If I expect heavy rain, I usually run the pump in all my fields to get the reservoir very low. I had to run my pumps for 24 hours for a few days in a row to keep up with all the rain that was coming down.”
The effect on produce
March marks the beginning of watercress season, and Suzuki notes that the year thus far — even prior to the Kona Low — has been “overall really wet.”
“Spring water is a key ingredient in watercress, but not necessarily rain water,” he says. “The challenge with the rain is the overcast skies; we need sun. Watercress is fickle in that too much heat stunts the growth, and not enough sunlight stunts the growth. Hard rains and winds knock over the watercress, and it slows down our team (when they’re harvesting).
“It’s impacted what we’ve been able to grow,” he adds. “We are delaying watercress season a little bit. Last year, we started in February; this year, it will be end of March because of all this heavy rain. Obviously, it’s not ideal — it’s not great for the farm — but we weren’t flooded; we didn’t see the same massive impact (as other farms did).”
“Be gentle and kind if you are expecting or looking for something and a farmer doesn’t have it,” Nai Vasha echoes. “Between runoff and infrastructure and the mud and crop loss, so many farms are at a loss. There’s just so much that goes into it.”
Next steps
At this point, many farms across the state are still assessing damages, according to Miyamoto.
“It (the storm) just left the Big Island; the weather event was still impacting Maui, and Oʻahu and Kauaʻi earlier,” he says. “With this kind of weather event, there is certainty that there are losses. Between flooding out, power loss and high winds, there’s different types of damage.
“We are planning to send out a survey; we are working with Hawaiʻi Farmers Union to send out a survey to producers across the state to get a better idea of what type of damages they sustained,” he adds. “It’s similar to what we did in 2018, when we had flooding at this level.”
That year, Miyamoto explains a one-stop shop hub was set up for farmers on Kauaʻi; a similar hub was set up for ag farmers and ranchers on Maui after the Lahaina wildfires in 2023.
“You bring in all the entities that can offer assistance,” he says. “The producers can come and talk to the different agencies via state, county and federal (levels) on what their needs are and how to access capital. We bring in organizations that can offer assistance to the farmers and ranchers who sustained losses; (previously) we did something similar on Hawaiʻi Island for a hurricane that ended up being a tropical storm, for the papaya farmers that got hit.”
Miyamoto acknowledges that many farms statewide are still assessing their levels of damage — especially those that were flooded and are still trying to dry out.
“Out of respect to the farmers, (we) let them deal with their situation and when there is a need for assistance, we hope we can be there to offer assistance,” he says.
Miyamoto explains that the organization has been in touch with congressional delegation to prepare “resources to help with the recovery.” He says the City and County of Honolulu had reached out, asking how to assist.
“I’ve been in touch with our chairperson of department of agriculture and USDA Farm Service Agency, who usually steps in when we have farmer needs,” he says. “For some (farms and farmers), they are just drying out. As they’re drying out, they’re trying to figure out, ‘What can I still do? I need to farm, I can’t just stop my operations while I try to recover.’”
Recovery
Waimānalo Country Farms is currently closed, according to Kadooka, who says the priority right now is clean-up.
“The wind did a lot of damage,” he says. “We did lose a couple of roofs; there are broken trees all over the place. The day we were up there, as we were trying to strap things down, we had to watch our backs to make sure nothing was flying in the air. My farming operations — the planting and all of that — is delayed.
“We’re going to focus on taking things one step at a time and cleaning the farm up,” he says. “If I look at it as a big job, it’s overwhelming. We’re taking it one step at a time, do things one day at a time.”
He says their progress will depend on the weather in the immediate days.
“It depends on how the fields dry up; while we’re cleaning up, if we can find some time to get some seeds into the ground,” Kadooka says. “We’re not going to have any spring harvest; I’m too late. The next one we are scheduling for is hopefully by the end of May. It’s going to be rough right now, but hopefully we’ll be in time for summer, for the harvest of the corn and the sunflowers. It’s going to depend on how fast the ground dries up.”
He notes that it takes about two months on average for the crops to grow.
Rebuilding is the immediate next step for Nai Vasha, who says she’s looking to grow more long-term crops.
“I’m obsessed with the red food movement,” she says. “I’d like to continue to research, grow and keep a red farm anywhere I can be.”
Awareness and community support
Miyamoto encourages the public to continue to support local farmers and ranchers.
“We have such a diversity of farmers and what their needs are,” he says. “Some may have opportunities to help volunteer and help with some of the clean-up and recovery. (You can) continue to support local farmers, buy local, shop at our farmers’ markets and at restaurants, all of the places where local is sold.
“The best thing the community can do is to keep up with us,” Kadooka says. “Watch our social media for when we open for events — for our sunflowers or the corn — when we do open, come on down.”
Suzuki encourages the community to be patience and understanding — especially when looking for a specific local product.
“If you go into a grocery store, you’ll see less locally grown produce,” Suzuki says. “It’s important to support local farms, any local farm. We’re all struggling with the weather. With rain and overcast skies, we don’t have enough sunlight to grow our watercress in abundance the way we normally do this time of year.”
Nai Vasha says she’s already seen the community show up to support her farm — “I had a handful of people pull up to help me work,” she says — and emphasizes the idea of volunteering as being a necessity.
“I’m good at rallying people together and reminding people that we are a community,” she says. “Not see this as community service, but this is a life necessity and something we need to do together. There are so many other farms that need help.”
Get Redy Farm has a list of upcoming volunteer days on its website — the next one is coming up March 22 — and the biz is also accepting donations via Venmo.
“Food is a life source,” Nai Vasha says. “I’m just making it clear that this farm has to be built by the people. It’s not just a transactional business; it’s cyclical. It’s nice to see it — the response from the community — in action during such a devastating time.”
Miyamoto says that while the agriculture sector has sustained losses, hopefully it can recover sooner rather than later.
“This Kona Low was extremely unfortunate; we understand that others have their own businesses and homes and they need to focus on their own recovery,” he says. “Just support your farmers and ranchers in whatever way you can — support them in the best of times, but more so in these difficult times that we are seeing right now.”
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Kelli Shiroma Braiotta can be reached at kelli@alohastatedaily.com.
