“POV: Our noodles in Hawai‘i will be delivered by boat temporarily.”
This was the caption of a video posted from Sun Noodle’s Instagram account on March 13 during the Kona Low storm. The video has since gotten 18,000 likes and more than 500 reposts.
A similar one — “We’ve expanded our fleet [of boats] because of increased demand” — was posted on March 20, during the continuing storm.
Sun Noodle’s Hawaiʻi factory has been located on Colburn Street since the early ’90s, according to chief operating officer Hisae Uki. She says that, when there are heavy rains, flooding becomes a problem for the factory.
“Operations wise, it’s been pretty difficult,” she says. “What we have to do is put up these barriers that prevent water from coming inside our factory. It really hinders working efficiently — the raw materials being loaded onto trucks for delivery. Last week, Waikīkī was closed early, so we had a lot of cancellations. That was tough for our drivers as well.”
Uki notes that, if a storm is coming, the factory team prepares by setting the barriers in place ahead of time.
“We have these barriers that we purchased last year,” she says. “We set them up the night before, just to prevent any water (from) seeping through our factory.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen it (the flooding) this bad,” she adds. “If not for the barrier, our factory would have been completely flooded. We wouldn’t be able to operate in that condition.”
In previous years, there was an open grass lot across from the factory, which often helped mitigate flooding during periods of heavy rain. Now, however, the lot is asphalt.
“Before, whenever it rained, it water would go to the grass and it would soak it up,” Uki says. “We’re also in the middle where the road kind of dips. The water from Mokauea Street and Pu‘uhale Road comes down right in front of our factory.”
“As you saw in our social media posts, we’ve been dealing with recurring flooding on Colburn Street every time it rains, including this most recent storm,” states associate brand manager Judy Kim. “Our team documented the conditions in our reels to bring more visibility to the lack of drainage infrastructure and the operational challenges it creates for our Honolulu factory.”
The factory is equipped with two pumps to use in case of a heavy downpour. Last week, Sun Noodle received help from the City and County of Honolulu.
“We’re grateful for the support we’ve received so far, especially from Councilmembers Radiant Cordero and Troy Hashimoto, who helped pump water that day,” Kim says. “We’re hoping for a long‑term fix from the City to prevent this from continuing.”
“They helped us pump out water together,” Uki says. “It was really hard, though, because with the amount of rain were getting in all at once, it outpaced how much we were able to pump out. That was really nice of them to help."
While flooding is an issue for the factory, Uki says the noodle products are all securely packaged. Excess water makes operations difficult for employees, however.
“We can’t run our forklift through the water because that would damage our forklift as well,” she says. “If we’re expecting a delivery of raw materials, we have to cancel it because of the weather.”
Part of the reason for the social media videos was to raise awareness of the factory’s situation, and to hopefully receive aid, according to both Kim and Uki.
“We’ve been trying to see if we can get public support to bring awareness of this flooding to the City or State to help us out,” Uki says. “We’ve noticed that with the Dillingham construction, drivers will detour and speed through our road. It’s very dangerous, and it brings in the water. Sometimes, it can get past the barrier and push the water in. We just ask that drivers try not to drive through Colburn Street when it’s flooded; a little bit of aloha would be appreciated, especially when there are road closure signs.”
Uki wants to thank the public and community that’s been supportive of Sun Noodle, which is celebrating its 45th anniversary this year.
“We’re just hoping we can get some sort of help from the City,” she says. “Some sort of collaborative work to figure out a solution for this flooding — repaving the road, building some sort of drain system. We’re thankful; we can work together and figure out a permanent solution.”
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Kelli Shiroma Braiotta can be reached at kelli@alohastatedaily.com.
