Hilo Flood 2008

Richard Ha writes:

Kapono and I had the truck loaded with lettuce, bananas, Japanese cucumbers, green onions and five types of tomatoes, and we were just about to leave for the Kino‘ole Street Farmers Market Saturday morning, when we heard a Civil Defense weather alert announcing that severe flooding was imminent.

We looked at the weather satellite image of the Big Island and it was bad.

Here's how it looked at 9:35 a.m. Hawai'i time Saturday morning. The blue shows the remnants of the moisture-laden air that came up from the south and dropped on land as it was pushed inland by the northeast tradewinds.

Outside, there was pounding rain with thunder and lightning. Lightning always makes me concerned for my employees’ safety. I had to make a decision: Should we go to the Farmers Market, where customers might be waiting for us, or go to the farm to see how our workers were doing? No choice—we drove to the farm.

Along the way we saw streams that are normally dry but were running at very high levels because of the storm. Roads were closed, warning lights were flashing and water was flooding across the main roads. Police and public works personnel were out in yellow rain gear directing traffic.

(All photos by Kapono Pa, except #6 and #12 were taken by Richard.)

When we came to the Bayfront Highway, we could see a few vehicles standing in water halfway up their windows.

The soccer fields and Pau‘ahi Street, which runs down from the County Building, were entirely flooded and blocked off.

We drove across the singing bridge and looked upstream. The Wailuku River was an angry beast. It looked like serpents were writhing downstream, their smoke shooting in the air.

At the farm, everybody and everything was okay. The Soil Conservation plan we follow, which retains all the former sugar company’s diversion berms, diverted the storm water just as planned. The sugar industry was on that land for 100 years before us, and they knew a thing or two about coping with heavy rains.

In 24 hours, 11 inches of rain fell at the farm, or 297,000 gallons per acre. This means 177,309,000 gallons fell on our 597-acre farm in 24 hours. I tried to explain to the County Council that the drainage is good in our area and we do not need special rules on flooding.

After checking everything—such as noting where the water was high and where we need to shore up the berms—we drove back to Hilo along the winding, scenic route.

The river beneath the six-ton bridge was raging. It was clear to me that if the bridge gave way and we fell into the water, there would be zero chance of survival. For a moment it entered my mind to turn back. But, I thought, this road has been here for more than 100 years and it was once the main route to Kona. We drove across it, but it was unnerving.

Waterfalls down a hillside on the scenic route

We took the cutoff to Wainaku so we could drive across the second concrete bridge and look at the Wailuku River up close. Kapono took a picture of a couple of kids at the park in Pu‘ueo, doing what comes naturally in a big, flooded yard—running as fast as they could and seeing how far they could slide.

We parked and walked on the bridge. One had to speak up to be heard over the river. It was kind of scary.

Then we walked up to the third bridge; the one alongside the river and behind the Federal Building. There were lots of people out doing the same thing. There was mist in the air from the churning water careening over waterfalls and bouncing off the river walls. The next bridge upstream looked vulnerable, and I wondered if there was even a remote chance that the concrete supports under us could be undermined by the tremendous force of the water. It was a humbling experience.

We humans think we are in control. But witnessing the force of nature makes us realize that we are just passing through, and that we need to keep in mind that we aren’t in charge here.

At the very best, we are caretakers. We need to pay attention to what we’re doing.

Comments

[HawaiiVacationGifts]

Wow Richard! I canceled my plans to go out and sat tight at home from Friday till Monday with the computer unplugged because of the thunder, although I didn't see any lightning. It was raining constantly and our water tank's over flow pipe was shooting out lots of water. On our street part of the gravel road was washed away with a foot deep ravine cut into part of the road. Glad everything was fine at the farm.

[bill]

Wow, you folks really had a storm over there. How long has it been since the last big one? I wonder. We just went through a big one here in Forestville, California and we lost power for 4 days. Not fun.

[richard]

Aloha Cheryl:
We ended up with 31 inches between Friday afternoon and Monday morning. Our land slopes down hill toward the ocean and sidewards to the three streams. And, they were working over time!!

[richard]

Aloha Bill:
In Hilo we can tell if it was a major rainfall or not by whether or not the soccer fields close to town got flooded and whether the road in front of the County building gets closed off. The last time that happened was around 5 years ago.

[Penny Pitman-Vredenburg]

Aloha Richard - your photos were obviously done with heroic effort. Thank you for sharing. I live in Waimea now and could only talk to my Hilo friends and family via phone about the flooding situation.

We got hit that same day - the day of our annual Cherry Blossom Festival for which I was MC....the rain was hitting us sideways - we thought we were safe under our "protective" tent! HA! Not so, the rain and major wind sneaked into the tent sideways! I am now recovering from a nasty cold which I believe was from that pounding we got (8a - 3:30p)

Ah, but such is living in Hawai'i - I'd still rather live here than any place else. As children we surely went through some of mother nature's wrath...yes? Floods, tidal waves, earthquakes, lava flows - (high school bomb scares).

Mighty proud of you My Friend for your successes! You GO! Aloha, Penny

[Keaka]

Thanks for the great photos! Brings back memories of small-keed time living by Wailuku River.

[richard]

Hello Penny:
Thanks for writing. We go all the way back to 7th grade--no? Besides what you wrote--I remember the trips up to see Kilauea Iki in the middle of the night. It was a great time to grow up in Hilo.
If you're in the area, give me a call. I'd love to give you a personal tour of our farm. Let's stay in touch--my cell is 960 1057, Call me

[richard]

Howzit Keaka:
Glad we could take those photos. You how it is, in a few days it's back to normal like nothing happened.
Aloha
Richard

[Peter (Tolson) Clark]

WOW. Ho, I remember had rain growing up in Hilo, but not like THIS. I used to walk over the mauka Wailuku River bridge going school, but it never looked THIS bad! Scary. I like the comment that we're only caretakers in our world, we need to pay attention to what we're doing. Right on. Thanks for the photos!
Aloha nui,
Peter

[richard]

Aloha Peter:
A few people have said that this is the fiercest they've seen the Wailuku. Several of my classmate friends lived in Puueo. Anybody know how to get in touch with my friend David Vivente?
Beryl say's she and her cousin Sharon worked at her uncles store--Ah Pings. We go back to 7-25A-7-21 (?) with them--if I'm remembering correctly.
Eh Peter. Thanks for writing.

[Wilma Balingit Merket]

Wonderful pictures! Thanks for sharing. Left Hilo soon after graduating HHS but it will always be home. Rain and all!