80+ Oahu farms still struggling after months of repeated storms

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Dozens of Oʻahu farms and homes hit by three different storms are still struggling to recover. Hawaiʻi groups and a national network called Extreme Weather Survivors are coming together to help them rebuild.

Noy Soukrasmy grows a variety of vegetables and fruit on her 15 1/2-acre farm behind Otake Camp in Waialua.

The farm suffered its worst damage from flooding during the March Kona Low storms. High winds knocked down trees during Hurricane Lala in August, followed by more flooding during Tropical Storm Norbert a month later.

She says the Hawaiʻi National Guard and other volunteers helped in the beginning, but then aid disappeared.

Waialua farm buried in debris

“It’s more overgrowth now. There’s a lot of wood, debris, glass, tires, appliances, whatever has washed in, the roads that eroded into the farmland itself, the boulders, rocks,” Soukrasmy said.

Volunteers like Pōmai Hoapili and Hawaiian Brown Cross will start work on the farm Thursday — organizing equipment, clearing debris, planting, rebuilding structures and making the property more resilient to future storms.

“The hype is all gone so what we really got to do is just keep making noise, because the less noise you make, the more people forget about you, which is what’s happening right now,” Hoapili said.

More than 80 farms, homes need help

A group called FarmKineTings and HI Risk Management have compiled a list of more than 80 farms and residents on Oʻahu from the North Shore to the Windward side that need help and are most at risk.

“We have 82 who have more than a couple of acres that need to be cleaned,” said Kim Fanene with FarmKineTings and HI Risk Management. “There have been some work done on some of them, but like Noy, she was busy helping other farmers, so she kind of got left behind. We definitely want to address those farmers.”

The group has many partners, including Extreme Weather Survivors, a nationwide network that has provided $18,000 in grants to people on Oʻahu and Molokaʻi.

“It’s so sad that these communities that are already vulnerable because they already got hit by the storms are getting hit again and again with hurricanes,” said Ariana Standish with Extreme Weather Survivors.

Community planning events

The group says with increasing storms from climate change, communities need to be more prepared for the next storm.

To learn more, there are two community planning events:

Storm Debris Clearing Meeting: Saturday, Oct. 24, noon-4 p.m., Loko Ea Hale’iwa, 66-455 Kamehameha Hwy., Hale’iwa

CDRT Resource Fair: Friday, Oct. 30, 4-9 p.m., The McFarlane Estate, Hau’ula