‘I’ve never seen anything like it’: Hawaii’s small farmers begin recovery after catastrophic flooding

Two back-to-back kona low storms dumped up to 50 inches of rain on Oahu in mid-March, devastating Hawaii's small farming operations and forcing producers like Eddie Oroyan of LewaTerra Farm into emergency recovery mode. Oroyan and his wife had just launched their north shore operation last year and were beginning to supply local restaurants and farmer's markets when the first storm hit, destroying nearly all their papayas and tomatoes. The flooding submerged equipment and wiped out crops across the island, threatening the livelihoods of small-scale farmers who had begun building customer relationships in their communities. Though the couple began replanting immediately after the first storm, the consecutive nature of the weather events has created compounding damage that poses a significant challenge to Hawaii's agricultural sector. The recovery underscores the vulnerability of local farming operations to severe weather and raises questions about long-term sustainability for new agricultural ventures on the islands.