Hawaii Floods Hit 2,000 Farms With $50 Million in Losses After Worst Deluge in 20 Years
Updated
Updated · The Boston Globe · May 17
Hawaii Floods Hit 2,000 Farms With $50 Million in Losses After Worst Deluge in 20 Years
2 articles · Updated · The Boston Globe · May 17
Summary
$50 million in damage has hit nearly 2,000 Hawaii farms after back-to-back March storms brought the state's worst flooding in two decades, wiping out crops, livestock, machinery and irrigation on Oahu's North Shore.
More than 600 farms have already reported nearly $40 million in losses, but the Hawaii Farm Bureau says the broader toll is higher because many small, diversified growers were just days from harvest and now must start over.
Many of those farms lack crop insurance and report under $10,000 in annual sales, leaving immigrant growers to rely on federal disaster aid, $1,500 state emergency grants, loans and an $850,000 charitable fund.
The damage is already cutting local food supply: some farmers have missed markets entirely, while others are selling a fraction of normal output and risk losing grocery contracts for months.
That strain lands on a farm sector Hawaii has promoted as vital for food security since pandemic shipping disruptions, even as growers also face wildfires, pests and volcanic ash.