Tag Archives: Hurricane

Hurricane

Hurricane Iselle: 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday

Richard Ha writes:

Hilo is all boarded up with very few cars on the road. Here's Kamehameha Avenue, downtown.

There's very little wind at this point. It's relatively calm at the farm, but the river and flume are pumping.

The banana leaves are not shredded yet.

It's now 7:21 and it's relatively quite in Hilo.

As Hurricane Iselle approaches the Big Island, it seems part of its outer bands went north to Waimea, and part went south to Puna.

We are waiting for the storm to hit the island head on in a couple of hours. We'll see what happens.

Hurricane

Hurricane Iselle: 11 a.m. Thursday – Preparing

Richard Ha writes:

We're wrapping up here at the farm. We tied things down, protected them from rain, and everyone will go home by noon. 

We did the major prep work 15 years ago when we put in our windbreaks. We knew that we needed to protect from north and south winds, which meant we needed to plant windbreak rows on the east and west.

But it was more than just that. We knew that at our latitude the sun lies somewhat to the south. So we put  windbreaks on the south side of the existing roads. That way, the shadow from the windbreak falls on the road, instead of on the plants. Modern farming is all about the physical sciences. 

Back then, we had no wind protection at all. Now, the eucalyptus we planted as our windbreaks are  pushing 70 feet tall. 

Bananas, Hurricane

Hurricane Iselle: The Night Before

1 Comment

Richard Ha writes:

I have been a banana farmer for many years and I have seen the exact moment when all the bananas snap off the trees.

It happens all at once. The wind gets stronger and stronger and you can feel the strain. And then, somewhere around 55 mph, all the bananas snap at once. One second before they were all standing, and then the next, you can see in all directions where formerly banana trees blocked the view. 

Not many have seen that happen, but I have. I hope I don't see it again.

Bananas