The highway to Molokaʻi's east end remains hazardous after back-to-back Kona low storms delivered a powerful hit to many residents, including a remote farm.
Robin and Dano Gorsich are stuck at their Waialua Valley farm right now. The rain washed out several bridges on their road.
“An incredible amount of mud and rocks have come down all along that, about a quarter mile of road, and it's completely impassable," Dano Gorsich said.
He said he's never experienced rain that hard.
“Incredible heavy rain. Like we've lived here 50 years, I've never seen rain this hard. It was raining so hard I couldn't see 50 feet. It was like trying to look from behind a waterfall.”
In their remote valley location, they’re stocked up and prepared for bad weather. But this storm brought more concern.
“The Kahawaiʻiki stream, which is the one we live right next to, does a big S turn up behind our house, and there's a big old, ancient wall there, and the river breached that, and so in the height of the storm, and seeing the stream bigger than I've ever seen it, there was that moment of, oh my gosh, are we going to have to flee and is all this going to wash away?” Dano Gorsich told HPR.
They were able to stay, and their home was safe. But they have not been able to assess damages to their farm and crops yet — or get their road repaired.
“We've had to, you know, cancel any hope of delivering fruit. We sell all our stuff through the Mobile Market, Sustʻāinable Molokai, and we've just notified them, we're closed until further notice.”
The main Kamehameha V Highway and sole access road to the east end of the island remains dangerous with towering rock piles, mud and washouts.
