The Rain, the Trees and other things

The Rain, the Trees and other things was Originally Posted on March 15, 2006 by lavarock

First, the lighter part of the blog.

Timber! It brings forward the thoughts of trees falling down, and why not? Why the heck not?

I was up at a neighbors the other day and saw that she had some workers cutting trees on her farm. The thought struck me. “I have trees I need to have cut”, so I hired them to clear out the trash trees on my property. As you remember, I have a guy from Texas helping when he has time, but needed to move forward.

So they came, and in 3 days, were able to cut the rest of my trash trees. I called the USDA for an inspection. I have called a “dozer” guy (a man with a bulldozer) to give me a quote on leveling and prepaaring 5 acres for coffee.

Parts of my property look like a tornado hit it. Tall trees on the ground, in and amongst the macadamia nut trees. I need to get those trees cut and out of there, but many of the trunks may end up as mulch. The dozer guy will need to tell me the best way for him to proceed.

I have an Ebay sale going for some coffee and am packaging up bags for the Pua Plantasia (an experience sponsored by the OutDoor Circle) and we will be selling coffee while most everyone else sells plants.

On a sad note, the neighbor island of Kauai has had major problems because of the recent rains. One dam up near Princeville gave way early yesterday morning. A few houses were destroyed and debris washed out to sea. One person was found dead but it is feared that perhaps 5 or 6 others may have been washed downhill or out to sea. Reports were that there was a 50 foot wall of water than came when the dam broke!

The water crossed the road and it has been closed pending Civil Engineers inspections. Guard rails were gone and it is feared that the road structure has been compromised and it is dangerous. This is the only way to Hanalei and people will be missing flights off the island and many people up there have no water.

In the photos of the roadway, I recognize the areas shown. That is what happens when you visit a place often and that place is rather small. You look at a photo and say “I know right where that is”. Even more troubling is that my friends used to live a couple of miles from where the dam was.

Now, to compound the problems on Kauai, a dam at the south end of the island is now feared to be close to collapsing, at least they have warning and can prepare for a disaster.

While this is not a major event such as New Orleans, the size of the island and the closeness of the people, makes this a very difficult time. Kauai’s land areas is about 620 square miles and has only 61,000 people. That makes it about 94 people per square mile. Not very populous.

Most islands have a major road circling the island, and few or no alternative ways around. Even on the Big Island, we had the main road closed last night down south of here. To get around that outage would require perhaps a 4 hour detour or more.

I hope that someone finds the lost people over on Kauai, but I am not holding out hope. Kauai is a small and close-knit island. If these people had been off-island, neighbors would have known. If the people had taken shelter elsewhere, word would have gotten around quickly. Instead, the search goes on.