Backyard Hawaii

Pictures of Kaaawa’s rainy weather this week - the worst rainy storm in over 30 years!

It certainly re-landscaped our backyard in Hawaii. JP always said he wanted a stream in his backyard… well.. this week - he sure got what he wanted. (Be careful what you wish for.)

Lots of flooding with over 24-inches of rain M-F last week - but nothing compares to the Katrina flood, although we were sure thinking and praying for them as we emphathized, while we were sweeping and shoveling hour after hour in order to protect our home. I can’t even imagine what they went through…

You’ll notice that we’re on top of a hill at the base of the mountains and a few hundred yards behind us is a 1,200 foot cliff face with what is normally one beautiful waterfall in heavy rain. Well… last week we had three waterfalls develop and all that water had to go somewhere!

The stream bed that handles all the run off from those waterfalls goes across the back of our property and needed to be monitored and worked on throughout each day. So JP shoveled, while I swept and swept the water away from the entrance to our home offices - which felt like an exercise in futility!

We had a few scary hours when there was some flash flooding, but Thank God we only had minor damage.

No lives lost, but one neighbor in our town completely lost his house, and several others had major flood damage to their homes, if they weren’t on stilts - especially the ones directly across from the ocean.

What a great town of neighbors helping one another get through this. Thanks go to our neighbors who stopped by at THE perfect time… when one of the pools at the top of the mountain must have broken - and all that water came rushing down, crashing through the waterfall path JP dug out to protect our offices downstairs…

All is good - we were safe, and our home held up. Thank God! And Thank our neighbors for pitching in! They kept the rest of the street safe too by helping us direct the water to the run off on the side of our home.

Deborah Micek