Thunder Lightning and More
It started off as a overcast day with the rumble of pebble beach as some surf came up over night. The sun came out for a bit and there was some nice waves picking up . The plan was to get things done and hit the surf after work, about 1p the clouds came back and the rumbling of thunder started to sound . Lightning started to flash and a heavy rain came upon the island very fast. Way too hard to do any more work ( I am not getting sick) so off to Kahaluu Beach , its raining so might as well surf your wet already, the funny thing was nobody was out in the water anymore. A few hours before lots of people were out and the side of the road was packed with cars. Lightning was blasting quite a bit , flashing bright with loud thunder, I didnt want to be the only one out and a prime target of lightning, thats why everyone else had departed the water, if there was at least a couple people I would have paddled out .
The rain was pouring down now , the front of the truck was just visible , no one could go over 20 or 30 miles per hour , it was turning into a major down pour. Off to home for a afternoon of Lattes and relaxing till the kids came home from school. I was looking forward to it. Then about half way home or so just past the Honaunau post office and almost to Higashi store some cars were stopped and everyone was walking up the road to check something out. A flash flood was crossing the road and getting worse and worse , it started to pour so back to the car for a bit , after 10 minutes or so I went to check out the situation again and the water was now raging across the road
, bringing a couple of old cars and a two or three foot wall of rocks on both sides , the water was rushing all the way to the ocean creating a giant muddy cloud out into the sea. The rain hadnt let up , and this is the only road , blocked and now cars had backed up for a few miles , people everywhere perhaps none of us would be going home soon or maybe not tonight. The water , after a couple of hours slowed down and two tractors came from down the road and shoved the old cars and rocks and various items out of the way , clearing the road . The water was still almost a foot high and wiping across the road. They started letting cars thru , it was a little sketchy , and after crossing the flood I could see that it was very wide and had crossed the road in several places rock and crap were everywhere, the South Kona fruit stand was now in the center of a stream almost totally washed away, its lucky the road was even still there.
I have never in all the years seen this much water flowing down the slope.
Finally at home with a Latte, one of the first trucks thru , if it keeps raining up slope the road may close again, waiting for the Kids. The school buses turned around and went back to school , the guys are getting a ride home. Power was out and lightning has started to slow down but still flashing now and again. I am a little strange but I love this kind of stuff and will put a couple of pics of the road up.
Peace Love and Happiness, Steve aka Mr Jones
