While various parts of the Big Island have been affected by the hurricane (flooding), here in Kona it’s been mostly a non-event. FYI, I’m writing this a number of hours before it goes live.

There were some unusually higher waves in the bay and that drew some people just because it was different. Even then, no flooding or high winds damage. 

That’s not to say it might not yet happen as we’ll probably suffer sea levels rise due to the storm swell and this in addition to the increased waves may yet cause some coastal flooding and erosion damage especially along Aliʻi Drive which in many areas is very close to the water. 

For them who were worried about us, we’re doing fine. 

Here are a few videos (remember to watch in HD). Actually, I would click on the YouTube logo and watch them on YouTube. Or, click on the box at the lower right of the video to make it full screen (hit escape to exit). The number in parenthesis is how long they are in minutes and seconds.

First up, kids at a shoreside pool enjoying the higher surf (but not as high as I’ve seen) (1:13):

Just to the right of the pool, one of the waves (0:25):

One of the byproducts of Hurricane Lane (now Tropical Storm Lane) was the presence of large swell in the Kona Bay. 

This is fairly rare. I mean, we’ve seen waves before especially during the King Tides when water manages to splash over the retaining wall and soak cars and people who aren’t paying attention . . . but never tike this. 

Spectators lined up the waterfront (on both sides of the road) to look at the spectacle (0:33):

Note: some of the videos are shaky because I was shooting from across the bay at high zoom and doing so hand-held while keeping an eye on the water that would occasionally wash over the pier.

And what were they watching? Kids having fun being tossed about in the waves (2:12):

They are pretty close to the wall but the splashback keeps them off of it. You can see the outgoing water clash with the incoming wave and toss them up in the air . . . which, apparently, is the point to it all. 

This next video is shot from the pier (about 150 yards away) with the P900 (1:08):

As I said, we’ve seen a few waves in the bay before but these swells had a lot of volume to them. 

Again, sorry for the shaky video but I was trying to capture very dynamic scenes in very low light (Notice the streetlights are on and businesses have their lights on).

More of the kids having fun (1:29):

I did try to catch the surfers but they were around 700 yards away and at the wrong angle from me because the waves masked much of the action. Still, neat to see. 

Two videos (1:11 and 0:13):

This second one clearly shows the amount of water that’s moving around.

And here’s another one of the kids having fun. By now I was really losing the light (0:31):

Anyway, we’re supposed to have rain for the next few days but no major winds and not the kind of rain like on the other side of the island where many roads are closed and they’ve had in excess of 20 inches of rain and a few landslides. 

The island is fairly soaked so the continued rain will cause more flooding and more slides, to be sure. So far we’ve escaped with hardly an inconvenience so for that we are grateful to . . . geography and winds and the resulting hurricane path.

The other islands are getting hit by the rain bands and are facing more than we are . . . and we have two more months of hurricane season ahead of us. 

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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