In 2018, Kauaʻi set a national record for the amount of rain recorded in a 24-hour period when 49.69 inches fell from April 14 to April 15. The epic storm caused catastrophic flooding and destructive landslides that isolated the North Shore community for more than a year. Fast forward to this past March, when intense heavy rain battered Kauaʻi, Maui and Oahu, causing similar destruction on all three islands. It is not just rain and hurricane scares. In 2018, lava from Kīlauea Volcano wiped out an entire community on Hawaiʻi Island, and in 2019, drought conditions on Maui fueled massive brush fires on the Valley Isle. As climate change continues, some predict these events may happen more often and get worse. Some say we scaled and built our communities for a climate that no longer exists.

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