WAIALUA, HAWAII — Back-to-back storms in March produced Hawaii's worst flooding in two decades, causing an estimated $50 million in damage at close to 2,000 farms, according to the Hawaii Farm Bureau. Data collected by farming advocates showed that more than 600 of Hawaii's 6,500 farms reported nearly $40 million in damage to crops, livestock and machinery. Flooding, high winds and power outages killed or stressed livestock and destroyed equipment, vehicles and infrastructure across the state.

"In some cases entire farms have been wiped out. These are farmers who were just days or weeks away from harvesting and now they have to start over," said Brian Miyamoto, executive director of the Hawaii Farm Bureau.

Hawaii farms are often too small and diversified to afford or qualify for crop insurance. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the majority of Hawaii's farms report less than $10,000 in annual sales. Available assistance includes federal disaster relief, one-time $1,500 emergency grants, long-term state loans and a charitable fund that raised about $850,000 in the weeks after the floods. Many farmers have created online fundraising pages.

Officials have conducted tests to assure farmers that their soil is safe and have provided them with seeds and plant starts. The state has also offered farms money for infrastructure, a farm-to-school program and loans for those denied credit from banks.

"These are the farms that we really need to get started again. We cannot have them give up," said Sharon Hurd, the state's top agriculture official.

Without insurance, farmer Bok Kongphan, an immigrant from Thailand, has been trying to obtain government aid and figure out how to level earth moved by the floodwaters. A faint, thigh-high line on a plywood wall shows where the floodwaters reached inside his home, which was built from a shipping container. Inside there is now a donated tent, but he usually sleeps outside. Flies swarmed as he carried a dirt-caked generator he hopes to salvage, and a Toyota Yaris sat nearby, covered inside and out in dried sludge.

"The floods were very devastating," Kongphan said. He will continue working the five-acre plot he has leased for five years, growing vegetables to sell at farmers markets, a swap meet and shops and stalls in Honolulu's Chinatown.

Some farmers have been unable to make it to farmers markets, a key source of their income, and many attending markets have less produce to offer. Taro that was submerged in contaminants carried by the floods was lost. Worldwide shipping disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic reinforced the importance of having a local food supply in Hawaii.