MOKULEIA, Hawaii — As storm waves battered the famous surf breaks on Oahu’s North Shore, not far inland, fields of papaya, bananas and noni were taking in water — quickly. And so were the homes of the people growing those crops.
Blake Briddell and his wife, Brit Yim, woke at their modest farm quarters when floodwaters toppled a recycling bin, a sure sign that the rushing water was about to strike their dwelling. Already, around them, in the dark of night, the ag land as far as they could see was flooded. This high, muddy water, though, was their only path to safety.
“We put on our wet suits and put a dry change of clothes in a cooler,” Briddell said late Saturday, a day after the couple made the hasty decision to leave their 8-acre plot in the rural community of Mokuleia. “We started walking, and then we had to swim.”
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Before they departed, they put their two cats on the roof of a shipping container and cracked a few cans of cat food, hoping for the best…