{"id":747667,"date":"2026-07-07T02:52:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T02:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/747667\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T02:52:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T02:52:15","slug":"business-monday-big-island-companies-continue-to-recover-from-kona-low-storms-and-earthquake-big-island-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/747667\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Monday: Big Island companies continue to recover from Kona low storms and earthquake : Big Island Now"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Between the Kona low storms in March and the May earthquake, 140 commercial properties \u2014 including 41 agricultural \u2014 were damaged in the Kona and South Kona Districts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now with the completion of business and residential property damage assessments from South Kona\u2019s magnitude 6 earthquake that struck on May 22, Hawai\u2018i County officials are waiting for Gov. Josh Green\u2019s decision about whether he will file for a presidential disaster declaration that will help individuals and business owners secure funding for repairs.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.bigislandnow.com\/file\/bigislandnow\/2026\/07\/royal-kona-visitor-center-featured.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/royal-kona-visitor-center-featured-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-438895\"\/><\/a>Royal Kona Visitor Center in South Kona. (Photo courtesy: Facebook)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Federal Emergency Management Agency was in South Kona during the week of June 15 to assess properties damaged by the earthquake that rocked some homes off their foundations and destroyed dozens of catchment systems that left residents without potable water.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Hawai\u2018i Coffee Company, which operates the Royal Kona Coffee Center at 83-5427 M\u0101malahoa Highway in Captain Cook, was forced to temporarily close following the tremor because its visitor facility was damaged.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The company filed a notice of closure and employee layoffs on June 8 with the Hawai\u2018i State Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. According to the letter, the extent of damage to the building has made the facility unable to operate and will remain closed for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Four of the center\u2019s seven employees were laid off, including the manager, assistant manager and a clerk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAt this time, it is uncertain whether operations will resume,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Emails and calls to the Hawai\u2018i Coffee Company were unreturned as of Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hawai\u2018i County\u2019s Civil Defense Administrator, Talmadge Magno, said the governor has until July 21 to file for the presidential declaration that would open up opportunities for disaster aid funding.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, a disaster declaration needs to be in place before funding can be made available for losses related to the earthquake.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. Small Business Administration received 232 full applications for business physical damage loans and economic injury disaster loans combined. As of June 30, 62 of those applications have been approved for a total of $3,481,600 in approved funding for losses related to the Kona low storms.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.bigislandnow.com\/file\/bigislandnow\/2026\/03\/greenwell-farm-nursery-damage-featured.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/greenwell-farm-nursery-damage-featured-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-428734\"\/><\/a>Flood damage and debris through the Greenwell Coffee Farm nursery in South Kona following the Kona low storm on March 14, 2026. (Photo courtesy: Tom Greenwell)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tom Greenwell, owner of Greenwell Coffee Farms, said the farm had minor damage from the earthquake. However, recovery from the Kona low is ongoing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Greenwell said they are still trying to get the road to the processing plant repaired as the storm washed it out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe processing plant was isolated for three months so we\u2019re planting as fast as we can,\u201d Greenwell said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Kona low also carved a 16-20 foot ditch through the coffee land including where they give tours.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">FEMA will be awarding the coffee farm funds. Greenwell didn\u2019t disclose how much they would be awarded only that it was for the max amount and they were fast-tracked to receive funds for repairs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Kona low Business Recovery Grant Program was launched to support eligible Hawai\u02bbi Island businesses impacted by the Kona Low storm systems that occurred from March 13 through March 27.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a newsletter from the county on July 1, the county announced that the program allocated $475,000 to Hawai\u02bbi Island for this recovery effort.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The program, administered by the County Department of Research and Development in partnership with the State of Hawai\u02bbi Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, will provide targeted grant assistance to businesses that experienced storm-related physical damage and\/or business interruption losses and continue to have unmet recovery needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Between the Kona low storms in March and the May earthquake, 140 commercial properties \u2014 including 41 agricultural&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[121667,192,4800,320847,320848,5379,187370,320849,79],"class_list":["post-747667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-disaster-recovery","tag-environment","tag-fema","tag-greenwell-coffee-farms","tag-hawaii-coffee-company","tag-hawaii-county","tag-kona-low","tag-presidential-disaster-declaration","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}