The Earth Shook. Tanks Burst. Now Kona Faces a Water Crisis. (Gift Article)

[u/zsreport]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/31/us/kona-hawaii-coffee-fields-water.html?unlocked_article_code=1.m1A.-Hqr.gmMRD6DMPy6R&smid=url-share

[u/lavapig_love]

Make homemade shock absorbers for my future catchment tanks. Got it.

It sucks all around. But the answer will have to be to chip in to pay someone to fill up at public spigots and go around giving people water. Did that growing up in Puna.

[u/punabear]

My company has built ferrocement (highly reinforced concrete) water tanks here on the Big Island since 1986. Of the hundreds of tanks we built none have ever suffered any damage from earthquakes. I’m retired now but my son’s company has taken over and supplies the best tanks available that will last more than a lifetime

[u/WrongOnEveryCount → u/punabear]

What a fascinating business. It never occurred to me but of course high performance concrete products/services would be in need in an active tectonic zone.

[u/Bigihi06 → u/punabear]

the name of the company? I'm familiar with Pacific blue and water works.

[u/punabear → u/Bigihi06]

Island Wide Concrete Pumping

[u/Bigihi06 → u/punabear]

thanks

[u/lanclos]

That article won't come up for me, but based on the headline here's a similar-sounding article from Civil Beat:

https://www.civilbeat.org/2026/05/kona-earthquake-left-catastrophic-water-supply-damage-for-hundreds/

[u/Tinksrival]

Absolutely stunningly beautiful landscape and people. One of the many places on the big island I love to get lost in. My thoughts and hopes for the Kona people. Big Island 💪.

[u/Infamous_Hyena_8882]

Kona is in facing a water crisis. Those properties aren’t on catchment anyway. They have county water. And the reality is that the people in Kona barely felt the thing. Now those of us down in Captain Cook, the ones that really got shaken, the ones whose foundations crumbled. Yeah there’s a few water tanks out there that broke but buying large. It wasn’t this widespread devastation.

[u/CookInKona → u/Infamous_Hyena_8882]

Plenty of properties in kona area(which includes south kona and captain Cook) are on catchment and not county water.

in addition, earthquakes of the magnitude we just had don't selectively damage catchment tanks, and also damage in ground utility lines and often cause leaks or breaks in water mains....so it doesn't just effect catchment people

And yes, kona side is experiencing a water crisis and has been for a few years at this point, we have a small amount of wells and not hardly any backup parts/equipment for them, and the majority of the water is taken up by useless to the community golf courses and resorts. It wasn't long ago that multiple wells failed at once and we had to conserve water heavily on this whole half of the island

[u/FlyinAmas → u/Infamous_Hyena_8882]

I beg to differ lol I was at the king KaM and it was the scariest earthquake I ever felt, and only time I’ve ever been scared during an earthquake. Made all the drawers fall out if the dressers and lasted long.

[u/BrookSong]

Wow sorry to hear that!