An iconic banyan tree in Honomu that was recently trimmed — under county contract — fell early Sunday morning, leaving its top branches touching the gym roof, knocking out power to the community, damaging parked vehicles and sending residents into the streets.
“About 10 minutes after 8 a.m. on Sunday, I heard what sounded like a string of firecrackers followed by loss of electricity,” said Honomu resident Gary Hoff. “We did not see the tree topple, but when my wife called to report our loss of power, the woman from HELCO mentioned they just received a call about the banyan falling.”
The couple joined “dazed neighbors” outdoors and could see two unoccupied vehicles beneath the branches.
“Everyone was relieved that no one was hurt,” Hoff said.
Many Honomu residents pleaded in the spring with Hawaii County officials to save the tree after the roots and branches began encroaching on neighboring properties.
Mayor Harry Kim hosted a community forum, and several department chiefs from his administration attended, seeking community input.
But neighbor Rex Ribao told the Tribune-Herald on Monday he’s angry because he should have spoken up more forcefully back then to have the tree cut down. The remaining tree, he said, still endangers his home, his family — and the community’s keiki.
Because of that tree still existing, “I cannot, in good faith, say my grandchildren are going to be safe,” he said.
Ribao said he cares for the Honomu community.
“My wife grew up as a child, remembers climbing those trees as a child. That’s how much she’s ‘of’ this community,” he said. But the remaining tree should be cut down or trimmed to the point it’s safe for kids, lest it fall and hurt someone, Ribao said.
“It still can happen,” he said.
The tree is thought to have been growing since the end of World War II.
“We’re very fortunate, and we’re very pleased, that nobody got injured,” said Hawaii County Managing Director Wil Okabe, who was filling mayoral duties Monday while Kim is off-island.
During the spring meeting with Kim, which Okabe attended, community members discussed a “risk report” submitted to the county by Registered Consulting Arborist Mark O’Dell, who recommended the trees be cut down entirely (he also offered alternates if the county decided against cutting the trees).
The trimming that was eventually completed was especially heavy on the side of the tree facing neighboring properties.
Now, O’Dell wonders aloud why the county didn’t heed his advice.
“Why hire me to do a risk report when you’re not going to take the recommendations, you’re not going to listen?” he said.
The project to trim the tree was contracted to Wailea Trees and Landscape Professionals from Maui at a county cost of $65,000, Okabe said.
In the spring, Okabe said, “we intended to cut the tree down.”
He said the county’s goal was to address tree-encroachment concerns of neighboring properties while keeping safety a priority but also giving deference to community wishes to save the tree, which tourist buses often stopped to visit.
Wailea Trees’ owner, Paul Ngalu, said his crew “came there with exactly what the county wanted to have done with the tree.”
Nobody had bad intentions, Ngalu said.
“I don’t think it’s anybody’s fault” that the tree fell, he said, emphasizing he wishes the tree would be cut up, hauled away without finger pointing and a lesson learned.
“You never cut a whole side of a banyan tree, and cut the root system, and think it’s going to stay up,” he said, noting he followed county specs.
Hawaii Electric Light Co. crews removed much of the fallen tree’s branches Sunday to restore power, which was out for about four hours and restored about 12:30 p.m.
Much of the remaining material was removed by county crews Monday, but the fate of the portion of tree that still stands is uncertain.
County Council member Valerie Poindexter said the county should investigate the steps that led up to the decision to trim the tree that fell — so a similar situation “never happens again.”
Poindexter said the county code gives neighbors the right to have a tree’s branches and roots trimmed or the tree removed. She said the banyan tree in Honomu should have been cut down once a complaint was received about a tree on county property — because other options were unsafe.
Okabe said the county will investigate, in part to learn from what happened. He noted there are many banyan trees in the county, including those along Banyan Drive in Hilo. The county will need to assess how to address those, he said.
“We lost a giant tree that we had been trying to save,” said Winston Welch, executive director of the Outdoor Circle, which fought to keep the banyan tree from being cut down.
He said the cause of the tree’s fall is unknown at this time, but the tree’s fall makes this a time for reflection about how the county trims and maintains trees.
Welch is pleased the county’s Arborist Advisory Committee was rejuvenated and hopes that will lead to better tree management.
“We went through a lot to try to save this tree and to have this happening is just really shocking,” said Honomu resident Stone Willow, who lives near the tree and had to climb over a fence to view both sides of it after it fell. He is thankful it didn’t cause more damage or injure anyone.
The only way for the tree to fall without injuring people, homes or the gym, he said, “was toward the people trying to save it.”
Email Jeff Hansel at jhansel@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
