Kawaihae Reef inner harbor condition as seen May 2014. August 17, 2015 flash flood in this area covered the entire inner harbor reef with silt. A major global bleaching 2015 event has just begun for the Kawaihae Reef when the runoff smothered this reef. Normally, corals in the protected harbor were very healthy and dense, in contrast to outside the break wall.
I was so disheartened to photograph the thing until 8 months after that flood. Here in April 2016, there are signs of recovery. I believe 99% of the coral colonies were smothered. Here you can see approximately 1-3% recovery.
Plate and Pillar, Porites rus coral survived the silt and global coral bleaching best it seems and recovered much quicker than others.