Thank you for the quick reply.
Unfortunately, even when I zip my .abc file it is still too large to upload here (826 MB). I guess that because the emitter is parented to a piece of geometry imported from the alembic file, the emittor is not moving at all when you open the hip file. Which makes sense now that I actually think about it.
If I understand the gist of the what the people are talking about in the link you sent me then adding some turbulent force in the shape of some slight wind and increasing the maximum substeps should go a long way to potentially resolving some of my issues.