Hawaii bracing for impact of hurricane

HURRICANE Lane unleashed torrents of rain and landslides that blocked roads on Hawaii’s mostly rural Big Island yesterday as residents and tourists in the state’s biggest city braced for the dangerous storm.

Employees of the Sheraton Waikiki resort on the famed Honolulu beach filled up sandbags as shuttered stores stacked them against the bottom of their glass windows to prepare for heavy rain, flash flooding and damaging surf on Oahu, the most populated island.

Hurricane Lane, which was still offshore, already lashed the Big Island with nearly 50cm of rain in nearly 24 hours and was moving closer, putting it and Maui “in the thick” of the storm, National Weather Service meteorologist Melissa Dye said. The agency says the storm has weakened to a Category 3 but can still cause major damage.

The hurricane, with winds from 178km/h to 207km/h, was expected to move close to or over portions of the main islands later Thursday or Friday (local time), bringing dangerous surf of 6m and a storm surge of up to 1m, forecasters said.

Lane was not projected to make a direct hit on the islands, but officials warned that even a lesser blow could do significant harm. Some areas could see up to 80cm of rain.

“Rain has been non-stop for the last half-hour or so, and winds are just starting to pick up,” said Pablo Akira Beimler, who lives on the coast in Honokaa on the Big Island. “Our usually quiet stream is raging right now.”

Mr Beimler, who posted videos of trees being blown sideways, said staying put was about the only choice he had. The road to Hilo was cut off due to landslides, he said.

United Airlines cancelled its flights to and from Maui yesterday and added two additional flights from Honolulu to San Francisco to help transport people off the islands.

On Oahu, an island of nearly 1 million people, Elisabeth Brinson watched surfers from her balcony on the ninth floor of the Hawaiian Hilton Village in Waikiki before police used loudspeakers to order surfers and swimmers to get out of the water. They said the beach would be closed until further notice.

Hawaii’s biggest hotels are confident they can keep their guests safe if they stay inside.

Pictures: GETTY IMAGES/AFP A man braves the weather to capture images of the landfall of Hurricane Lane on the Big Island yesterday, while elsewhere in Hawaii residents stocked up on essentials (inset, above) before the storm (inset, below) touched ground.