Storm drifts away after ‘biblical’ flooding
HONOLULU: A once-powerful hurricane twisted and drifted away from Hawaii, leaving behind heavily saturated ground on the Big Island and many residents on other islands relieved it didn’t wreak more havoc.
Firefighters on the Big Island rescued 39 people from floodwaters on Friday to early Saturday as the island grappled with the nearly 1.2m of rain from tropical storm Lane, formerly hurricane Lane, dumped on the eastern part of the island over the course of three days.
In Honolulu, where the storm deposited only a few centimetres of rain, shopkeepers removed plywood from their windows and reopened for business.
The National Weather Service cancelled all storm warnings for the state.
Preliminary figures from the weather service show that Lane dropped the fourth-highest amount of rain for a hurricane to hit the US since 1950. Hurricane Harvey, which devastated Texas a year ago, topped the list.
The storm’s outer bands dumped as much as 114cm on the mostly rural Big Island, measurements showed. The main town of Hilo, population 43 000, was flooded on Friday with waist-high water.
“It was almost biblical proportions,” said Kai Kahele, a state senator who represents Hilo. The ground was soggy on Saturday, he said, and it was still raining.
But Hilo is accustomed to rain, he added. And the Wailuku River, which raged with run-off, has a name that means “destructive water” in Hawaiian. Native Hawaiians who have lived in the area for hundreds of years know how dangerous the river can be, Kahele said.
Hawaii County Civil Defence spokesperson Kelly Wooten said teams were assessing damage but continued to focus on recovery efforts because of ongoing precipitation.
Big Island Book Buyers in Hilo opened as normal on Saturday morning after owner Mary Bicknell saw a bit of sunshine. “Everybody is in pretty good spirits. It’s kind of nice,” she said of her customers before adding that everyone was “hoping and praying it’s over”.
One of the island’s volcanoes is erupting, and the rain could still cause white-out conditions on some active lava fields when it hits the molten rock and boils off as steam.
About 320km and several islands to the north-west, tourists on the island of Oahu wandered Waikiki Beach and took leisurely swims as shopkeepers prepared to reopen.
Hotels began putting deck chairs back alongside pools. Dozens of surfers were in the Pacific, looking to ride small waves. The breeze was light.
Winds were also calmer on Maui, which had seen about 30cm of rain and wind gusts up to 80km/h.
Lane first approached the islands earlier last week as a Category 5 hurricane. But upper-level winds known as shear swiftly tore the storm apart.