Warnings dropped as tropical storm turns away from Hawaii
Lane weakens, moves west after drenching Big Island with 4 feet of rain in some places
HONOLULU — Weather officials dropped all warnings Saturday after Tropical Storm Lane weakened and turned away from Hawaii.
The storm began moving to the west, breaking its northward march toward Honolulu after drenching the Big Island and Maui over the past two days.
The storm had weakened over several days from a Category 5 storm, with maximum winds now reaching up to 60 mph, according to the National Weather Service. But its plodding pace — just 3 mph — prolonged the rains. Some 46 inches fell on the eastern side of the Island of Hawaii, where landslides shut down roads and search-and-rescue efforts were underway.
Kelly Wooten, a spokeswoman for the Hawaii County Civil Defense, which has been coordinating the emergency response in hard-hit areas on Hawaii Island, said police, fire and other departments were working to keep people off the roads, as some areas were still under water.
Wooten said no injuries or deaths had been reported. The county would be clearing debris and opening closed roads over the next few days, she added, as it recovered from a series of landslides.
“Over the last couple of days, it was just one after another,” Wooten said. “They would be cleaned up by a road crew and then another one would happen down the road.”
The storm was about 110 miles south of Honolulu, but the state’s most populous city was largely spared from any impacts.
NWS recorded about 2.3 inches of rain on Oahu in a 24hour period ending early Saturday.
Shops along the famed Waikiki beach in Honolulu were reopening for the tourists.
Forecasters had said as much as 10 more inches of rain could fall on parts of Oahu and Maui.
“Don’t let your guard down,” Brock Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said during a telephone briefing early Saturday in Washington.
In Hilo, on Hawaii Island, residents posted images and videos on social media Friday of streets that had turned into rushing rivers and of cars inundated by the floods. By Saturday morning, low-lying areas of downtown Hilo were flooded, but many shops and businesses were open.
About 25 miles south of Hilo, in Pahoa, residents who only months ago endured lava from an erupting volcano said they had been spared the worst of the flooding. Doug Callison, an assistant manager at a 7-Eleven store, said he had not heard of any major problems in town. “If the lava didn’t scare us,” he said, “this is nothing.”
Direct hits by hurricanes on Hawaii are unusual, in part because of the small size of the islands, the relatively cool waters around them and the wind shear, which weakens storms.