Hurricane Lane soaks Big Island, shelters open
HONOLULU — Hurricane Lane unleashed torrents of rain and landslides that blocked roads on Hawaii’s mostly rural Big Island on Thursday as residents and tourists in the state’s biggest city braced for the dangerous storm to come their way.
Emergency workers rescued five people from a flooded house in Hilo after a nearby gulch overflowed, said Hawaii County Managing Director Wil Okabe. They weren’t injured and were taken to a shelter, he said.
Shelters were open throughout the islands, with 350 people in them in Oahu.
On the state’s most populated island, which is about 200 miles north of the Big Island, employees of the Sheraton Waikiki resort filled sandbags to protect the Oahu oceanfront hotel from surging surf. Stores along Waikiki’s glitzy Kalakaua Avenue stacked sandbags along the bottom of their glass windows to prepare for heavy rain and flash flooding.
Hurricane Lane, which was still offshore, already lashed the Big Island with nearly 20 inches 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, which was packing maximum sustained winds of 120 mph, was expected to move close to or over portions of the main islands late Thursday or Friday, bringing dangerous surf of 20 feet, 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 30 inches of rain.
“Rain has been nonstop 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.”
Beimler, who posted videos of trees being blown sideways, said staying put is about the only choice he has. The road to Hilo was cut off due to landslides, he said.
United Airlines cancelled its Friday flights to and from Maui. The airline added two additional flights from Honolulu to San Francisco on Thursday to help transport people off the islands.
Hawaiian Airlines cancelled all Friday flights by its commuter carrier, Ohana by Hawaiian.
Hawaii’s biggest hotels are confident they can keep their guests safe as long as they stay inside, said Mufi Hannemann, CEO of Hawaii Tourism and Lodging Association.
Honolulu shopping malls and office buildings closed early on Thursday and planned to shut their doors Friday.
Jennifer Sinco Kelleher is an Associated Press writer.