Storm weakens, but still pummels Hawaii
HONOLULU » A powerful hurricane unleashed torrents of rain and landslides Thursday that blocked roads on the rural Big Island but didn’t scare tourists away from surfing and swimming at popular Honolulu beaches as the state prepared to get pummeled by the erratic storm.
Employees of the Sheraton Waikiki resort on the famed 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, themost populated island. Hurricane Lane already lashed the Big Island with nearly 20 inches of rain in nearly 24 hours and was moving closer to Hawaii, a shift that will put the Big Island and Maui “in the thick” of the storm, National Weather Service meteorologist Melissa Dye said. The agency said the storm had weakened to a Category 3 but can still cause major damage.
The hurricane with winds from111 to 129mph was expected to move close to or over portions of the main islands by today, bringing dangerous surf of 20 feet and a storm surge of up to 4 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 because of landslides, he said.
“We essentially have one way in and out of our towns so sheltering in place is the priority,” Beimler said in a Twitter message.
Roughly 200 miles away on Oahu, Elisabeth Brinson was still watching surfers from her balcony on the ninth floor of the Hawaiian Hilton Village in Waikiki, where she will ride out the storm.
“I don’t think we’re in toomuch trouble as far as flooding where we are now,” said the native of the United Kingdom now living in Denver.