Hurricane Lane weaker but still pummels Hawaii with rain

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.

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 20 inches (50 centimeters) 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 111 to 129 mph was expected to move close to or over portions of the main islands later Thursday or Friday, 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.”

United Airlines canceled 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.