Hurricane Douglas slams Hawaii

HONOLULU — Heavy rain and wind gusts battered Maui on Sunday as Hurricane Douglas swirled off the coast of Hawaii and officials urged residents to take shelter.

Forecasters said the Category 1 hurricane would pass close to Oahu and potentially even make a direct hit on the island, which is home to the state’s biggest city of Honolulu.

“We remain uncomfortably close to a dangerous hurricane here in the state of Hawaii,” Robert Ballard, the science and operations officer at the Central Pacific Hurricane Center, said during a teleconference.

The center of Hurricane Douglas, which Ballard called a “pretty nasty hurricane,” appears to have passed within 45 miles to the north of Hana, Maui.

At midafternoon, the storm was 100 miles east of Honolulu.

Maui was projected to have the brunt of the storm before Douglas moved on to Honolulu in the afternoon. Kauai would see the worst of the storm in the evening, possibly after dark.

Ballard said the storm was tracking west-northwest over the island chain and any variation of the path closer could bring much worse weather. A direct hit on Oahu still remains a possibility, he said.

President Donald Trump issued an emergency declaration for Hawaii because of the hurricane, directing federal assistance to supplement state and local response efforts.

Hawaiian Airlines canceled all Sunday flights between Hawaii and the U.S. mainland and also between the islands.

Rainfall was expected to be between 5-15 inches.

Oahu, Kauai and Maui were all under a hurricane warning, though a hurricane watch was canceled for the Big Island.

Ronen Zilberman / AFP via Getty Images Medical volunteers take temperature readings on people arriving Sunday to shelter at Honolulu’s Hawaii Convention Center from Hurricane Douglas.