Hurricane Lane threatens direct hit on Hawaiian Islands; Trump approves emergency

“Hawaii Five-0” and “Magnum P.I.” are halting production as Hurricane Lane draws closer to the Big Island.

However, the airline said it’ll be running two nonscheduled “recovery” flights Thursday morning – one each out of Maui and Honolulu – to bring passengers off the islands, including those scheduled to fly out this evening. Hawaii News Now has a call into Hawaiian Airlines for a full list of flight disruptions.

Right now, the center of Lane is about 230 miles south-southwest of the Big Island’s Kona Coast or about 335 miles south of Honolulu, moving northwestward, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The category 4 storm could slam into the islands Thursday with winds exceeding 100 miles per hour (161 kph), making it the most powerful storm to hit Hawaii since Hurricane Iniki in 1992.

The National Weather Service in Honolulu reported rainfall on the Big Island already reaching 8 inches in 12 hours late Wednesday. Deadly mudslides, landslides and flash flooding are likely because of the steep terrain on the islands and the sheer amount of rain forecast.

“People were buying cases of tiny water bottles”.

The centre of the storm was predicted to move close to or over portions of the main islands later on Thursday or on Friday, bringing risky surf of 6m and a storm surge of up to 1.2m, forecasters said.

This is the second hurricane to threaten the Hawaiian Islands in the past month, with Hurricane Hector brushing by just a few weeks ago.

The 15 airports throughout the state will remain open as long they don’t suffer damage to their infrastructure or the debris “makes flight operations unsafe”, the Hawaii Department of Transportation said in a statement.

The Maui County Emergency Management Agency stated “sirens will only sound in the event evacuations are needed”.

“It’s relatively like a regular day”, he said by telephone.

Honolulu shopping malls and office buildings closed early on Thursday and planned to shut their doors Friday.

David Ige urged residents to be as prepared as possible for the hurricane that is expected to make landfall in the coming days.

The governor said commercial harbors would also close and ordered boats to leave before the storm.

Brock Long, chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), said: “We are extremely concerned about the potentials for inland flooding, landslides occurring and damage to the transportation, communications infrastructure”. The storm was the talk of the town despite a dominating performance by Honolulu Little League, which beat NY 10-0 in the Little League World Series.

After Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico previous year, a FEMA report noted that one of its main issues was not having enough generators and other emergency aid on the island before the storm.

While the exact path of Lane remains uncertain, CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri says the storm could weaken as it nears the islands. Canadians are advised to avoid “non-essential travel” to Hawaii County, Maui County – including the islands of Maui, Lanai, Molokai, Kahoolawe, Oahu, and Kauai, according to a government travel advisory. A couple of tropical storms have also hit the islands, including Iselle in 2014. Others have come close in recent years. FEMA will use their discretion when distributing resources and depending upon the Hurricane Lane’s impact, could expand efforts and resources.