HONOLULU — Residents across Hawaii are bracing for the potential impacts of successive storms as Typhoon Hone dissipates Monday and Gilma slowly moves across the eastern Pacific.
In Lower Puna, just south of Hilo on the Big Island, Laurie Lyons-Makaimoku and her family removed tarps from their outdoor garage structure and pulled out their camping stove and propane tank. They also picked avocados and breadfruit from trees on their property in anticipation of Gilma's strong winds.
“We got a lot of rain,” he told USA Today. “Everything started to get better on Sunday afternoon, but it rained all day on Friday. We were preparing for a storm in the rain. But the worst happened on Saturday.”
Hoan intensified into a Category 1 hurricane as it passed south of the Big Island on Sunday morning, dumping more than a foot of rain on parts of the island and up to 18 inches in some areas. Some major roads were flooded, waterways overflowed and thousands of homes and businesses lost power, but there were no reports of major damage. By nightfall, Hoan weakened to a tropical storm as it moved west of Hawaii Island.
Hurricane Gilma Tracker:See the latest details and projected path of the hurricane in the Pacific Ocean
Several beaches on the Big Island were closed Monday, and five public schools canceled classes because of power outages and dangerous road conditions, the Hawaii County website reported. The school Lyon-Makaimoku's children attend was closed Monday after a tree fell and knocked out power to the main campus.
“We are moving into the recovery phase,” Hawaii County Mayor Mitch Roth said in a Facebook livestream Sunday afternoon. He said emergency crews would be inspecting damage across the island this week as linemen restore power and officials begin preparing for Hurricane Gilma. By mid-morning, blackouts across the state had dwindled to just 2,000, according to poweroutage.us.
“Gilma is coming up … even though we’re done with this one, it’s good to start preparing for the next one,” Roth said.
'The tropics have broken up':So where are all the hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean?
Hurricane Gilma expected to devastate Hawaiian Islands
While Tropical Storm Hoan is moving away from Hawaii's Big Island, meteorologists and local officials are keeping a close eye on Hurricane Gilma.
Gilma, which is more than 1,100 miles east of Hilo on the Big Island, is forecast to bring rain, thunderstorms and strong winds to the state this weekend. As of 11 a.m. Hawaii time, the storm's sustained winds had increased to 110 mph, making it a Category 2 hurricane that was on the edge of a major hurricane.
Forecasters predict the storm will pass just north of Hawaii Island and stressed that Gilma's impact will depend on how close it comes to the state. On its current track, Gilma is expected to lose strength and degrade into a tropical depression later in the week, AccuWeather said.
“The combination of the two tropical cyclones will likely bring prolonged rough seas and waves to the islands, posing a hazard to hikers, swimmers and small boats,” AccuWeather said, referring to Honan and Gilma.
Less impact on Oahu, but mindset has changed
On Oahu, the most populous island of the Hawaiian Islands and home to Honolulu, Kulana Cannon didn’t lose power but there were strong winds that forced her family to clean and secure everything in their yard.
“We feel like we've done all the preparation,” he said. “It's not like this is normal, but it's normal for Hawaii — there's always a hurricane season.”
Oahu lies 130 miles northwest of the Big Island, which bore the brunt of Hoenn's impact. Although Oahu was not in the storm's direct path, lessons from the tragedy on Maui last August, where Hurricane Dora's strong winds fanned a devastating fire that razed the town of Lahaina, are now ingrained in the mindset.
“Given what happened on Maui last year, it’s even more important that this be taken more seriously than just normal day-to-day hurricane season,” Cannon said.
Where is Tropical Storm Hon?
Tropical Storm Hon was located Monday morning about 280 miles west-southwest of Honolulu and 240 miles southwest of Lihue, Hawaii, according to the Honolulu-based Central Pacific Hurricane Center.
The storm had maximum sustained winds of 65 mph and its tropical-force winds extended 90 miles from its center. Moving west at 13 mph, the storm is forecast to move away from Hawaii and weaken in the coming days, the hurricane center said.
Experts say it's extremely rare for two hurricanes to pass near Hawaii in succession.
If Hurricane Gilma affects Hawaii by Sunday, it will be the first time in 30 years that two named storms will pass within 300 miles of the state within a week.
According to AccuWeather, the last time two consecutive named storms affected the islands was in September 1992, when Hurricane Iniki, the strongest hurricane to directly hit Hawaii, struck three days later, followed by Tropical Depression Orlene.
Storm systems don't have to pass directly over Hawaii to cause devastation. Last year, Hurricane Dora fueled the deadliest wildfires in the U.S. in more than a century.
Forecasters were concerned that Hoen's winds could replicate Dora's effects, especially since large parts of the islands are struggling with persistent drought conditions, but the storm brought so much rain that fears were allayed and wildfire warnings were canceled for parts of Hawaii's Big Island.
Tropical Storm Hector expected to strengthen in Eastern Pacific
To the east of Hurricane Gilma is Tropical Storm Hector, the latest storm to hit the Pacific Ocean.
According to the National Hurricane Center, the storm is expected to move west in the general direction of Hawaii over the next few days. While officials are closely tracking the storm, it's too early to tell how close it will come to the state.
As of 11 a.m. Hawaii time on Monday, Hector was 1,000 miles west-southwest of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula. The hurricane center said the storm was moving west at 10 mph and had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph.
As air pressure decreases, the storm will begin moving toward the Central Pacific Basin early this week. According to the hurricane center, Hector's intensity is expected to be limited due to dry air and strong air pressure.
Understanding hurricane basins and names
Tropical storms and hurricanes are what meteorologists call “basins.” Americans are most familiar with the Atlantic Basin, which includes storms that form in the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. Most storms that affect the United States are Atlantic Basin storms.
There are two basins in the eastern and central parts of the Pacific Ocean where hurricanes tend to affect the US. Hurricanes in the eastern and central Pacific rarely affect land areas and generally move out to sea. However, they can sometimes affect the west coast of Mexico, the southwestern US, and Hawaii.
The Atlantic and East Pacific basins have a six-year rotating list of names to identify storms, which is updated and maintained by the World Meteorological Organization, NOAA said. The Central Pacific basin has its own rotating list of Hawaiian names.
Often storms move from the Eastern Pacific Basin to the Central Pacific Basin. In that case, the storm's original name is kept; that will be the case with Hurricane Gilma this weekend. Only if a storm first forms in the Central Pacific Basin will it be given a Hawaiian name, such as Hurricane Hone.
– Doyle Rice