Tropical Storm Hone sweeps past Hawaii; Amounts of rain ease fire fears

Hone passed south of Hawaii and weakened from a hurricane to a tropical storm on Sunday, dumping so much rain that the National Weather Service canceled red flag warnings that strong winds could fuel fires on drier parts of the islands .

Meanwhile, the Eastern Pacific saw a new threat emerge with the formation of Tropical Storm Hector, packing sustained winds of 45 mph. There were no coastal watches or warnings in effect as Hector flew far out to sea, the National Hurricane Center said.

Hone (pronounced hoe-NEH) had maximum winds of 70 mph Sunday evening as it slowly spun past Hawaii about 180 miles southwest of Honolulu and 185 miles south of Lihue, according to an advisory from 11:00 PM from the Central Pacific Hurricane Center.

Jon Jelsema, a forecaster at the Central Pacific Hurricane Center, said earlier Sunday that tropical storm-force winds were blowing across the island’s southeast-facing slopes, bringing up to a foot (or more) of rain.

Flooding closed Highway 11 between Kona and Hilo, and a higher elevation alternative, Cane Road, was also closed by flooding, isolating properties such as Aikane Plantation Coffee Co. outside Pahala, where owner Phil Becker said his 10-inch rain gauge overflowed in the flood.

“We’ve got quite a lot of flood damage, the gullies are going full speed ahead and they’re overflowing the bridges, so we’re trapped here, we can’t get in or out,” Becker said Sunday.

Becker said his plantation is off the grid, powered by batteries charged with solar electricity, and his family is safe, so they have no reason to evacuate. The weather may even prove beneficial: “We’ve been in a drought situation, so the coffee probably loves all this rain,” he said.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Gilma weakened to a still-major Category 3 hurricane late Saturday, but was far east of Hawaii and expected to weaken into a depression before reaching the islands. Gilma was expected to remain a hurricane through Tuesday and was 1,260 miles east of Hilo at 11:00 p.m. Sunday with winds of 100 mph.

Shelters were open as Hurricane Hone bore down, and beach parks on the eastern side of the Big Island were closed because of dangerously high surf, Hawaii County Mayor Mitch Roth said.

Jelsema offered a vivid metaphor for precipitation: “As the rain is pushed up the mountain terrain, it wrings it out, like wringing a wet towel,” he said.

“It was really soaked those areas, there was road flooding. Roads have been cut off by high floodwaters there in the windward sections of the big island and really that’s the only part of the state that has had a lot of flooding issues right now,” he said.

Hone, whose name is Hawaiian for “sweet and soft,” brought up still-fresh memories of last year’s deadly wildfires on Maui that were fueled by hurricane-force winds. Red flag alerts are issued when warm temperatures, very low humidity and stronger winds combine to raise fire danger. Most of the archipelago is already abnormally dry or in drought, according to the US Drought Monitor.

The August 8, 2023 fire that burned historic Lahaina was the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century, killing 102. Dry, overgrown grasses and drought contributed to the fire’s spread.

Calvin Endo, a Waianae Coast neighborhood board member who lives in Makaha, a windward Oahu neighborhood prone to wildfires, has worried for years about the dry brush on private property behind his house. He has taken matters into his own hands, clearing the bush himself, but is concerned about nearby homes bordering the overgrown vegetation.

“All you need is fire and wind and we’ll have another Lahaina,” Endo said as the storm approached. “I noticed the wind has already started to blow.”

The cause of the Lahaina fire is still under investigation, but it may have been ignited by bare electrical wire and leaning power poles knocked over by high winds. The state’s two power companies, Hawaiian Electric and Kauai Island Utility Cooperative, were prepared to cut power if necessary to reduce the chance of live and damaged power lines starting fires, but later said the safety measures would not be necessary because Hon. blew past the islands.

Roth said a small fire that started Friday night in Waikoloa on the dry side of the Big Island has been brought under control with no injuries or damage.

Walker reported from New York.

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