Hawaii wildfire death toll surpasses 100: governor

KAHULUI, United States - The number of people known to have died in the horrific wildfire that levelled a Hawaiian town topped 100 Tuesday, the state's governor said.

"101 lives have now been lost," Josh Green said, raising by two a toll that has crept up slowly over the last few days.

Over a quarter of the disaster zone has been searched, Green said, with dogs trained to look for bodies combing the ashes of what was once Lahaina, a picturesque tourist spot on Maui.

Green has repeatedly warned that the final count from the tragedy will be significantly higher, urging Hawaiians to gird for a number that could be two or three times its present level.

The toll has already made last week's wildfire the deadliest in the United States for over a century.

Agence France-Presse

Maui hunkers down for Tropical Storm Olivia nearing Hawaii

HONOLULU — Maui hunkered down for heavy rains and powerful winds as a gradually weakening tropical storm barreled toward Hawaii, while Honolulu hoped it would be spared the worst.

Forecasters said Tropical Storm Olivia could dump 5 to 10 inches (12 to 25 centimeters) of rain, with some places getting as much as 15 inches.


Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa urged residents to store drinking water and warned that they should plan for power outages, landslides, high surf, fallen trees and flooded roads.

“Nature has a real funny way of not giving us advance notice,” Arakawa said.

Olivia was about 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Maui and packing winds of 50 mph (85 kph) late Tuesday. The storm, which was a hurricane earlier in the week, has been slowly losing power as it nears the state.

Schools, courts and government offices will be closed in Maui County on Wednesday in preparation for the storm.

Scott Zaffram, a senior response official with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said emergency teams and supplies were ready on Maui.

The National Guard has mobilized personnel and trucks to the east side of Maui, said Herman Andaya, administrator of the county’s emergency management agency.

Hawaiian Airlines cancelled flights by its commuter airline, Ohana by Hawaiian.

Officials were worried about landslides in west Maui because brushfires during Hurricane Lane three weeks ago wiped out vegetation, Maui County spokesman Rod Antone said.

Maui’s Costco was a “packed house” all day Monday, but the stream of customers slowed by Tuesday afternoon, said general manager Tony Facemire. Lines at the gas pumps remained long Tuesday, he said.

The store was well-stocked with most items, but was out of lanterns, flashlights and generators, he said.

The owner of the only hardware store in the small town of Hana on the east side of Maui said he was determined to stay open so residents could buy tarps, screws or other supplies for their homes.

“I think it’s important for us to try to stay open as much as possible, without jeopardizing the well-being of our staff,” said Neil Hasegawa, owner of Hasegawa General Store.

The storm was expected to affect Hana starting Tuesday night, and residents were bracing for Hana, with a population of 1,200 people, to take the brunt of the storm, Hasegawa said.

Those who prepared for Hurricane Lane have largely left those preparations in place for Olivia, he said.

“I think they’re even taking it more seriously than Lane,” Hasegawa said. “You can see the track going … it’s like barreling down on this eastern end.”

Hana is a popular day-trip destination for travelers staying in Maui’s resort towns. But Hasegawa urged people who don’t need to be in Hana to stay away because they could become trapped and take up limited shelter space.

Visitors Aaron Huston and his girlfriend Selena Palamides weren’t letting Olivia spoil their Maui vacation.

The Seattle couple stocked their hotel room mini-fridge with munchies and bottled water, “just in case we can’t go out,” Huston said.

They tried to get more sightseeing done Tuesday in case they’re stuck at their resort in Wailea on Wednesday.

“It sucks but there’s nothing we can do about it,” Huston said. “It’s better than Seattle rain.”


Resort workers were preparing for the storm by taking down beach cabanas, he said.

Public schools on the Big Island, Oahu and Kauai will be open.

Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell said his city’s offices will be open as usual. City buses also will be running normally unless winds exceed 40 mph (64 kph).

“We don’t want to overreact and tell everyone to stay home when maybe it’s not going to be as bad,” said Caldwell. /atm

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

5 tourists rescued from flooded home as storm hits Hawaii

HONOLULU — Sirens wailed while workers piled sandbags in front of hotels and police blasted warnings to tourists to leave the world-famous Waikiki Beach as hurricane “Lane” barreled north after dumping nearly two feet of rain on Hawaii’s mostly rural Big Island.

Emergency crews rescued five California tourists from a home they were renting in Hilo after a nearby gulch overflowed and it flooded Thursday.

Suzanne Demerais said a tiny waterfall and small stream flowed near the home when she first arrived with four of her friends from the Los Angeles area. But the stream turned into a torrent and the river rose rapidly over 24 hours.


Hawaii County firefighters, who were in touch with the home’s owner, decided to evacuate the group before the water rose further. They floated the five out on their backs, Demerais said.

“It was quite an experience because we weren’t planning to have a hurricane during our vacation time,” Demerais said.

The hurricane, whose center was still offshore, lashed the Big Island with nearly 20 inches (50 centimeters) of rain in about 24 hours. It had maximum sustained winds near 120 mph (193 kph), making it a Category 3 hurricane.

Forecasters said the center of the storm will move close to or over parts of Hawaii’s main islands late Friday, bringing dangerous surf of 20 feet (6 meters).


About 320 kilometers (200 miles) north of Hilo, on the state’s most populated island of Oahu, employees of the Sheraton Waikiki resort filled sandbags to protect the oceanfront hotel from surging surf.

Stores along Waikiki’s glitzy Kalakaua Avenue stacked sandbags along the bottom of their glass windows to prepare for heavy rain and flash flooding.

Police on loudspeakers told surfers and swimmers to get out of the water, saying the beach would be closed until further notice.

The Marriott Resort Waikiki Beach in Honolulu designated a ballroom on the third floor as a shelter for guests and began removing lounge chairs from around the pool and bar area.


At the Hilton Hawaiian Village, guest Elisabeth Brinson said hotel staff left a notice that the rooms will still have water and phone service, and a backup generator would power one elevator per building in the event of a power outage.

Brinson, a native of the United Kingdom now living in Denver, said many shops were closed, and those still open were frantic with people buying food, beer and water to take back to their rooms.

“We knew it was coming, so I tried to just cram as much as I could into the last few days in anticipation so we could cross things off of our list,” said Brinson, who is accustomed to hurricanes after living in Florida.



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 (about 80 centimeters) of rain.

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 canceled all Friday flights by its commuter carrier, Ohana by Hawaiian.

Hawaii’s biggest hotels are confident they can keep their guests safe as long as they stay inside, said Mufi Hannemann, CEO of Hawaii Tourism and Lodging Association.

“The only concern is those that venture outside of the properties, that would like to hike on a day like this or who would like to still go into the ocean and see what it’s like to take a swim or surf in these kind of waters,” Hannemann said.

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

Shelters were open throughout the islands, with 350 people in them in Oahu. Aid agencies were also working to help Hawaii’s sizable homeless population, many of whom live near beaches and streams that could flood.

Because there’s not enough shelter space statewide, Hawaii Emergency Management Agency Administrator Tom Travis urged people who were not in flood zones to stay home.

The National Weather Service downgraded the Big Island to a tropical storm warning, meaning it expects sustained winds of 39 mph (62 kph) to 73 mph (117 kph) on the island instead of stronger hurricane force winds.

But a hurricane warning remains in effect for Oahu and Maui County.

The central Pacific gets fewer hurricanes than other regions, with about only four or five named storms a year. Hawaii rarely gets hit. The last major storm to hit was Iniki in 1992. Others have come close in recent years.

Because people in Hawaii are confined to the islands, they have to make sure they have enough supplies to outlast power outages and other potential emergencies.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency moved several barges packed with food, water, generators and other supplies into the region ahead of Hurricane Hector, which skirted past the islands more than a week ago, FEMA Administrator Brock Long said.   /kga

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Scientists: Possible new octopus species found near Hawaii

HONOLULU—Scientists say they have discovered what might be a new species of octopus while searching the Pacific Ocean floor near the Hawaiian Islands.

On Feb. 27, a team found a small light-colored octopus at a depth of about 2.5 miles in the ocean near Necker Island, said Michael Vecchione of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The octopus did not have fins and all of its suckers were in one row on each arm, Vecchione said.

The octopus “did not seem very muscular” and was light colored, he said.

“This resulted in a ghostlike appearance, leading to a comment on social media that it should be called Casper, like the friendly cartoon ghost. It is almost certainly an undescribed species …, ” he said in the statement posted on Wednesday on the NOAA website (http://1.usa.gov/1oXarVu.)

It’s unusual to find an octopus without fins so deep in the ocean, said Vecchione, who noted that the previous depths at which an octopus without fins was found were all less than 4,000 meters, or 2.5 miles.

Two scientists he has consulted “agreed that this is something unusual and is a depth record …,” said Vecchione, who is with NOAA’s National Systematics Laboratory.

The octopus was discovered during a search of the ocean floor by a remotely operated vehicle from NOAA’s Okeanos Explorer, he said.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Slow-moving lava sets house ablaze in Hawaii town

HONOLULU — A stream of lava set a home on fire Monday in a rural Hawaii town that has been watching the slow-moving flow approach for months.

The molten rock hit the house just before noon, said Hawaii County Civil Defense Director Darryl Oliveira. The home’s renters already had left the residence in Pahoa, the largest town in Big Island’s isolated and mostly agricultural Puna district.

 

Earlier in the day, lava burned down a small corrugated steel storage shed on the property, Oliveira said.

The lava from Kilauea volcano emerged from a vent in June and entered Pahoa Oct. 26, when it crossed a country road at the edge of town. Since then, it has smothered part of a cemetery and burned down a garden shed. It also burned tires, some metal materials and mostly vegetation in its path.

Firefighters will basically let a structure burn, but they will fight any wildfires that spread or threaten other structures, Oliveira said.

The county estimates the value of the home at about $200,000, Oliveira said.

Oliveira said officials would make arrangements for homeowners to watch any homes burn as a means of closure and to document the destruction for insurance purposes.

The leading edge of the molten rock had stalled Oct. 30, but lava was breaking away at several spots upslope. The leading edge remained about 480 feet (150 meters) from Pahoa Village Road, the main street that goes through downtown.

Crews have been working on alternate routes to be used when lava hits a major highway in a lifeline for the Puna district.

Many residents have evacuated or are ready to leave if necessary.

Imelda Raras lives on the other end of Apaa Street from where the lava burned its first house.

She and her family have put a lot of their belongings in storage and are ready to go to a friend’s home if the lava gets close.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net