Hawaii residents started to relax Sunday afternoon after days of keeping a cautious eye on Hurricane Ana, which for several days had been churning dangerously close by.
National Weather Service forecasters are now predicting the storm will pass by the island chain without doing much damage.
“The good news is, it looks like we’ve dodged a bullet yet again,” Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell said.
Storm watch cancelled
A tropical storm watch was cancelled Sunday for Oahu, the state’s most populous island. A tropical storm warning remains in effect for Kauai and Niihau, and a hurricane watch has been issued for parts of a few remote northwestern Hawaiian islands, which are home to a largely uninhabited marine sanctuary.
Forecasters said they expect the storm will pass about 112 kilometres south of Niihau.
There have been no reports of injuries, deaths or significant damage from the storm, which was upgraded to a hurricane as it neared Hawaii late last week. The effects have been limited to heavy rain, large waves and some minor flooding.
Officials, however, asked people to stay home, avoid rain-soaked roads and keep out of the ocean.
“The ocean is angry today,” Honolulu Ocean Safety Chief Jim Howe said, noting that there was plenty of brown water, which attracts sharks, near popular beaches.
Kauai officials remained on alert with the storm warning and flash flood watch in effect. Kauai County Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. said some beaches had been closed due to rain and high surf, but the day was otherwise typical.
A few hundred people on the island experienced power outages, but many had their service restored by Sunday morning.
Hawaiian Airlines cancelled some morning Kauai flights, leaving about two dozen travellers to wait for an afternoon trip.
There were no reports of problems on Niihau, a privately owned island that’s home to fewer than 100 people.
Hurricane Ana was the second large storm to bear down on Hawaii recently. Tropical Storm Iselle hit the Big Island in August, leaving the Puna region with down trees and power outages.
Kauai braced for the worst, after forecasters said the storm was coming closer than had been predicted. Many there remember the destruction of Hurricane Iniki, which killed six people and destroyed more than 1,400 homes in 1992. Kevin Adkisson, however, wasn’t on Kauai for that storm and had mixed feelings Sunday.
“It’s kind of a nonevent so far,” he said. “I was kind of looking forward to my first hurricane, but I’m glad it didn’t tear anything up or hurt anybody.”
Road crews in Kau, a coffee-growing region on the Big Island, reopened Mamalahoa Highway, which had been shut down.
“We just lucked out this one,” Darryl Oliveira, director of Hawaii County Civil Defense, said.
Mudslides kill 6 in southern Mexico
Heavy rains brought by the remnants of Tropical Storm Trudy have caused mudslides and flooding in southern Mexico that left at least six people dead.
A man looks at the sea as dark clouds brought by Tropical Storm Trudy are seen in Acapulco on Saturday. Tropical Storm Trudy made landfall on Mexico’s southern Pacific coast on Saturday, where it caused flash floods and mudslides. (Claudio Vargas/Reuters)
Raul Miliani, deputy secretary of Civil Protection in Guerrero state, told a news conference Sunday that five of the dead were killed in the municipality of Ometepec, 200 kilometres east of Acapulco, where part of a water-soaked mountainside collapsed and a raging river swept away a 70-year-old man.
The sixth person died in Tlacoachistlahuaca, a municipality near the border with Oaxaca state.
Miliani said states of emergency have been declared in 36 municipalities, and that 4,075 people were evacuated to shelters.
He said classes had been suspended for an area stretching from the tourist resort of Acapulco to the border with Oaxaca.
