Hurricane Lowell Brings Heavy Rains as It Passes West of Hawaii
Hurricane Lowell passed west of Hawaii, where heavy rains may cause hundreds of millions of dollars of damage.
Lowell, with top winds of 105 miles (169 kilometers) per hour, edged west of Kauai but is still dropping heavy rain, as well as sending pounding surf across the US state and island chain, the US National Hurricane Center said in an advisory.
Some parts of Kauai may get as much as 24 inches (61 centimeters) of rain, while the Big Island of Hawaii gets about half that, the hurricane center said. The more heavily populated Maui and Oahu will likely get an additional 5 inches of rain.
“Periods of heavy rainfall associated with Lowell will overspread the Hawaiian Islands through Wednesday,” Brad Reinhart, a senior hurricane specialist at the center, wrote in a forecast analysis. “This may produce significant flash flooding and mudslides, especially across Kauai County and portions of the Big Island.”
Damages across the islands may reach $600 million, said Chuck Watson, a disaster modeler with Enki Research. If the flooding is particularly bad, Lowell’s costs may top out at $1 billion.
In addition to its torrential rains, surf and winds, Lowell may spawn some tornadoes through the islands. It’s forecast to spiral off to the northwest into the open Pacific in coming days, but will likely still be a tropical storm by Saturday, the center said.
Hawaii has had a series of tropical and Kona low storms that have brought torrential rains to the islands since last winter, prompting evacuations, power outages and devastating flooding. An unusually high number of five hurricanes or tropical storms have menaced the 50th U.S. state in the past three months.
Top photo: Large waves break off Diamond Head Beach Park in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Sept. 6. Photographer: Michelle Bir/AFP/Getty Images. Bloomberg.
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