South Point, Hawaii – Hours after getting jolted by a moderate earthquake, residents of Hawaii’s Big Island holed up for a different force of nature Tuesday: Hurricane Flossie, expected to deliver up to 10 inches of rain, waves as high as 25 feet and strong winds in a powerful but glancing blow.
Schools and many businesses closed and shelters opened in anticipation of the hurricane, downgraded to a Category 2 with top sustained winds of 105 mph. The eye of the storm passed within 85 miles of the island between 2 and 3 p.m. Hawaii time (6-7 p.m. MDT), and wind speeds on land were expected to exceed 40 mph.
The storm comes on the heels of a 5.4-magnitude earthquake centered 25 miles south of Hilo. The quake Monday night caused a small landslide, but there were no reports of injuries or structural damage, said Tom Brown, a spokesman for Hawaii County Civil Defense.
More than two dozen aftershocks followed, the largest of magnitude 3.2, said Jim Kauahikaua, scientist in charge at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.
Anticipating Flossie, the Federal Emergency Management Agency dispatched a 20-person advance emergency-response team that arrived in Hawaii on Monday, spokeswoman Kim Walz said. The team includes specialists in areas of transportation, aviation, public works and health.
While Flossie stirred up the Pacific, Tropical Storm Dean formed Tuesday in the open Atlantic, nearly 1,400 miles east of the Lesser Antilles. Dean was moving over increasingly warmer water, where conditions could create a favorable environment for intensification into a hurricane by Friday, but forecasters said it was too early to tell where Dean will go.
Also Tuesday, a tropical- storm watch was issued for parts of Texas and Mexico as a tropical depression formed in the central Gulf of Mexico. At 9 p.m. MDT, the fifth depression of the Atlantic hurricane season was centered about 425 miles east-southeast of Brownsville, Texas, and about 425 miles east of La Pesca, Mexico.
