HONOLULU —As
the first tropical storm to hit Hawaii in 22 years passed by the
islands Friday, surfers took to the waves despite driving rain and
winds.
LIVE HURRICANE TRACKER: Get up-to-the-minute updates from Hawaii
The
first storm in a one-two punch heading for Hawaii clamored ashore
overnight as a weakened tropical storm. A second system close behind it,
Hurricane Julio, is on track to pass north of the islands by several
hundred miles.
Honolulu's lifeguard division said about a
dozen surfers were riding waves Friday at a spot nicknamed "Suicides,"
near the popular Diamond Head crater. Lifeguards on Oahu were planning
to only respond to emergency calls, avoiding regular patrols.
The
state Department of Health warned the public to stay out of floodwaters
and storm water runoff across Hawaii because it's known to attract
sharks when possible dead animals are washed into the ocean.
Tropical
Storm Iselle knocked out power, caused flooding and downed trees when
it crossed onto the Big Island. There have been no reports of injuries
or deaths, Gov. Neil Abercrombie said Friday.
About 21,000 homes
remained without power on the Big Island where the main part of Iselle
came ashore in a rural and sparsely populated region, Hawaii County
Civil Defense spokesman John Drummond said.
Heavy rains and wind
from the storm's outer bands were also hitting Maui and Oahu on Friday
as Iselle moved west, but south of the other islands, out to sea.
Abercrombie stressed that even though the brunt of storm hit the Big
Island and Maui, Kauai and Oahu need to remain vigilant.
"We won't be able to give all-clear until late this afternoon or early evening," Abercrombie said Friday.
Hurricane 101: Learn more about hurricanes
Back
on the Big Island, coffee farmers on the south shore tried to get
around fallen trees on flooded roads to determine any crop damage, said
Randy Stevens, general manager of Kau Coffee Mill.
"It's raining so hard we're just trying to get the roads opened up so we can get to the fields," Stevens said.
The
heavy rain and flooding seen in the southeastern Kau district is vastly
different from the relatively drier Kona region on the Big Island's
western shore, where much more coffee is grown, and the storm had little
impact.
"We're all buttoned up, but nothing happened," said Bruce Corker, a Kona coffee farmer.
Hurricane
Julio, some 900 miles behind in the Pacific, was downgraded to a
Category 2 storm and packed maximum sustained winds of about 105 mph.
National Weather Service officials predict it will continue to weaken on
a path that should take it about 200 miles north of the island chain
starting sometime Sunday morning.
However, there remains uncertainty given its distance from land.
"We're not out of the woods yet with Julio," Weather Service meteorologist Derek Wroe said.
If
Julio stays on track, "the impacts to the islands would be minimal,"
Wroe said. "We would see some large surf. ... We could see some heavy
showers. That's all assuming this track holds. Otherwise, we could still
see some tropical storm conditions."
Iselle also weakened,
having been downgraded to a tropical storm about 50 miles from shore at
11 p.m. HST Thursday, and within hours, its winds slowed to 60 mph, well
below the 74 mph threshold for a hurricane.
Experts said wind shear chopping at the system and the Big Island's mountainous terrain helped weaken the storm.
Hawaii
has been directly hit by hurricanes or tropical storms only three times
since 1950. The last time Hawaii was in 1992, when Hurricane Iniki
killed six people and destroyed more than 1,400 homes in Kauai.
The
state prepared for the back-to-back storms by closing government
offices, schools and transit services across Hawaii. But Saturday's
primary elections, including congressional and gubernatorial races, will
go forward as planned.
Travelers faced disrupted plans when at
least 50 flights were canceled by several airlines, the Hawaii Tourism
Authority said. Some airlines waived reservation change fees and fare
differences for passengers who needed to alter their plans.
The
storms are rare in Hawaii but not unexpected in El Nino years, a change
in ocean temperature that affects weather around the world.
Ahead
of this year's hurricane season, weather officials warned the wide
swath of the Pacific Ocean that includes Hawaii could see four to seven
tropical storms this year.
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