Christina
Persico RNZ Pacific Senior bulletin editor
A
reporter with Hawaii News Now has described a “wild”
night as Hurricane Lowell passed by, with power out on
Tuesday morning and some oceanfront houses
destroyed.
The US National Weather Service has lifted
all warnings related to the storm, although it said
swells from Lowell will continue to generate
life-threatening surf and rip current conditions during the
next few days across many of the Hawaiian
Islands.
There’s also still a threat of flash
flooding.
Dillon Ancheta, a Kauai local, said they are
breathing a sigh of relief now the worst has
passed.
“Last night was a wild ride for our island,”
he told RNZ Pacific on Tuesday morning local time (Wednesday
NZT).
“The hardest-hit island was Kauai.
“We
know that the south-facing and west-facing shores got hit
really hard. We were hunkered down in the Kalapaki area,
which is a little bit southeast, and we still have seen some
damage here.
“We’re doing damage assessments right
now, and power poles in our main town have come down. Some
were snapped in half, and much of the island is without
electricity and cell service.
“We’ve seen pictures of
some oceanfront homes along the south-facing shores just
completely destroyed.”
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Ancheta said it’s unclear when
power would be restored, as there is extensive damage to the
grid.
He said the ocean was still very rocky and wild
mid-morning.
“The ground is very saturated, so it
won’t take much rain, if more rain comes down, to cause
flooding, especially based off of the topography and
geography of our land. Our island, Mount Waialeale is in
the centre of it, and all of the rain that collects there
really just floods outward, like from the centre of a
circle. And so low-lying areas should definitely remain
vigilant in the coming days.
“The weather right now,
it’s nice skies; the winds are still breezy, with some
passing showers. Of course, it’s going to be focused on
recovery here for our communities and also our team on the
ground reporting.”
Ancheta said they have seen people
out on the streets checking on each other.
“A lot of
people have been making their way on small bikes, golf
carts, cars even if they have gas and are driving
around.
“The people of this island, they’re usually
pretty happy, they’re kind, they know how to check on their
neighbors, and so it’s a good feeling right
now.
“Obviously, the communities that were hit harder,
they’re a little bit more worried, but they can rest easy
knowing that their neighbors will be taking care of
them.”
In an update at 11am local time, the weather
service said Hurricane Lowell was moving north at around 24
kilometres per hour..
“This general motion is forecast
through today, taking the core of Lowell farther from Kauai
County. Lowell is then forecast to turn toward the northwest
and west and slow down on Wednesday and Thursday after
passing the main Hawaiian Islands.”
It said the
storm’s maximum sustained winds were down to around 120km/h,
with higher gusts, and gradual weakening is forecast during
the next few
days.
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