FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COMIn the Hilo County Civil Defense offices yesterday, Hilo Fire Department Deputy Fire Chief Glen Honda, left, and U.S. Army Fire Deputy Chief Eric Moller listened as Mayor Harry Kim briefed officials in preparation for the approaching Hurricane Flossie. CLICK FOR LARGE |
|
Hilo braced and confident
The flurry of pre-storm preparations makes for brisk business
HILO » The National Weather Service was predicting that Hurricane Flossie would skirt the Big Island today, but Mayor Harry Kim was taking no chances.
"If any of you have contact with the Almighty, tell Him to keep it going," he told a roomful of county, state, federal and private officials.
The Hilo public was taking no chances, either, buying shopping carts full of bottled water, refilling propane tanks and lining up at gas stations to top off their cars' gas tanks.
FLOSSIE FORCES CLOSURES
Some information on closures and precautions:
EVACUATION CENTERS OPENED
» These 11 Big Island shelters were opened last night: Waiakea High School; Laupahoehoe High School; Honokaa High and Intermediate; Waikoloa Elementary; state office building in North Kohala; Kealakehe High School; Konawaena High; Kau High and Pahala Elementary; Keaau High School; Pahoa High and Intermediate; Mountain View Elementary.
CLOSED
» All Big Island public schools including charter schools, community schools for adults, and private schools
» All public libraries
» University of Hawaii at Hilo and Hawaii Community College
» County parks at Pohoiki, Punaluu and Whittington
» County roads to Vacationland subdivision and South Point
» All state parks, natural area reserves and state trails on the Big Island
» Most areas in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park except headquarters and crater rim
POSTPONED
» County Council committee meetings today, to next Tuesday in Hilo
» County Council meeting tomorrow, to Aug. 22 in Hilo
|
"It's madness," said a woman outside KTA Super Stores who declined to give her name. Despite numerous security guards directing traffic at the supermarket, she had driven to the store three times that day but had to leave because she could not find at place to park.
At about 6 p.m. she was finally successful. "I came for batteries," she said. "I spent $56 on food I didn't need."
Kim declared a state of emergency for the county yesterday, and private and public schools on the Big Island also were closed today.
With the storm still several hundred miles out to sea, only one spot on the Big Island was feeling any effects, a seaside portion of Vacationland subdivision 20 miles southeast of Hilo, where 3-foot-deep water rolled across tidal flats onto a subdivision street.
Even there, Kim sent workers house to house merely suggesting voluntary evacuation.
But conditions could get much worse today, with waves along the shore as much as 25 feet high from Vacationland to South Point, he said.
Fortunately there are few populated places along the coast, and parks and ocean entries on the 70-mile stretch were closed yesterday.
The hurricane picked up forward speed yesterday to 16 mph, which was a good thing, Kim said. Danger comes when the forward speed slows, giving the hurricane a chance to change course, he said.
The southeast coast of the island was likely to get, at most, as much as 10 inches of rain, he said. "We can handle that," he said.
A lot of people in Hilo were thinking about what they could handle, and some were thinking beyond lack of food and water.
Wayne Chong was standing in a line of about 30 people at Kai Store getting 5-gallon tanks filled with propane. Chong explained that he had meat in a freezer. If electricity failed, the meat would go bad, so he would need propane for his broiler to cook the meat, he said.
Leslie Nakamura of Hilo said she went to Longs Drug for water, but they were sold out. Next she went to KTA Super Stores where she found pallets of it stacked up.
Unlike others buying canned goods, Nakamura bought bread and fruit. "I figured it's never hit Hilo before, and it's not going to hit," she said. But if it does come, "I can always go to my in-laws. They have cows," she said.
"I bought gloves, rope and tarp," she said. "If it happens, we're going to have to clean up. I'm not touching broken glass," she said.