Kona, Hawaii • A powerful hurricane that already has dumped more than two feet of rain on parts of the Big Island is expected to keep soaking the state through the weekend, exacerbating dramatic flood conditions as residents hunker down and wait for the storm to pass.
Officials downgraded Hurricane Lane to Category 2 on Friday morning but say threats of landslides, storm surge and flooding remain a major concern because the storm has slowed in speed. The crawl along the island chain's edge gives the hurricane more time to unleash more rain over Hawaii before it weakens and makes an expected break to the west sometime Saturday.
"This is going to be a marathon-based event," FEMA Administrator William "Brock" Long said in a news conference Friday morning. "The bottom line is we're going to see torrential rains occur for the next 48 to 72 hours and we hope that all the citizens within Hawaii are heeding the warnings that local and state officials are putting out."
The storm has caused power outages, felled trees and shut down roads across the state.
Drone video of downtown Hilo on the east side of Hawaii's largest island shows large swaths of the area covered in brown, murky floodwaters. Some parts of the Big Island have seen more than 31 inches of rain, more than double the 12 inches reported Thursday
https://www.sltrib.com/news/nation-world/2018/08/25/hurricane-lane-continues/
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