HONOLULU (AP) — Tropical Storm Moke was swirling past Hawaii on Sunday, close enough to dump heavy rain on Big Island communities in the aftermath of Hurricane Lala.
The National Hurricane Center located Moke’s center about 310 miles (500 kilometers) south of Hilo on Sunday morning. Its top sustained winds were around 45 mph (75 kph), but the real impact will be the rainfall in places where last weekend’s hurricane downed trees and power lines, caused mudslides and damaged roads and bridges. Two deaths related to the hurricane were reported.
READ MORE: Tropical Storm Moke advances toward Hawaii as winds strengthen
Forecasters expected Moke to produce as much as 10 inches (25 centimeters) of total rain across the Big Island, and up to 15 inches (38 centimeters) in some isolated places, enough to cause life-threatening flooding and mudslides for the windward and southeast slopes, especially in steep terrain and over areas affected by Lala. In eastern Maui, the next in the island chain, up to 6 inches was expected, and the other islands may get an inch or two, the hurricane center said.
As with Hurricane Lala, the Big Island was expected to bear the brunt of Moke’s rain and winds as it moves westward, south of the island chain.
The northeast coast of the Big Island saw the heaviest total rainfall from Lala, at 43.54 inches (1.1 meters), according to the weather service. More than 6,700 customers, most of them on the Big Island, remained without electricity on Sunday, according to poweroutage.us.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green and other officials had held a news conference ahead of Moke, urging people to prepare by restocking food, medicine and other essentials.
Elsewhere, Tropical Storm Iselle formed Sunday in warm eastern Pacific waters well offshore of Mexico’s southwest coast.
Iselle had top sustained winds of 45 mph (75 kph) and was located about 595 miles (955 kilometers) south-southwest of the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula. No coastal watches or warnings were in effect for the storm as it moved to the west-northwest at 12 mph (19 kph) far out at sea.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Iselle could become a hurricane in another day or two and would kick up strong ocean swells on Baja’s western coast starting Monday.
