Tropical Storm Moke carrying more rain toward hurricane-damaged Hawaii

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 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.

Forecasters expected Moke to produce as much as 10 inches of total rain across the Big Island, and up to 15 inches 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.

There were no coastal watches or warnings in effect, but people were urged to closely monitor the storm’s progress. Hawaii Gov. Josh Green and other state officials held a news conference ahead of Moke, urging people to prepare by restocking food, medicine and other essentials.

“There’s definitely tension in the air” at the thought of more rain in communities hit by raging floods, said Tiffany Edwards Hunt, a teacher in Keaau, on the east side of the Big Island.