Hurricane Lane threatens over 48,000 Hawaiian homes, $8B in damages
Officials and residents of Hawaii's Big Island are experiencing the biggest storm to hit in over a quarter century.
As Hurricane Lane treks directly towards Hawaii, residents of the state’s Big Island are already experiencing extreme weather with over 31 inches of rain that brought heavy flooding and landslides across the island.
Lane was downgraded to a Category 3 storm Thursday night, but the storm will continue to bring heavy rainfall, extreme winds and potential flash flooding, threatening more than 48,000 homes all across the state’s island chain according to data from CoreLogic.
High risk for flood damage
These 48,617 threatened homes are at extreme-to-very high risk of hurricane-driven flood damage, according to CoreLogic data, which predicts the total reconstruction cost value (RCV) to be approximately $8 billion.
Lane poses economic and insured losses to Hawaii’s entire island chain. Breaking down the $8 billion RCV by island, the data states:
- Hawaii – Has 1,881 homes at extreme or very high risk of flood damage, totaling just over $424 million in RCV.
- Oahu – Has 36,083 homes at extreme or very high risk of flood damage, totaling just over $5 billion in RCV.
- Kauai – Has 3,510 homes at extreme or very high risk of flood damage, totaling just over $923 million in RCV.
- Maui – Has 7,143 homes at extreme or very high risk of flood damage, totaling just over $1 billion in RCV.
Related: As hurricane nears Hawaii, FEMA promises to do better this time
Tracking the storm
As of Thursday night, Lane had maximum sustained winds of 120 mph and was moving north-northwest at 6 mph. Slow-moving Hurricane Lane did weaken overnight Thursday, downgrading from a Category 4 to a Category 3, and experts say the storm will likely downgrade again to a Category 2 on Friday.
The storm is still strong, however, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) warns that Lane will cause catastrophic flooding on Hawaii’s Big Island in particular as the storm continues to move north.
NOAA says the storm will continue to weaken as the weekend unfolds, and will likely downgrade to a tropical storm by Sunday morning.
Experts say Lane may be the first hurricane to make landfall in Hawaii in 26 years. The last storm to hit Hawaii with hurricane level strength came in 1992, when Hurricane Iniki made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane with 145 mph wind speeds, creating $5.5 billion in damage.
Shelter crisis
On Tuesday, state officials warned residents that the state is ill-prepared to shelter the estimates of residents and visitors.
In a press conference, Tom Travis, head of Hawaii’s Emergency Management Agency, simply stated that the state does not have enough shelter for everyone, and asked that citizens not in a flood zone remain in their homes, as there is not adequate shelter across the state’s main islands.
The Agency offers coastal evacuation maps and tsunami/evacuation zones that can be found in the telephone white pages or at Emergency Management’s website, where residents can find further information.
Related: How businesses should prepare for Hurricane Lane’s impact