Hurricane to threaten Hawaiʻi with flooding over weekend

Hawaiʻi will be threatened by yet another hurricane over the weekend, after a tropical depression reformed to the south of the island chain.

The depression, with winds of 35 miles (56 kilometers) per hour, is expected to strengthen into a Category 2 storm with winds of 110 miles per hour as it nears the Big Island of Hawaiʻi Saturday, according to the National Hurricane Center. Heavy rain is forecast to start falling in eastern Hawaiʻi Wednesday.

“Life-threatening, catastrophic flooding and mudslides are possible from rainfall totals in excess of a foot,” Larry Kelly and John Cangialosi, forecasters at the hurricane center, wrote in an analysis.

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El Niño is generating abnormally warm water between Mexico and Hawaiʻi, fueling a string of powerful hurricanes and typhoons this year. Hawaiʻi has been menaced by at least five tropical systems so far, including Hurricane Lowell that triggered warnings on Oʻahu and Kauaʻi earlier this month and Lala that came within miles of making landfall on the Big Island in August.

Hawaii’s Emergency Management Agency has warned residents to prepare for flooding in a Facebook post late Tuesday. The US island state has been battered by tropical storms and hurricanes, as well as Kono Lows since last winter.