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White House monitoring Hurricane Madeline but Obama’s trip still on

ASSOCIATED PRESS

White House press secretary Josh Earnest speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington today.

The White House is monitoring the path of Hurricane Madeline in advance of President Barack Obama’s visit to Honolulu Wednesday evening.

But, so far, there are no plans to cancel the trip.

“At this point, based on the projected track of the storm, we do not anticipate it having any impact on the president’s itinerary,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said today during the daily press briefing at the White House.

Obama is scheduled to leave Washington D.C. Wednesday morning to give a speech at a climate change summit at Lake Tahoe in Nevada. He is scheduled to leave Reno in the afternoon and arrive in Honolulu at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam at 5:50 p.m.

Parts of the H-1 freeway will be closed as the president’s motorcade travels to the East-West Center in Manoa, where he is scheduled to deliver remarks at 6:30 p.m.

He is scheduled to stay overnight in a rented home in Kailua and leaves Thursday morning for Midway Island. The president’s schedule calls for him to return to Honolulu Thursday night and leave Friday morning from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam for China.

Hurricane Madeline is on a path that could take it near or over Hawaii island Wednesday into Thursday. Hurricane warnings are posted for Hawaii County and a tropical storm watch is posted for Maui County. There are no warnings or watches posted for Oahu.

11 responses to “White House monitoring Hurricane Madeline but Obama’s trip still on”

  1. Keonigohan says:

    Nothing will stop The Duffer from hitting the golf course.

  2. noheawilli says:

    Slow down the debt clock and stay in DC, we’ll have enough to deal with on the streets.

  3. titasmom says:

    Maybe travelling by helicopter or boat can be an option to lessen the impact on Oahu’s roads since he seems to be travelling during peak traffic hours while he is here. Give us a break please! He’s not scheduled to land until 5:50pm, but I heard they are closing the roads (H-1 ?) at 4pm. Well, Eastbounders are in for a very long commute tomorrow….better off just staying home or getting off early

    • kahaluu96744 says:

      Don’t they always bring the helicopter in a cargo plane wherever he goes? Then use it and spare us the traffic jam! Also, haven’t you heard of teleconferencing? Since he is so concerned about global warming, spare us the carbon footprint of Air Force One by staying home and doing your job (not campaigning) in the White House and not imposing on us just to give a speech!

  4. WizardOfMoa says:

    It seems every time our President visit, nature seems to give us a visit too. It must be our islands means of trumpet blast of welcome for our Leader. How wonderful if our President would give us a treat of peace of mind by curtailing his visit or bypassed us toward his other destinations. It’s inconvenient more than lack of aloha on our part especially when we are expecting an uninvited guest called Madeline.

  5. teatime808 says:

    He has no aloha for Hawaii. If he did, he wouldn’t want to cause any inconvenience at a time when we are concerned with two storms and thousands of conventioneers! Local people would say, ‘nah, nah, no need, too much trouble.’ Right? He could very well do his speech by video conference and spend the night at Hickam. If need be, I’m sure his plane is plenty comfy. His mindset is not ‘local’ it’s ‘loco.’

    • retire says:

      Since most of the people coming here for the Conference are only coming because it’s being held in Hawaii (vacation opportunity), they should start holding these conferences on Maui or the Big Island. I’m sure any of the major resorts would welcome the chance for the related income from such events, and it wouldn’t cause any traffic issues.

  6. teatime808 says:

    I wonder how much he’s getting for his speeches?

  7. DVM says:

    The Obama visit novelty has long since worn off. The roads should not be closed. US Pacific Command has VIP helicopters, and the President should stay on base at JBPHH. The people need to use the roads to get to and from work and to go about our daily business. The Mayor and the Governor have the authority to keep the roads open and to force the Secret Service to move the President around in ways and at times that don’t disrupt everything. Although they have the authority, they don’t have two other things they both need to actually take charge and support the people who put them in office. Sad. Very sad.

  8. scooters says:

    Maybe the Chinese can keep him as a Long Time Guest, for sure we don’t need him anymore…never did…

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