Government response to Lane: Whew! That was close

The mayor said we dodged a bullet. The governor said we can now go back to normal.

The weeklong fear generated by a powerful hurricane barreling straight for the Hawaiian Islands lifted Friday afternoon with a satellite image. Hurricane Lane had finally made the anticipated turn to the west.

Meteorologists confirmed it at 5 p.m. Lane was downgraded to a tropical storm as it moved away from the island chain.

That was a close one.

Government officials, who had been busy preparing for every contingency, turned their attention to restoring normal services, including opening harbors, resuming trash collection and bus service, and scaling down emergency operations.

“This is the weakening that we have been hoping for and anticipating,” John Bravender, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said during a Friday evening media briefing at the State Emergency Operations Center in Diamond Head Crater. “Normally a hurricane will weaken gradually. Lane had been a very persistent hurricane. Despite increasing wind shear, it had maintained its strength for a long time and moved northward into an increasingly hostile environment with very strong wind shear.”

“It appears that wind shear finally caught up to it, and over the course of several hours (Friday) morning, the core convection weakened significantly,” he said. “It was displaced from the center, and we saw this rapid, rapid weakening.”

Major threat appears over

Bravender and government officials said there is still potential for heavy wind, rainfall and flash flooding through the weekend, but the major threat to the islands appeared to be over.

“We want to encourage the public to stay vigilant and stay tuned to get updates on the status of the storm, and we will begin the process of restoring operations in the state to return back to normal,” said Gov. David Ige.

He said Hilo and Kawaihae harbors on Hawaii island had reopened as of 3 p.m. Friday and that the state was continuing to work with the Coast Guard and shipping companies to open the state’s other commercial harbors.

Ige said all the airports had continued to operate throughout the storm event, but there is expected to be increased congestion this weekend because some carriers had canceled flights.

Personnel and equipment will remain prepositioned to remove any debris along highways from rain and flooding, and the state will continue to monitor water quality at beaches to ensure pollution from runoff doesn’t create hazardous conditions.

Services being restored

Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell said that there were more than 1,000 people at shelters across Oahu as of Friday evening, including homeless. He said the shelters will remain open until noon today (Saturday), and buses will transport people for free from the shelters between 10 a.m. and noon.

Honolulu City bus service will gradually ramp up, starting in Waikiki, with full service expected to be restored by 2 p.m. today.

City bus service will also be free throughout Oahu all day, said Caldwell. Handi-van service will begin taking reservations at 8 a.m. today, and limited service will begin at 2 p.m.

For Oahu, normal trash service will resume Monday. All city parks will be open Sunday, except for Hanauma Bay due to ongoing concerns about strong currents. Ocean safety officials will remain on patrols today, and lifeguards will return to their towers Sunday. The Honolulu Zoo will open Sunday unless there is ponding or downed branches.

Caldwell said that the state “had dodged a bullet.”

“We all planned for the very worst and hoped for the very best, and I think we are lucky,” he said. “There will be folks tomorrow who will be talking about whether we should have done this and why did we have to go through all of this exercise. But we didn’t know. Mother Nature is unpredictable, and we are relying on the information provided.”

Tom Travis, administrator of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, said that the storm had helped ensure government and emergency officials were prepared.

“Hurricane season lasts several more months, and we need to stay ready,” he said.