By Audrey McAvoy and Caleb Jones Aug. 25, 2018 Updated: Aug. 25, 2018 8:18 p.m.
People look across the ocean from Waikiki Beach toward the storm churning in the distance. Hurricane Lane has been downgraded to a tropical storm.
HONOLULU — Hawaii emerged Saturday from the threat of a potentially devastating hurricane after historic amounts of rain forced evacuations on some islands but damage appeared less than feared.
Tropical Storm Lane, once known as Hurricane Lane, began to break apart as it veered west into the open Pacific, leaving behind sighs of relief and plenty of cleanup, especially on the Big Island where rainfall totals approached 4 feet.
The National Weather Service canceled all storm warnings for the state, several hours after shopkeepers in Honolulu’s tourist-heavy areas already started taking down plywood meant to protect windows if the storm made it that far.
Preliminary figures from the weather service show Lane dropped the fourth-highest amount of rain for a hurricane to hit the United States since 1950. Hurricane Harvey, which devastated Texas a year ago, topped the list.
The storm’s outer bands dumped as much as 45 inches on the mostly rural Big Island, measurements showed. The main town of Hilo, population 43,000, was flooded Friday with waist-high water.
Authorities rescued 39 people from floodwaters Friday and Saturday, all in the eastern part of the Big Island where the rain concentrated, Hawaii County Civil Defense spokeswoman Kelly Wooten said. Teams were assessing damage, she said, but continued to focus on recovery efforts because it was still raining.
About 200 miles and several islands to the northwest, tourists wandered Waikiki Beach and took swims as shopkeepers prepared to reopen.
Winds were also calmer on Maui, which had seen about 12 inches of rain and wind gusts up to 50 mph. On Saturday, winds were far calmer. Like the Big Island, Maui experienced flooding and landslides.
Lane first approached the islands last week as a Category 5 hurricane, meaning it was likely to cause catastrophic damage with winds of 157 mph or above. But upper-level winds known as shear swiftly tore the storm apart.
“It’s great that it didn’t get us,” Nick Palumbo II, who lives and owns a surf shop on the island of Lanai, said of Lane.
Audrey McAvoy and Caleb Jones are Associated Press writers.