Civil defense officials, other emergency responders and community volunteers, many of whom have been working long hours most of the week, continued to track Hurricane Julio on Saturday night at Civil Defense headquarters in Hilo.
At 11 p.m. Saturday, Julio was about 325 miles east-northeast of Hilo with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph, with higher gusts. That’s about 10 mph less than the previous report 12 hours earlier, according to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center.
Gradual weakening of the storm, which is now a Category 1 hurricane, is forecast during the next 48 hours, but Julio is expected to remain a hurricane through tonight.
Hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 35 miles from the center of the storm, and tropical storm force winds extended outward up to 160 miles, according to the hurricane center.
The storm was traveling to the northwest at 16 mph and was expected to pass north of the Big Island this morning.
“Based on my discussions … with the National Weather Service, it’s on a more northerly track,” Hawaii County Civil Defense Administrator Darryl Oliveira said Saturday evening. “We could experience some rain. No (increased) wind is forecasted; maybe some surf. … It’s so far out right now it’s hard for them to gauge how much rain we could see. They could still put us on a flash flood warning and watch depending on how much rain and how long it is.”
Officials have expressed concern that further drenching of already saturated grounds could cause flooding in some portions of the Big Island. The eastern-facing shores of the Big Island are under a high surf warning.
“We’ve asked the National Weather Service as it moves forward any time we could experience rain or surf to let us know in advance because we’ve got people in the community who lost their roofs,” Oliveira said. “We’ve got people down in the Kapoho area who are already affected by surf and surges. We want to keep them informed so they can take action.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.