HILO, Hawaii — Hawaiians have storm fatigue, Hilo’s mayor said Sunday, as the third hurricane to approach the islands in recent weeks continues to spin offshore.The relatively calm state has been battered by the effects of multiple hurricanes, including Lala, Lowell and now Nolo, as the eastern and central Pacific have churned out at least 19 named storms.None of the three hurricanes has made landfall in Hawaii.
“So there’s storm fatigue and there’s some PTSD,” Mayor Kimo Alameda told NBC News on Sunday.“I mean, you know, there’s a lot of anxiety around the weather now.
You know, a lot of our folks out in the south side, they experienced, you know, catastrophic flooding,” he said, referring to the impacts of Hurricane Lala last month.That storm killed two people, Alameda said, and damaged more than 200 homes without making landfall.
Gov.Josh Green subsequently issued three disaster proclamations related to damage from separate storms in September alone.Officials have reported some rescues but no deaths or major damage from Nolo.“We did take some hits in some parts of the island,” Alameda said.
“For the most part, we dodged a huge bullet.It could have been much worse.”More than 120 National Guard members were activated on the island for Nolo, among roughly 400 statewide, after Green issued an emergency proclamation.
President Donald Trump recently approved an emergency declaration, authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate assistance and provide funding support.In Nāʻālehu, at the island’s southern point, Peggy McKibbin surveyed silt-covered roads from her four-wheeler Sunday and pointed out the lingering damage from Lala — a bakery, a fire station and a hardware store wiped out.“Everyone has been very much affected by this,” McKibbin said.Nolo was a Category 4 major hurricane Sunday afternoon and forecast to strengthen, but the center was expected to remain south and southwest of the Hawaiian Islands....