Tropical Storm Moke did not arrive late last night or early this morning as previously predicted. It is still working its way towards us. At 5 this morning it was about 310 miles south of Hilo & moving westerly at about 15 mph. Maximum sustained winds were about 45 mph with tropical storm force winds extending out about 90 miles from the center. As I write this the winds have started to increase making me believe it is passing by us now.
Last night, at about 7 pm, the Tesla Powerwall system sent me a message saying the grid was out & the Powerwall was providing the energy for the house. Fortunately, Spectrum is still working so I can get information from the Powerwall. I immediately started turning things off because it also told me it was charged up to 24% & could sustain the house for approximately 4.4 hours. With basically no power for the laptop, the posts I was working on will be delayed. Hopefully, they will be able to get us hooked up again soon. Or the skies will clear up enough so that the Powerwall can start storing energy while the sun is shining. Like the last time, when I was only without power for about 5 hours. Stay tuned!
As of 5 this morning, Tropical Storm Moke was about 470 miles southeast of Hilo & traveling west-northwest at about 12 mph. It is expected to pass well south of Hawaiʻi Island either late tonight or early tomorrow morning. Maximum sustained winds are about 50 mph with storm force winds extending out about 115 miles from the center. The rains accompanying Tropical Storm Moke are expected to be heavy & will likely cause flooding due to the ground being saturated from Hurricane Lālā a week ago.
Another tropical storm is headed our way! Tropical Depression Two-C became a tropical storm this morning after crossing over in to the Central Pacific region. It was given the name Moke, which is Hawaiian for Moses. Yesterday at lunch this was being discussed because one of the planners who had presented at the Leeward Planning Commission meeting, whose given name is Moses, goes by his Hawaiian name Moke when we are being informal.
Currently Tropical Storm Moke is about 660 miles southeast of Hilo & traveling west-northwesterly at about 9 mph. Sustained winds speeds are about 45 mph & are expected to gradually increase over the next few days. Tropical storm force winds extend out about 70 miles from the center; Moke is expected to bring heavy rainfall & may produce life-threatening flooding. Fortunately, I am not in an area that has ever seen any flooding; the topography is not conducive to flooding. Glad I did not remove the plastic sheeting that I covered the door to the deck with!
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| Hurricane Lālā blew down 3 kiawe trees by gate; Lapakahi State Historical Park closed until further notice. |
Spectrum finally got the Internet service in my area working. Though they did say there might be some interruptions due to the power still being out in some areas. It went out on the 15th at about 9 am, then came back on today; it was out for a little over 5 days. I am considering switching to Hawaiian Telcom which was only out for about a day. In 2019, when I had to get an internet hook-up so my solar photovoltaic system could get automated updates, Spectrum was the only option in my area. Before I learned that, people had been telling me Hawaiian Telcom was better. Last year Hawaiian Telcom began providing service in my area.
I will begin working on getting the posts for the previous days on line. I wrote them up in Open Office, now need to transfer them over to Blogger & add the photos. Check back every couple of days if you want to read about what happened while the power & Internet were down. (Wish me luck that Spectrum does not go down again!)
Note: This post was started on 08/18 but posted after Spectrum came back on line on 08/20.
I texted with Libby this morning, to see if she needed a ride to her workplace at The Kohala Center in Waimea. She did not, her landlady Elizabeth needed to go to Waimea so was taking her in. She did sort of need a ride home, though. Her co-worker Brian said he would give her a ride home, but he lives in Waikoloa Village so it is in the opposite direction. I volunteered to give her a ride back home in exchange for use of their internet. I also took them about 10 pounds of tangerines! They are so nice there! There was another community volunteer also borrowing their internet!
When I woke up this morning, the 1st thing I did was check if the power went out overnight. It did not! that meant the battery was able to provide power to the refrigerator, router, & server on what little it was able to store up during the day yesterday. Hūlō! Good to know!
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| Its on & not blinking! That means power did not go out last night! |
I decided to see if I could go to Waimea via the Kohala Mountain Road. I got about 2 miles up the road to the intersection with Hāwī Road & found it was closed. For good reason, too. Both roads were blocked by a tangle of poles & wires! I turned around & used the coast road instead.
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| Going towards Waimea on Kohala Mountain Road. Hāwī Road is to right. |
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| Upper end of Hāwī Road. Kohala Mountain Road is to left. |
I have to pass Lapakahi when I drive the coast road to get to Waimea; the tree trimmers were there working on the trees by the gate so I decided to stop & check in with Denali whom Dane said was there today. With the background noise of the chipper going, the tree trimmer probably misheard me & thought I was asking about Charlie who was overseeing the work while Denali was busy at another park; I did not know that until later. The tree trimmer pointed to Charlie & Brad who were just returning. Brad was on his way back to the Hapuna base yard where he said there was a lot of damage from trees going down; they had gone to pick up a small front end loader to help with the clean up.
As I left Lapakahi there was an ambulance going in the other direction. It is nice to see all the cars pull over quickly to let it pass. I have found drivers in rural areas tend to comply more promptly than in more urban areas. I wonder if it is because there might be a higher chance that we might know the person in the ambulance since our population is so small?
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| Seabird is fine, but vending machine on adjacent property got knocked over. |
By 3 pm Libby was out of spoons & ready to go home. We had an uneventful ride home, which was refreshing. Don't need any more action packed days of figuring out what to do because there is no power, internet, phone, or water! It takes a lot for me to run out of spoons; I think that has only happened to me a handful of times in my life. Mainly when I was married!
When I returned home, Sam & another guy were working on Jessie's house. But they weren't helping with the garage roof. Apparently a truck going by with tree parts snagged her phone line & dragged it down. They were reinstalling it.
Got an email from one of the Neighborhood Security Walk people in Honolulu, Happy Days, the dim sum restaurant we went to in July had a ceiling collapse! Several diners were hurt. I have also attached a 2 minute news video reporting on the collapse.
I need to figure out when is the end of the "hurricane comfort snacks" phase. Initially, I was thinking it would be the day of the hurricane. But with the power & the internet (& the phone for a short while) being out, it is seeming like a longer time period would be appropriate. For some people. But not me. I've got stuff to do! So no sitting around feeling sorry for myself & just eating junk food! OK, I'm done with the hurricane comfort snacks. Back to work on the anything-but-boiled-foods plan! (Except as recently noted!)
The Hawaiʻi County Civil Defense issued their afternoon update on services.
In Hawaiian Electric Company's update today, it is interesting that they don't mention how bad things are in Kaʻū.
The Department of Water Supply is still dealing with low water levels due to lack of electricity to pump water into reservoirs & holding tanks.
Today was the 1st day I have seen an announcement from Hawaiʻi Gas. In rural areas like where I live, we have large storage tanks on site; I have a 200 gallon tank that is currently about 70% full.
Looks like most of the libraries will be opening up tomorrow except for those that were hit especially hard in the southern part of Hawaiʻi Island.
The Kohala Food Hub, which runs the Community Supported Agriculture subscriptions that I belong to is doing a cool thing. They are hosting a "Pay What You Can" pop-up farmers market tomorrow.
Still no internet, so no Lingopie; but still able to do Duolingo! Today they said I would be practicing "weak skills". But I kinda aced all the things they had me practicing. I guess they are not weak skills any more?
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| Perfect! |
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| This one too! |
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| This is pronounced same in Mandarin as in Japanese! |
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| Another easy one. |
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| And I got all the flash cards correct! Easy! |
The National Hurricane Center show 2 storm systems in the Central Pacific region. Lālā is still here &, as of 5 pm, there is an area to the east-southeast which has a 90% chance of developing in to a tropical depression within the next 7 days.
At 2 pm today Lālā's maximum sustained winds began increasing. By 4 pm they were up to 125 mph, making Lālā a Category 3 Hurricane! Glad it waited till it was well past us before it got stronger! There are very few people & structures in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands because it is a wildlife refuge. Other storms that have caused some seabird & sea turtle nesting areas to be nearly wiped out as storm surge washes over the atolls. We shall just have to wait & see what happens, especially since it is expected to get even stronger!
The next episode of the eruption at Kīlauea is still expected to start some time between the 21st & the 27th.
Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Dustin, Ron, Jeannine, Beth, & Hazuki!
