Hurricane Lowell tore past Hawaii's westernmost islands overnight, delivering the state's most direct hurricane threat in decades and forcing widespread school and office closures across Kauai and Niihau on Tuesday. As of Monday evening, the storm sat roughly 135 miles southwest of Līhuʻe with sustained winds of 110 mph, a Category 2 system that forecasters said was likely to pass just west of the two islands before dawn.
The National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane warning for Kauai County, covering Kauai and Niihau, with hurricane conditions expected by late Monday night. Wind gusts of up to 74 mph were forecast for Kauai County, with gusts as high as 40 mph reaching Oahu. Forecasters warned of 6 to 10 inches of rain across Kauai and Niihau, with isolated totals topping 14 inches, alongside flash flooding, landslides and dangerously high surf on south- and west-facing shores.
Governor Josh Green ordered public schools, county offices and state offices on Kauai closed for Tuesday. "Kauaʻi County is most vulnerable to Hurricane Lowell, and we are not going to take chances with people's safety," Green said in a statement announcing the closures. Several thousand customers had already lost power on Kauai and Oahu by Monday night as conditions deteriorated, and additional lifeguards were deployed to guard against life-threatening surf and rip currents that the hurricane center said were already reaching the islands well ahead of the storm's core.
An unusually direct hit
Hurricanes that make a direct approach to the main Hawaiian Islands remain rare; most storms that form in the eastern and central Pacific curve away or weaken well before reaching land. Forecasters and local meteorologists repeatedly invoked comparisons to Hurricane Iniki, the Category 4 storm that devastated Kauai in 1992 and remains the most damaging hurricane in state history, though Lowell's track and intensity are not expected to match it. The storm's approach has been complicated by an ongoing eruption at Kilauea on the Big Island, adding a second active hazard for state emergency managers to track simultaneously.
Tropical storm conditions were expected to reach Oahu by Tuesday, with forecasters cautioning residents there against downed trees and scattered power outages even without a direct strike. Large, long-period swells generated by Lowell had already begun raising surf heights across all the islands over the weekend, and lifeguard agencies reported rescues linked to the rough water before the storm's center had even arrived.
Emergency officials urged residents on Kauai and Niihau to shelter in place through Tuesday morning and avoid unnecessary travel as road closures were expected in low-lying and coastal areas. The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency said it was coordinating with county officials to reopen roads and restore power as quickly as conditions allowed once the storm's core moved past, though it cautioned that hazardous surf and flooding risks could linger for days after Lowell itself departs the islands.
