KONA, Hawaii -- With a rare hurricane threatening the islands, most residents had batteries, food and water on the brain. But surfers like Guyvan Taevil had something else in mind.
"Waves," Taevil said, clutching his blue body board on the shores of Kona. "It was the first thing that popped into my head."
Despite beach closures and endless warnings from officials telling people to stay out of the ocean, adrenaline junkies like 22-year-old Taevil couldn't keep away. Tropical Storm Lane, one of the most powerful storms Hawaii has seen in decades, is expected to whip up towering waves for days. Before Lane was downgraded Friday night from a hurricane to a tropical storm, officials had predicted a storm surge of up to 25 feet would cause major flooding and destruction throughout the state.
The ocean, Gov. David Ige stressed on TV, "is not a safe place to be."
Yet the lure proved irresistible. People were still bobbing out in the water with their surfboards and body boards Thursday afternoon in some areas despite the blare of emergency sirens warning everyone to take shelter.
Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell acknowledged the trouble officials were having in getting visitors to heed all the warnings. Tourists swam along Waikiki Beach even though it was closed.
"Some of them have no idea, which is surprising at this point," Caldwell said. "The surge in Hawaii is just so much stronger."
But that very surge is why carpenter Michael Mitchell took to the choppy water on Oahu's south shore Thursday after being ordered home from his work site ahead of the hurricane. He boarded up his house and headed out, as he does almost any time a big storm is bearing down on the island.
"When a hurricane's coming ... you're not working, you might as well come down and check it out," he said after paddling around the prime surf spot of Kewalo Basin. "And it's Mother Nature at her gnarliest, too ... so when the waves get big, it's not a bad idea to come down."
Hurricane Iniki in 1992 was the last major storm to hit Hawaii as hard as officials are still anticipating with Lane, which has dumped nearly 4 feet of rain in some areas of the Big Island. On Saturday, strong winds had died down, but officials were still warning that torrential rains remained a big threat.
Forecasters said as much as 10 more inches could fall on parts of Oahu and Maui as the storm churned about 110 miles south of Honolulu, moving north at 3 mph.
Though the storm was expected to turn west, which would lessen the threat to the islands, federal authorities urged caution.
"Don't let your guard down," Brock Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said during a telephone briefing in Washington. "Tropical storms can be very dangerous and Hawaii is not in the clear."
The prospect has surfers thinking they won't again see waves like this for decades.
The locals maintain that they understand when to stay out of the water and closely follow weather reports.
Will Thayer, an off-duty surf instructor, said he knew when "the most dangerous conditions" would be and so could avoid the water then.
As dark clouds passed over Ho'okipa Beach Park on the shores of north Maui, Justin Fishberg rubbed surf wax on his short board.
"I just moved here from LA two weeks ago, and I'm a little nervous to do this," the 25-year-old admitted Thursday while spraying himself with sunscreen. "My family keeps calling me and begging me not to go in the water."
By 11 a.m., after a night of wind and rain, swells that usually only reach a foot or two in the summer had grown to as much as 6 feet.
"I probably shouldn't go in, but the longer I wait, the worse it'll get," Fishberg said, looking at the surf before jumping in.
Information for this article was contributed by Lynh Bui, Courtney Teague and Breena Kerr and Jason Samenow of The Washington Post; and by Audrey McAvoy, Caleb Jones and staff members of The Associated Press.
A Section on 08/26/2018