Hurricane Nolo pushes past Hawaii as Hurricane Polo bears down on Baja

Big Island still rebuilding from Hurricane Lala as new storm arrives

Hurricane Nolo was tracking away from the Big Island at roughly 12 mph on Sunday, with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph and the storm’s center about 365 miles south-south-west of Honolulu, according to the US National Hurricane Center. The Hawaii county civil defense agency kept a high wind warning, a wind advisory and a high surf advisory in effect for parts of the island chain through Sunday evening. Forecasters said Nolo was expected to strengthen further and turn toward the north-west by Sunday night, though the hurricane center said the center would remain well south and south-west of the Hawaiian Islands and would approach the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument early this week.

Forecasters said Nolo’s outer bands could cause life-threatening flooding and mudslides, with parts of the Big Island possibly receiving up to 20 inches of rain and heavy rain also expected on the other islands. “Don’t venture out if you don’t have to into the dangerous flooding environment, but also high winds. We can have trees and power lines down,” said Michael Brennan, director of the National Hurricane Center.

Heavy rain fell across the southern part of the Big Island on Saturday afternoon, prompting partial closures of a main highway linking Kailua-Kona in the west to Hilo in the east. Near Naalehu, at the island’s southern point, Hawaii Army National Guard members guided a man driving through flooded streets as he tried to leave his home during a downpour. More than 120 guard members were activated on the Big Island, part of roughly 400 statewide after the governor issued an emergency proclamation.

The activations came as residents continued to recover from Hurricane Lala, which produced heavy rain and winds strong enough to sweep about 100 homes off their foundations on the Big Island. Despite signs saying Carlsmith Beach Park in Hilo was closed, about a dozen people were in the water Saturday morning. Andrea Gill was out for her regular swim before heading home to hunker down with family; she said storms are common in the islands but hurricanes are rare, and she was holding out hope that the islands might not get the full impact. “We’re used to lots of rain. We’re not used to wind. So it’s always a blessing when we don’t get the wind from the hurricane,” Gill said. Shop owners boarded up businesses and events were canceled ahead of the storm’s closest approach.

President Donald Trump approved a federal emergency declaration authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate assistance and provide funding support. Hawaiian Electric, the state’s primary utility, said crews who had been helping restore power in Kauai after this month’s Hurricane Lowell had returned to Oahu, Maui and the Big Island in anticipation of Nolo.

Bob Oravec, lead forecaster at the National Weather Service, said the Pacific had been unusually active this season, with storm activity running above average during what is already the peak of hurricane season. He said the pattern was consistent with El Niño years, when the Pacific often sees more tropical storms and hurricanes.

Farther east, Hurricane Polo had earlier lashed other parts of Mexico’s southwest coast with rain and strong winds before reaching the peninsula, the US National Hurricane Center said. The storm’s top sustained winds were 125 mph as it moved north-north-west at about 12 mph some 275 miles south-south-west of Cabo San Lucas at the peninsula’s southern tip on Sunday afternoon. Mexico’s National Meteorological Service, or SMN, said in a post on the social media platform X that Polo was expected to make a Baja landfall on Monday.

Mexico’s government issued a hurricane warning along the coast of mainland Mexico from Huatabampito to Guaymas. The Mexican navy said in a statement that it had gathered personnel and humanitarian aid in the ports of Guaymas and Mazatlán, on Mexico’s Pacific coast, and had deployed three vessels that could ship aid to coastal communities isolated by the hurricane.

One of the towns in Polo’s projected path is San Juanico, a small fishing community on Baja’s Pacific coast that has had full-time electricity for only a few years and still experiences frequent outages. There is concern that washed-out roads could block access to the closest medical facility, about 80 minutes away in Ciudad Constitucion. Gloriely Robles Meza, a manager at a small hotel in San Juanico, said the Mexican Army had arrived in town to prepare a shelter and to provide support for possible emergencies, and that an electrical crew was also there to prepare for Polo’s arrival. “Our people are concerned about this event. We haven’t faced such a worrying situation in many years,” Robles Meza said.

Separately, the Miami-based US National Hurricane Center said tropical storm Rachel had formed well off Mexico’s south-west coast, with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph and located about 300 miles south of Acapulco, Mexico. No coastal watches or warnings were in effect for Rachel.