Hurricane Lane - LIVE: FEMA preparing for landslides and inland flooding ahead of storm making landfall
'Life threatening impacts are likely in some areas as the hurricane makes its closest approach,' National Weather Service warns
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Your support makes all the difference.Hurricane Lane is threatening a direct hit on Hawaii and could become the most powerful storm to reach the archipelago in a quarter of a century.
Schools, governments and businesses have closed while residents stocked up on food, water and other supplies and boarded up homes.
The hurricane, classified as a powerful Category 4 storm, was packing sustained winds of up to 145mph (230 km/h) and could dump as much as 20in of rain over parts of the US Pacific island state, triggering flash flooding and landslides, the National Weather Service (NWS) warned.
Additional reporting by agencies
The AFP news agency has published a useful infographic explaining the different parts and structure of a hurricane.
Donald Trump has declared a state of emergency for Hawaii, just hours before the Category 5 storm is expected to make landfall.
Federal assistance will now be provided to help state and local governments as they brace themselves, particularly on the islands of Maui, Lanai, Molokai and Kahoolawe.
"We encourage all those in the path of the storm to listen to the instruction of state and local authorities as it relates to evacuation orders and shelter locations," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during a briefing.
Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell told Hawaii News Now: "Some people might say, 'Another hurricane, it didn't hit us last time, we don’t need to worry,'" he continued. "No, we got to plan for the worst and hope for the best."
While the maximum wind speed has dropped slightly to 130 mph (209 kmh), Nasa warns residents it is "still a very potent and dangerous storm".
According to a meteorologist at environmental news outlet Grist, this is the "strongest hurricane to ever threaten Hawaii" based on data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa).
It is also the first Category 5 hurricane to come close to making landfall on the islands.
Lower wind speed may be good to minimise wind damage, but storm tracking US agency National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) said that leads to "prolonged rainfall," which in turn causes flooding, landslides, and intra-island travel to those in distress.
The US National Weather Service said Hurricane Lane is "making northward turn" as had been forecast. Wave heights have reached nearly 23 feet (7m)
Some residents have expressed worry to about what will happen if the hurricane is more devastating than expected and if the federal government's response will be the same as it was in Puerto Rico in 2017.
Unlike many residents of Florida during Hurricane Irma and Texas at the time of Hurricane Harvey who had some option to travel outside of the path of the storms, many Puerto Ricans had nowhere else to go for safety from Hurricane Maria because they were on an island.
The US government and Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) response to disaster relief were widely criticised for being near-sighted and ill-prepared. It took nearly 9 months and $4bn to restore electricity to the island.
FEMA administrator Brock Long did confirm the agency has several barges with food, water, and supplies it moved into the region ahead of Hurricane Hector, which skirted past the islands more than a week ago.
Torrential downpours are soaking Hawaii's Big Island as the storm approaches and meteorologists have recorded 12 inches (30cm) of rain in the town of Hilo as of 4am local time.
Maui County is also reporting bands of rain for 350 miles (563km) along the centre of the hurricane.
A search and rescue team of 36 members based in Menlo Park, California, has been sent to Hawaii ahead of Hurricane Lane's landfall.
California Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 3 is one of 28 such teams across the country, eight of which are based in California.
Menlo Park Fire Protection District Chief Harold Schapelhouman told the local CBS News affiliate: "The task forces are the Swiss Army knives of technical rescue operations and this configuration is specific to a smaller, more focused, water rescue capable unit that can operate in a dynamic field environment for 10 to 14 days".
Along with the crew, approximately 40,000lb (18,000kg) of technical search and rescue equipment is also headed to the islands.
Hawaii has been no stranger to dire natural disasters this year. Mount Kilauea, located on the Big Island, has been spewing lava all summer along the southeastern coastline.
Fortunately for residents new lava flow stopped on 9 August according to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. Without much lava reaching the ocean the hurricane may not have too much of an impact on the volcano area, Denison University Geophysicist Erik Klemetti told CNN.
Read more about our coverage of the volcano and the damage it caused here:
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