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ASD Staff

Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"Dog gets confused......"}]

Smile 26 9 8

<title>Daily Smile: Tuesday, Sep. 8, 2026</title>

Dog gets confused......

Daily Smile: Tuesday, Sep. 8, 2026

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Corey Idleburg

Viewpoints

Real Estate

Every housing conversation in Hawaiʻi eventually comes down to the same thing: permits. They take too long. They cost too much. Fix the permitting system, and the housing will follow.

That argument is not wrong. Hawaiʻi’s permit processing times run more than triple the national average. In Honolulu, a single-family home permit took a median of 394 days in the first half of 2025, before new processing software was introduced. Multi-family units took 585 days. Those delays are real, and they cost real money.

But here is the part of the story that doesn’t get told as often: Hawaiʻi has been building housing. And for most families in this state, it still doesn’t matter. They still can’t afford it.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The numbers are blunt"}]

The University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization’s 2026 Housing Factbook puts it plainly. Affording the median-priced single-family home in Hawaii requires a household income of more than 180% of the state median. The state median household income is approximately $100,000. That means a family needs to earn roughly $180,000 just to qualify, under a conventional 30-year mortgage with a 20% down payment, spending no more than 30% of income on housing.

Only about one in five Hawaiʻi households earns that much.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"One in five"}]

The other four households aren’t priced out because the permitting process is slow. They’re priced out because the market produces homes they cannot afford to buy at any speed.

By mid-2026, the statewide single-family median has risen further. July data from Oʻahu shows a single-family median of $1.207 million, up 12% year over year. Statewide, first-half 2026 data puts the single-family median right at $1 million. Mortgage rates averaging around 6.9% as of mid-2026 erase most of the affordability gains that came from lower rates in 2025. Every uptick in rates means fewer families can qualify, even at the same price.

The statewide number is bad. The county-level numbers tell different stories worth understanding.

Maui County has the highest median single-family price in the state, now approaching $1.2 million for most of 2026, with the luxury end, Wailea and Mākena, averaging close to $2.65 million per sale in the second quarter. Over 55% of Maui renters are rent-burdened. Maui has lost net housing units over the past five years. And the county’s population fell again in 2025, a pattern driven by wildfire displacement, housing costs, and domestic out-migration that has not reversed.

Kauaʻi County tells a different version of the same story. Single-family prices on Kauaʻi surged 15% in the first half of 2026 despite a 12.6% drop in sales volume. A sign that limited inventory is pushing prices higher, even as fewer families can afford to participate in the market. Vacation rentals still account for nearly 20% of all housing units on the island, the highest concentration in the state. Nearly 52% of renters are rent-burdened.

Honolulu County has the highest median household income of the four counties at $106,000, but the Oʻahu single-family median has climbed above $1.2 million in recent months. Only 59.8% of Honolulu households own their homes, the lowest homeownership rate in the state.

Hawaiʻi County remains the relative outlier. The median single-family price of $465,000 is the lowest in the state by a wide margin. But median household income is also the lowest at $78,600, and the county has the highest unemployment rate. The comparative affordability here is not a sign of economic health.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"People are leaving"}]

Hawaiʻi’s population fell by 2,132 residents in fiscal year 2025, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released in January 2026. That brought the total state population to 1,432,820, about 22,447 fewer people than the April 2020 census base. Only Vermont and Puerto Rico lost a larger share of their populations during that same period.

Most of the loss is not natural — it’s people packing up and leaving. The Census Bureau estimated that 8,876 people migrated from Hawaiʻi to other parts of the United States in 2025. International migration and births provided some offset, but not enough to reverse the trend.

That is not a lifestyle shift. That is, families running the numbers and leaving because they cannot afford to stay.

Statewide, 56.7% of renter households are rent-burdened, spending more than 30% of their income on housing. Nearly 29% are severely rent-burdened, spending more than half of their income on rent.

The most expensive rental zip codes are all on Oʻahu. Hawaiʻi Kai has a median rent of $3,501 per month. Salt Lake, a working-class, military-adjacent neighborhood, runs $3,190. These are not luxury markets. They are where regular people live, and the rents are eating them alive.

Rents have grown slowly in recent years, which counts as a small relief. But slowly rising rents don’t fix the underlying problem when rents were already unaffordable before they slowed.

Supply does matter, but it’s not sufficient

Building more housing does put downward pressure on prices over time. UHERO research published in the journal Real Estate Economics traced the 

 of one 512-unit mixed-income condominium near Ala Moana, The Central, and found that its construction freed up more than 500 additional units across Oʻahu through a chain of moves. Those vacated units were roughly 40% less expensive than the new building. The evidence that new supply helps local households at multiple income levels is real.

But “over time” is doing a lot of work in that sentence. For families who need housing now, the long arc of market adjustment doesn’t answer the immediate question.

A few interventions are worth tracking as the 2026 session results work through the system.

Honolulu’s Bill 7 has produced 189 income-restricted rental units, with another 550 under construction. It targets households at or below 100% of Area Median Income. The program’s policy goal is 500 units per year. It has never hit that number. The program also expires in 2030 without legislative extension, and because development timelines run five years or more, the window is narrowing.

Maui’s Bill 9 is the most direct attempt to convert existing units from tourist use back to housing. Condo prices in affected areas were already down 11% compared to 2023, even before full implementation. UHERO estimates a complete phase-out could reduce those prices by 20% to 40%. That’s real movement, but the policy faces ongoing legal challenges from owners in resort areas who argue it violates their property rights, and its ultimate outcome remains uncertain.

On the permitting side, the 2026 Legislature passed SB 2671, which authorizes county mayors to establish a pilot program that uses targeted hiring, higher pay, and performance incentives for permit-processing staff. SB 2673, which requires a statewide permitting data standard and mandatory monthly reporting from each county, was also passed and signed by the governor. These are meaningful reforms. Whether they move the needle on actual processing times is a question the data will need to answer over the next two years.

What they will not do is make a $1.2 million Oʻahu home affordable to a family earning $75,000.

More market-rate supply and faster permits will help households near the top of the affordability curve. For families earning $50,000, $60,000, or $70,000 a year, those improvements are unlikely to arrive at a scale or speed sufficient to change their options in any practical way.

The households most in need are the ones least served by a market responding to normal incentives. They need income-restricted housing, subsidized rentals, and sustained public investment. Not just faster permits for homes, they still can’t afford to buy.

That’s not an argument against supply expansion. It’s an argument for being honest about what supply expansion alone can and cannot do.

The families running the numbers and choosing to leave deserve that honesty most of all.

Reprinted with permission from Corey Idleburg, executive director of 

a Honolulu-based nonprofit that translates research, data, and policy into accessible public information for Hawaiʻi communities.

Oahu neighborhoods homes i Stock

<title>Community Voices: Hawaiʻi's housing affordability problem</title>

Permit reform is a supply problem. What Hawaiʻi has is a price problem.

Community Voices: Hawaiʻi's housing affordability problem

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

Coconut matcha cloud. Couture special with salted cream foam. Ca phe bac xiu. These are just a few of the popular beverages at 

, which opened about a month ago in Pearl City. It’s located on the second floor of Stuart Plaza.

Customers can order from the business’s takeout window. Once you’re given a number, you can pick up your order from inside the café.

There’s limited customer seating available; the café is more conducive to takeout.

Choose from coffees, matchas, smoothies, milk teas and the café’s food menu.

Bestsellers include the Couture special coffee ($7), which is a special blend of Vietnamese coffee topped with a salted cream foam, and the peanut butter coffee ($7). The latter features Vietnamese iced coffee topped with peanut butter foam.

For the drinks topped with foam, the staff recommends sipping the drink first, then stirring the foam topping in.

The banana matcha pudding latte ($8) — a signature blend of matcha topped with banana pudding and a cookie crumble — and mango matcha latte ($8) also come highly recommended.

The café’s food menu consists of banh mis ($12-$14), avocado toast ($11.95) and croissants ($5.75). So far, both the special banh mi ($14) — a toasted French baguette stuffed with creamy mayo, savory pate, pork loaf, char siu, pickled vegetables, cucumber, cilantro and sliced jalapenos — and lemongrass tofu banh mi ($12) have been customer favorites. The latter includes lemongrass marinated tofu, pickled carrots and daikon, fresh cilantro, cucumber and jalapeno peppers.

The café is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays to Mondays (closed Tuesdays).

Dang Cha by Couture drinks 082126

<title>Dang Cha by Couture is a hidden Vietnamese café in Pearl City</title>

The café — located on the second floor of Stuart Plaza — is known for its Vietnamese iced coffees, matcha and banh mi sandwiches.

Dang Cha by Couture is a hidden Vietnamese café in Pearl City

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

Crime & Courts

A Maui man who allegedly robbed a bank in Kīhei last year pled guilty to bank robbery in U.S. court Thursday.

Justin Nelson, 43, reportedly robbed a Kīhei branch of the First Hawaiian Bank on Aug. 27, 2025. According to an FBI affidavit, Nelson — dressed in a baseball cap, dust mask, balaclava and sunglasses — entered the bank one morning, approached the bank tellers and brandished what appeared to be a firearm.

The robber commanded the two tellers present to each put cash in a shopping bag. Within a minute, he had collected $4,885 in marked and unmarked bills, and departed the bank.

Investigators were able to track the robber’s movements throughout Kīhei using CCTV cameras and, within 15 minutes, Maui police officers confronted and arrested him on the sidewalk of Kauha‘a Street. According to the FBI report, Nelson was approaching a parked car, registered in his name, when he was arrested.

Upon his arrest, the robber — positively identified at this time as Nelson — was found to have only an airsoft pistol on his person, as well as $3,681 in cash. It was not clear in the FBI report what happened to the remaining $804.

However, the FBI report did note that a Maui Police Department officer reportedly overheard Nelson tell his father — during a phone call at the police station — “I robbed two banks.” Court records make no mention of a second robbery connected with Nelson.

In any case, Nelson was charged with bank robbery, a felony charge. Because Nelson reportedly used the threat of violence to carry out the robbery — regardless of whether the gun was genuine — he faces a maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and supervised release of up to three years.

[{"type":"text","text":"Nelson’s sentencing is set to take place Dec. 18."}]

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<title>Maui man pleads guilty to 2025 bank robbery</title>

Justin Nelson reportedly robbed a Kīhei bank for $4,885 last August.

Maui man pleads guilty to 2025 bank robbery

Christian Shimabuku Headshot

Christian Shimabuku

Sports

MĀNOA — Spencer McLachlin estimates he's been inside the Stan Sheriff Center over 500 times since the facility opened in the fall of 1994. 

, both University of Hawai‘i Circle of Honor inductees, Spencer McLachlin would sit in the stands during UH volleyball matches as his father served as TV color commentator alongside Jim Leahey on K5 broadcasts. Wahine volleyball matches were extra special for the McLachlin family, as Beth is still remembered as one of the program's pioneers. A star setter on the 1974 and 1975 teams, Beth McLachlin added the 

With his parents guiding him, Spencer McLachlin went on to become a star athlete himself. While he was a two-time all-state basketball player at Punahou, volleyball was where he truly shined. A 6-foot-7 outside hitter, Spencer McLachlin was a starter in multiple tournaments for the U.S. junior national team. He was one of the sport's top recruits by the time he was set to graduate high school in 2007, and he chose Stanford among his many offers. 

McLachlin started all 105 matches he appeared in for the Cardinal from 2008 to 2011, which included a national championship in 2010. With aspirations of becoming a coach one day, McLachlin helped out with Bay-to-Bay Volleyball Club as he finished up a master's degree with Stanford. 

After a brief professional playing career in Greece, McLachlin returned to Hawai‘i and joined Charlie Wade's UH men's staff as a volunteer assistant in 2014 while he taught at Punahou. He was then elevated to full-time assistant for the Rainbow Warriors in 2015. 

From there, McLachlin was an assistant coach for the Cal women's team from 2016 to 2017, an assistant coach on the UCLA men's staff from 2018 to 2021, the associate head coach for Indiana in 2022, then the associate head coach for USC from 2023 to 2025. His first opportunity to become a head coach was officially announced on Dec. 29, 2025, when UC San Diego named him the new women's head coach. 

On Sunday, the final day of the 2026 OUTRIGGER Invitational, Spencer McLachlin's UC San Diego squad went up against host Hawai‘i to close the tournament. Father Chris was courtside doing color commentary for K5 with Kanoa Leahey, Jim's son, while Beth McLachlin watched intently. As Spencer competed against the University of Hawai‘i for the first time as a head coach, he proved the McLachlin family can still have firsts in its charmed volleyball journey. 

Though the Tritons were just two points away from winning in four sets, the Rainbow Wahine rallied to take Sunday's match 22-25, 25-15, 21-25, 26-24, 15-8. UCSD led as late as 23-22 in the fourth set before UH forced deuce. The 'Bows, who sprinted to a 14-3 lead in the fifth set, went 3-0 over the weekend and improved to 4-2 for the 2026 campaign. The Tritons, meanwhile, fell to 2-4 in McLachlin's debut season and were 0-3 during the weekend. 

"A lot of emotions," Spencer McLachlin told Aloha State Daily following the match, with some of his players seen wiping tears away in the distance. "I feel for my team that fought so hard, but it's life. Learning isn't linear. It's not gonna happen overnight. It's gonna take some really hard lessons, and we had three really hard lessons in the three matches this weekend. I wish it ended up a little bit differently, but that's volleyball. That's why everyone everyone loves it. I'm proud of our girls."

Over a dozen family members were in attendance to support Spencer McLachlin on Sunday. Additionally, a handful of friends from his O‘ahu childhood, including Stanford teammate Kawika Shoji, were there to offer encouragement. 

"I love this place," Spencer McLachlin said of the Stan. "My mom's got her plaque up there in the Circle of Honor. This place means so much to me. It is a top five place to play in the world, and it's because of the fans. It's because of the tradition. ... Just so many great coaches. The volleyball community here is so great. And if I grew up anywhere else, I probably wouldn't have fallen in love with the sport like I did growing up here."

In the heat of the match, Spencer McLachlin admits he gave a quick look to his dad and couldn't help but smile. After the match, Spencer's three young children walked towards the announcer's table. 

"There's Papa," Spencer pointed out to his keiki. 

Chris McLachlin knew that calling Sunday's match came with added responsibility. The school he loves was facing a team coached by his son, and he knew he had to be impartial to both. 

I started out by telling Kanoa if I lapse into nepotism at all, please correct me," Chris McLachlin joked with ASD after the match. "I thought that for the weekend, (Spencer) was really proud of how they performed. They could have won the tournament, you know. They were very close to being 3-0. Instead, they're 0-3. But a lot of good lessons learned, and it's a different kind of proud that he is sharing so much of himself with those girls."

The four years Spencer McLachlin played for Stanford aligned directly with the four seasons current Rainbow Wahine head coach 

 took the floor for the Hawai‘i men's team following a redshirt year. Though McLachlin 

went 8-1 as a player against the 'Bows, Walker never made it easy, leading UH in kills the vast majority of those matchups. 

"Ton of respect for him, just because I know how hard of a worker he is," Walker said following the match. "We knew we were going to get their best shot and they were going to be prepared. That's just who he is and how he operates. I think we both made each other better tonight."

Despite growing up an athletic prodigy of sorts, the coaches in Spencer McLachlin's life are the reason why he set his heart early on becoming one himself one day. 

 was his club coach when he was 10, and Spencer McLachlin remembers how the legendary former Wahine volleyball coach taught him how to pass, one of the underrated skills in the sport. McLachlin joked that with a career record of 2-4 thus far in his debut season, he has 1,200 to go to catch Shoji's career mark of 1202-204-1. 

But if there's one coach who truly made his mark on Spencer, it's his father, who led Punahou to 11 state titles in boys volleyball and three in boys basketball. 

"He's my biggest mentor," Spencer McLachlin says of Chris McLachlin. "Him caring for the athletes and the trust that you build by getting to know them, he has incredible relationships with all of his former athletes and if I could be a 10th of the coach that he is, then I'll have a great career. I think he's a wizard, and I'm so blessed to have him be my mentor." 

Following a brief chat after the match, Chris and Spencer McLachlin went their separate ways, Spencer eager to build on the career he's wanted for as long as he can remember, knowing dad is always a phone call away. 

"He was always asking questions about coaching strategies, so I thought maybe he's gonna be a coach someday," Chris McLachlin says. "He always seemed to glean the most from all the coaches he had when he played in the junior national team. He just always seemed to be gleaning little pearls of wisdom about coaching. And I think when he was very young, he followed me for my basketball and volleyball career, and it always seemed to be not just a kid at the gym, but more like a kid learning at the gym. He was always picking up something and asking questions. He wants to be a good coach in the worst way, and just the art of coaching means a lot to him."

Spencer McLachlin 090626

<title>Punahou alum Spencer McLachlin returns home for emotional weekend as new UCSD coach</title>

Both of McLachlin's parents are in the UH Circle of Honor. He estimates he's been inside the Stan Sheriff Center over 500 times. On Sunday, for the first time as a head coach, he went up against his childhood team.

Punahou alum Spencer McLachlin returns home for emotional weekend as new UCSD coach

Higa headshot white shirt square

Sterling Higa

Columnists

On the last day of August, a woman pulled two kitchen knives from a shopping bag on Seventh Avenue in Manhattan and used them on two people, 20 seconds apart.

One was a 68-year-old man coming up from the subway at 41st Street with his wife. He survived. The other, a block north, was Erin Piacenti, a young mother on her first day back at work from maternity leave. She died.

Pamela Cisneros walked on toward a police substation with the knives still in her hands. For four minutes officers told her to drop them. She would not. Then she was dead, shot by police.

By evening, everyone who read the news knew why. Cisneros was mentally ill. Her family said so, her old Facebook posts said so, police sources said so, and the newspapers said so with a kind of relief, because it meant the event had an explanation.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"I want to look at that explanation."}]

Cisneros had written on Facebook last November that the end times had come. Among her signs, the 

 reported, she listed “the diminished love of people to the point of stabbing others for no reason.”

She wrote that Satan, knowing his time is short, wants to take as many souls to hell as possible. That’s why some people hear voices telling them to kill.

Nine months later she stabbed two strangers. I am not going to diagnose her from her posts; enough people are doing that. But she showed concern about hearing voices, and she wrote that those voices come from the devil.

In Plymouth, Massachusetts, a jury spent seven days deliberating over Lindsay Clancy, the Duxbury nurse who strangled her three small children in January 2023 and then tried to end her own life. Her lawyers said she suffered postpartum psychosis and that a voice told her to do it. On Friday the judge 

. Eleven jurors were ready to acquit. One was not.

The public debate is over whether hearing that voice excuses her. What strikes me is how little fight there is over the premise. The pundits agree that mental illness produced the voice. The only question is whether Clancy is responsible for heeding its instruction.

But if she did hear a voice, was it caused by mental illness?

Every human culture before 1800 had a name for a voice that tells you to kill your children, and the name was not “symptom.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The Gospels are almost casual about this."}]

When the crowds came to Jesus at Capernaum, Mark says they “brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons,” and he healed the one and cast out the other.

Casting out demons was not the exclusive province of Christians. Outsiders also got into the trade. In Ephesus, seven sons of a Jewish priest named Sceva went about expelling spirits in the name of “the Jesus whom Paul proclaims,” having seen that the method worked. One spirit answered them: “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” Then it beat all seven of them out of the house, leaving them naked and wounded. Nobody in Ephesus was arguing about neurotransmitters.

And once, the disciples failed. A father brought his son, seized since childhood by a demon that threw him into fire and water, and men who had cast out demons before could not cast out this one. Jesus told them why. “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” And then Jesus commanded the spirit to leave. It did.

If these stories seem fantastical, it is because we live in a disenchanted world. Nearly every culture has made room for the supernatural, but ours prefers to reduce everything to chemistry. We hold to this explanation with a faith that would shame a monk. The chemistry cannot be seen. And the cures built on it do not reliably work. But we persist.

Consider the pills for depression. A whole class of drugs works by tinkering with serotonin, a chemical in the brain. These SSRIs help many people, modestly. They also carry a federal warning that they can increase suicidal thinking.

 that psychiatric drugs are among the leading causes of death for the elderly across the West. His critics say he overstates the case, but there is a case.

The drugs are a gamble, and everyone involved knows it. So their television commercials end with a voice reading from a long list of side effects. The list includes 

: the drug may “increase suicidal thoughts or actions in some people 24 years of age and younger, especially within the first few months of treatment or when the dose is changed.”

A drug that can either cure depression or cause suicide is like a ball dropped into a spinning roulette wheel. Parents who place their faith in such drugs and the doctors prescribing them are gambling with their children’s lives.

Lindsay Clancy and her former husband are both suing the professionals who treated her for depression in the years before she killed her children. Insurance companies will likely push the defendants to settle out of court. And whenever the courts are done with Clancy, everyone will go back to business as usual.

But she claims she heard a voice, and I believe her.

Her mistake was to obey that voice, and she should bear the consequence of her heinous crimes. Scripture never once lets the tempter assume the guilt of the tempted.

Christians have erred in two directions. Many stopped believing in demons a generation before the psychiatrists did, and now define “mental health” exactly as the world does. Others tell a bipolar woman to pour her lithium down the sink and come to the Wednesday deliverance service instead.

None of this is an argument against medicine. In some cases of mental illness there is a real chemical issue. A person is deficient in some vitamin or mineral, and a supplement fixes the problem. Sometimes a neurotransmitter runs high or low, a receptor stops answering, and the mind begins to hear things. Some medicine works. But not all cases respond to medical treatment.

The trouble comes with the diversity of human response. Not everyone whose brain misfires hears a voice. Not everyone who hears a voice hears it say 

Chemistry alone cannot account for these differences. And a focus on invisible brain chemistry leads us to ignore what’s right before our eyes.

Human sinfulness is enough to account for mothers who murder their children. But this does not mean the devil is absent. Scripture says that he “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

Blaming the devil would not be accepted as a defense in court, but blaming neurotransmitters is. That tells us where our superstitions lie.

Getty Images 2292483717 16x9

<title>Pamela Cisneros, Lindsay Clancy, and the voice that said ‘kill’</title>

A woman pulled two kitchen knives from a shopping bag on Seventh Avenue and used them on two strangers. By nightfall everyone knew why, and no one argued. ASD opinion columnist Sterling Higa on the explanation for mental illness that every culture but ours took for granted.

Pamela Cisneros, Lindsay Clancy, and the voice that said ‘kill’

Government & Politics

 Hurricane conditions will continue in Kauai County through the morning, according to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center, "with the highest winds atop mountains and on windward and leeward slopes, causing widespread power outages. If you use a generator, be sure it is placed at least 20 feet away from doors, windows, and garages to avoid deadly carbon monoxide poisoning."

Heavy rainfall from Hurricane Lowell will continue across the state through Wednesday, with a risk of significant flash flooding and mudslides, especially across Kauai county and portions of the Big Island.

For O‘ahu: tropical storm conditions are expected for the next few hours, as well as gusts of wind.

Large waves, and dangerous surf and rip currents will continue "during the next day or so along exposed coasts of the Hawaiian Islands."

ASD has received closure notices for Tuesday from Maryknoll School and Chaminade University on Oahu, Bank of Hawai‘i branches in Kaua‘i.

Governor Josh Green announced Monday "that state and county offices, Hawaiʻi State Department of Education public schools, Oʻahu and Kauaʻi campuses of the University of Hawaiʻi and Hawaiʻi State Judiciary facilities on Oʻahu and in Kauaʻi County will be closed Tuesday, September 8, because of the continuing threat and impacts of Hurricane Lowell."

The closures include state offices on Oʻahu and in Kauaʻi County, City and County of Honolulu offices, Kauaʻi County offices, Judiciary facilities on Oʻahu and in Kauaʻi County, as well as public schools and UH campuses on Oʻahu, Kauaʻi and Niʻihau.

Essential government services and emergency operations will continue.

“Hurricane Lowell is bringing dangerous conditions, including the threat of destructive winds, flash flooding and damaging surf,” said Governor Green in a statement. “Closing offices and schools will help keep people off the roads, reduce unnecessary travel and allow emergency crews to focus on protecting our communities. Please remain indoors, avoid unnecessary travel and follow all official emergency instructions.”

 Hurricane conditions are expected in Kaua‘i County beginning this afternoon or evening, according to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. Read this morning's bulletin in full 

 —  "Hurricane conditions are expected in Kaua‘i County beginning this afternoon or evening," said CPHC. "Wind speeds atop and on the windward and leeward sides of hills and mountains are often up to 30 percent stronger than the near-surface winds.  Tropical storm conditions are possible on O‘ahu beginning this afternoon."

 — Six to 10 inches forecasted for Kaua‘i, up to a possible maximum of 16 inches. For Hawai‘i Island, 4 to 8 inches of rain is expected with isolated totals of 12 inches possible. For Oahu and Maui county, 4 to 8 inches of rain is expected with isolated totals of 10 inches possible. "This rainfall may produce significant flash flooding and mudslides, especially across Kaua‘i county and portions of the Big Island."

 — From 2 for 4 feet for Kauai, with the greatest surge on the southern coasts. 

 — "Several tornadoes are possible near Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau this afternoon through tonight. A few tornadoes are also possible across the remainder of the Hawaiian Islands."

 site for additional Hurricane Lowell warnings.

.: Kauai and Ni‘i has remain under a Tropical Storm Watch, and those islands could be seeing tropical storm conditions beginning Monday, according to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. Heavy rains are projected to arrive Sunday afternoon and last into next week for all the Islands, which could produce flash floods and mudslides, "especially on Kauai and portions of the Big Island."

Be careful of surf and rip currents. Lowell's large swells arriving through the next few days are expected to make both surf and rip currents life-threatening across parts of the Islands. "Surf along exposed portions of Kaua‘i County could also produce coastal flooding and inundation of low-lying areas Monday through Monday night."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"ORIGINAL STORY:"}]

Even though Hurricane Lowell’s forecasted path appears to be pulling westward, residents shouldn’t be complacent, warn state and county officials.

National Weather Service Warning Coordination Meteorologist John Bravender said Friday that 

 is continuing westward south of Hawai‘i, and is expected to make its northward turn around late Saturday or early Sunday.

“Any time you see a sharp turn like this in a hurricane track, it’s uncertain as to both where exactly it occurs and when exactly it occurs,” Bravender said. “For us, later is better. Later means it keeps going west and turns north later and tracks north farther west of the state.”

Current preliminary models by the National Weather Service show a trajectory where the eye of the storm passes to the west of Ni‘ihau. However, Bravender said there is still a wide margin for error in predicting the movement of a storm four days out, and that the heart of the storm could move an average of 150 miles off the projected course.

Even if Lowell maintains its predicted path, its winds will still reach Hawai‘i. Bravender said Lowell’s northward movement will expose it to high wind shear, which will reduce the hurricane’s power but also expand its wind field.

Consequently, Gov. Josh Green said Friday that emergency preparations are being made statewide, particularly in Kaua‘i County.  Green said the Agribusiness Development Corporation is monitoring reservoirs on Kaua‘i in anticipation of high winds and rainfall, while the Department of Health will open hurricane refuge centers on Kaua‘i.

Kaua‘i Mayor Derek Kawakami said he is in constant communication with the Robinson family — the owners of the island of Ni‘ihau — and added that he has “supreme confidence” that the island’s small population is well-prepared for Lowell.

“Our Ni‘ihauans are extremely resilient,” Kawakami said. “In fact, the Robinson family has come to our assistance more times than they’ve ever asked for help.”

Nonetheless, Green said the state Department of Human Services will keep hotel rooms available on Kaua‘i in case any Ni‘ihau residents need to relocate temporarily.

Maj. Gen. Stephen Logan, Adjutant General of the State of Hawai‘i Department of Defense, said 146 Hawai‘i National Guard personnel are standing by throughout the Islands, with more to come over the weekend. On Kaua‘i, 20 National Guard personnel are there already, with another 16 to come on Saturday, while several high-water vehicles and a potable water trailer have been brought to the island as well.

Green on Thursday signed an emergency proclamation in advance of Lowell authorizing the activation of the National Guard as needed to support disaster relief operations, and streamlines the process to secure and distribute resources among state agencies.

The emergency proclamation extends through Nov. 1, unless Green chooses to terminate it early. Therefore, the proclamation also covers potential impacts from Hurricane Karina, which approaches the state from the northeast, and Hurricane Marie, which is distantly to the east, near Baja California.

Bravender said Karina is expected to steadily weaken over the weekend and likely dissipate after Monday, without substantial impacts to the state beyond high surf on east-facing shores.

Kawakami said surf conditions this weekend are for expert surfers only, as Lowell brings powerful swells to south- and west-facing shores statewide.

Bravender said there is the possibility of intensely heavy rainfall this weekend, but estimates are still uncertain; he gave a ballpark estimate of about four to six inches of rain, with Kaua‘i and the Big Island getting about 10 inches of rain.

Kawakami said the approach of Lowell may bring traumatic memories of 1992’s Hurricane Iniki, the most powerful recorded storm to strike the state. He recommended that anyone feeling anxious to call the Hawai‘i CARES helpline at 988.

Lowell Sep 8 5 a m

<title>Lowell impacts state through Tuesday</title>

Even tornadoes could appear as Category 3 Hurricane Lowell travels north. A Hurricane Warning is in effect for Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau as well as the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument from Nihoa to French Frigate Shoals.

Daily Smile: Tuesday, Sep. 8, 2026

ASD Staff

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Daily Smile: Tuesday, Sep. 8, 2026

Authors

ASD Staff

Reporter

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