Conditions never really materialized yesterday, at least on Kaua’i, to justify the flash-flood watch posted statewide due to the travel plans of the remnants of tropical storm Barbara. As of Monday afternoon, she was a shell of her former self,
Conditions never really materialized yesterday, at least on Kaua’i, to justify the flash-flood watch posted statewide due to the travel plans of the remnants of tropical storm Barbara.
As of Monday afternoon, she was a shell of her former self, barely strong enough to rate tropical depression billing, and getting less organized while moving west between 75 and 100 miles north of Kaua’i.
And the showers and thunder showers anticipated in her wake also never appeared, though yesterday’s rainy morning may have seemed to indicate otherwise.
Barely a fourth of an inch of rain fell at Lihu’e Airport for the 24-hour period ending about 3:30 p.m. yesterday, and it was a normal workday for Kaua’i County Civil Defense officials.
Yesterday morning’s ugly conditions, though, did force cancellation of the county’s junior lifeguard training program, which was expected to go on this morning as scheduled.
The water safety section of the county Fire Department canceled the Monday class at Kalapaki Beach.
The statewide flash-flood watch was canceled at 4 p.m. yesterday.
Barbara did carry some thunderstorm activity on its northern fringes, said Jim Weyman, director of the National Weather Service’s Central Pacific Hurricane Center.
While Barbara was getting taken apart by the upper-level jetstream before it entered the central Pacific, and wasn’t expected to be much of a threat to the Hawaiian Islands, that doesn’t mean residents and visitors shouldn’t be ready for another storm system to move through this part of the world.
“We should always be prepared for the next storm,” said Weyman.
“It looked like we might get a little more rain than we did (from Barbara), but still, it wasn’t expected to cause much problems,” Weyman said. “But that doesn’t say anything about the next one. The next one could be much stronger, and people should be ready with their emergency kits and emergency plans.”
June through November are hurricane months in the Pacific, and the last two hurricanes to impact Kaua’i came late during the annual season. ‘Iwa hit in November 1982, and ‘Iniki came in September 1992.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
