Cruise With Christine Pappin: Hawaii Bracing for Two Hurricanes

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Hawaii Bracing for Two Hurricanes

Hurricane Iselle

Hurricane Julio

Approaching Hawaii

Not one, but two Hurricanes are heading for the Hawaiian Islands.

Iselle still heading for the Big Island, maintaining hurricane intensity. On the forecast track, the center of Iselle is expected to pass very near or over the Big Island Thursday night, and pass just south of the smaller islands Friday.

Maximum sustained winds are near 90 mph, 150 km/h, with higher gusts. Some weakening is forecast during the next 48 hours, but Iselle is now expected to be a hurricane as it passes near or over the Big Island.

Update: Iselle was classified as a tropical storm 11 p.m. Thursday Hawaii Standard Time when its winds slowed to 70 mph, putting it below the minimum of 74 mph for a hurricane. The storm is weakening because of several factors, including wind shear chopping at the system and the Big Island's terrain above the water, said Chris Brenchley, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Honolulu.

NHC issuing advisories on Hurricane JULIO

HURRICANE JULIO

Early this morning, Julio strengthened to a Category 2 Hurricane.While there are no coastal watches and warnings currently in effect for this storm, interests in the Hawaiian Islands should monitor the progress of Julio.

Update: Hurricane Julio, a Category 3 storm, is about 1,000 miles behind Iselle in the Pacific.
Maximum sustained winds are near 120 mph, 195 km/h, with higher gusts. Julio is a category three hurricane on the saffir-simpson hurricane wind scale. Gradual weakening is expected through Saturday.

SURF...LARGE SWELLS GENERATED BY HURRICANE JULIO ARE EXPECTED TO 
PRODUCE BUILDING SURF ALONG MOST NORTH AND EAST FACING SHORES OF THE 
MAIN HAWAIIAN ISLANDS STARTING TONIGHT...AND CONTINUING INTO EARLY 
NEXT WEEK.

CRUISE SHIP IMPACT

Weather Alert for Pride of America Guests

Updated Wednesday, August 6, 2014 @ 1:30 pm ET
At Norwegian Cruise Line, the safety and security of our guests and crew is of the utmost importance. Therefore, the company is closely monitoring the paths of Hurricanes Iselle and Julio in the Pacific.

At this time, we anticipate embarkation for Pride of America’s August 9 sailing will take place as scheduled. Should there be any updates, they will be immediately posted on Norwegian's site.

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Full coverage of this, and all tropical storms, can be found on our Hurricane Zone page. There are RSS feeds from the National Hurricane Center posted there giving you up to the minute information. For storms that impact cruises, we will bring you information on those details as well. Please bookmark that page for further reference during the Hurricane Season which runs now through November 30th.