[ad_1]
Hurricane Dora, a Category 4 storm hundreds of miles south of Hawaii on Tuesday night, was generating high winds on the islands that fueled brush fires and prompted evacuations.
Dora was not expected to make landfall in Hawaii, but the storm was causing high winds after dry conditions had created a particularly high risk of wildfires.
On Hawaii’s Big Island, winds fueled by Dora prompted evacuations on Tuesday, and crews battled a wildfire along a highway.
Those winds also contributed to several wildfires on the island of Maui, including one that was about 1,000 acres by Tuesday afternoon, the Maui County Emergency Management Agency said. Structures caught fire, and several evacuations were underway, it added.
The fires in Hawaii and Maui counties had already burned hundreds of acres by Tuesday, Sylvia Luke, the acting governor, said in an emergency proclamation that activated the National Guard.
Early Tuesday evening, the National Weather Service was reporting eastern winds of 30 to 45 miles per hour and gusts of about 60 m.p.h. It said that a red flag warning — indicating that critical fire conditions were occurring or would be shortly — was in effect for some areas of the Hawaiian islands.
Winds in Hawaii were expected to diminish on Wednesday as a high pressure system to the north weakens and Dora moves west away from the islands, the Weather Service said.
[ad_2]
