Tropical Storm Olivia Nears Hawaii, Officials Warn Against 'Emergency Fatigue'

HONOLULU COUNTY, Hawaii – Hurricane Lane Hawaii, residents of Tropical Storm Olivia.

The National Weather Service on Tuesday afternoon is a day of rain and rain. Hawaiian islands as Olivia moved closer to the state with maximum sustained winds of 55 mph. The storm, which is expected to affect Maui, Lanai and Molokai on Tuesday night, may have 15 inches of rain in the field.

Olivia is approaching the islands with much less strength than Hurricane Lane, which tracked close to Hawaii as a Category 4 storm in late August. Lane dumped 51.5 inches of rain in the state and flooded two dozen homes and damaged 113 more, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.

Simultaneous brush fires, weathered by the storm's winds, burned seven homes and nearly 3,000 acres in several areas on Maui. Two other tropical storms, Miriam and Norman, missed Hawaii in the weeks that followed.

Gov. David Ige (D) asked President Donald Trump last week to report Hurricane Lane to Major Disaster Recovery.

Tropical Storm Olivia is a weaker storm, but emergency officials in Hawaii are warning residents against slipping into the trap of "emergency fatigue."

"Two things that concern us and the public underestimating the threat," Tom Travis, Hawaii 's Emergency Management Agency administrator, told residents.

"Because Lane was not a direct hit, and Miriam and Norman bypassed the islands," Travis said. "The warnings start to mean less. But let's be clear: In each of these cases, we were lucky. "

But Hilo resident George Orais-Bonheimer, whose home flooded during Hurricane Lane, said he was able.

"We felt very unprepared during Lane, so we're taking extra precaution during this storm," he told HuffPost.

Orais-Bonheimer said that these are some of the most important problems in the world, such as sandbags, and Lane and have yet to restock.

"Big Island resources are very limited in comparison to Oahu so it can be very frustrating," he added. "However, the sense of Aloha is strong on Hawaii Island, especially during emergencies."

Ige requested that Trump sign a presidential disaster declaration in case Olivia brings more damaging rain and wind to the state.

The governor also signed a memorandum Maui County, which includes the islands of Maui, Lanai and Molokai, to be prepared for the storm. Schools in Maui County will shut down Wednesday.

Natural phenomena started keeping Hawaii's residents on this year even before hurricane season began.

In April, torrential rain caused by flooding and landslides on the island of Kauai, forcing residents out of their homes and stranding a remote community on the island's north shore.

Kilauea Volcano on Hawaii's Big Island had a devastating eruption between May and August that nearly wiped out the entire community of Leilani Estates and destroyed 700 homes.