Hawaii prepared for Hurricane Douglas on Sunday, with predictions of high winds, rain and storm surge.
Related: Hurricane Hanna: storm hits Texas counties struggling with Covid-19
Continue reading...On 1 March, photographer Jon Tonks left New Zealand on a Pacific cruise. Twenty eight days later, the boat docked in San Diego, amid a pandemic. What happened in between?
The cruise ship MS Maasdam left New Zealand on the evening of 1 March, steaming out of Auckland’s Waitemata harbour into the Hauraki Gulf, where it headed north. The route was to San Diego via Fiji, the Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Hawaii. On board the Holland America Line ship were around 1,200 passengers, including Americans, Britons, Canadians, Australians and French holidaymakers. The 542 crew included Dutch, Americans, Germans, Venezuelans and Filipinos. There were also a handful of entertainers and guest lecturers along for the ride, including Jon Tonks, a portrait photographer from Bath, who ended up with a portrait of a cruise that didn’t go to plan.
Covid-19 was certainly a thing at the beginning of March, but it was still considered mainly a China thing. The Maasdam wouldn’t be going anywhere near China. Questionnaires were handed to passengers, about symptoms and where they’d been before, but then they were good to go. Still, Tonks says that friends had joked before he left: “Good luck on your corona cruise.”
Continue reading...Angela Madsen, whose remarkable life took in a spell in the Marines, a string of gold medals and record setting rowing journeys, has died while attempting a solo journey from California to Hawaii.
The 60-year-old’s death was confirmed by her wife, Deb Madsen, in a Facebook post on Tuesday. “With extreme sadness,” she wrote, “I must announce that Angela Madsen will not complete her solo row to Hawaii.”
Continue reading...From protecting fishing communities to regrowing coral reefs, Guardian readers and environmentalists share how they’re working to defend the ocean
World Oceans Day, which took place on Monday, is marked by hundreds of beach cleans and events globally. Despite Covid-19 restrictions, environmentalists and readers from around the world shared how they are continuing to work to protect the ocean, and told us about the local marine issues that matter to them.
Continue reading...Kauai has one of the Pentagon’s most valued testing sites. It’s an economic driver, but some residents say the military shouldn’t be on the islands at all
Hawaii’s “garden island”, Kauai, is known for its breathtaking scenery and laid-back vibe, a place of plunging waterfalls and cliffs cloaked in green tropical forests. But beyond its beauty it is one of the Pentagon’s most valued testing and training sites in the Pacific.
In Hawaii, where the military is the second-largest economic driver, after tourism, weapons testing and training enjoy widespread support, but some residents view the islands’ highly militarized state as misguided or even illegal.
Continue reading...Detailed pictures of planet glowing through clouds were taken with telescope in Hawaii
Astronomers have captured some of the highest resolution images of Jupiter ever obtained from the ground using a technique known as “lucky imaging”.
The observations, from the Gemini North telescope on Hawaii’s dormant volcano Mauna Kea, reveal lightning strikes and storm systems forming around deep clouds of water ice and liquid. The images show the warm, deep layers of the planet’s atmosphere glowing through gaps in thick cloud cover in a “jack-o-lantern”-like effect.
Continue reading...Research on events in Hawaii suggests climate crisis could increase eruptions around world
The spectacular eruptions of the Kīlauea volcano in Hawaii in 2018 were triggered by extreme rainfall in the preceding months, research suggests.
Scientists say the finding raises the possibility that climate breakdown, which is causing more extreme weather, could lead to an increase in eruptions around the world.
Continue reading...Hundreds of travelers, motivated in part by low airfares, are riding out the pandemic in Hawaii – but some islanders see it a disregard for their home
A week ago, on the east side of Oahu, Troy Kane spent the day in waist-high water lugging rocks across Pā Honu fishpond. Usually he’d go with a group, but because of social distancing orders, he ventured out alone.
Related: Coronavirus live news: Spain proposes €1.5tn EU Covid-19 fund; US blocks pro-WHO statement by G20
Continue reading...Hawaii congresswoman who assembled eclectic group of supporters backs Joe Biden and thanks Bernie Sanders
The controversial Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has dropped out of the Democratic presidential race. She had been the last woman in the contest – albeit a very long shot from the start – after Elizabeth Warren decided to quit within two days of a poor showing on Super Tuesday.
Gabbard, who won two Democratic delegates, both in American Samoa, endorsed Joe Biden as she suspended her campaign, a surprise move given she was one of few Democrats in Congress to back Bernie Sanders in 2016.
Continue reading...One police officer died after being shot while responding to an assault call in Hawaii on Sunday, according to a member of the Honolulu city council. A second officer was hospitalized in critical condition and the gunman was being sought, authorities said.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported that officers responded to an assault call when they encountered a male with a firearm who opened fire.
Continue reading...‘It’s right up in our face’ – close proximity of stellar nursery to our solar system stuns scientists
Astronomers have discovered a gigantic, undulating wave of dust and gas where newborn stars are forged over a 50 million billion mile stretch of the Milky Way.
The gaseous structure, which holds more mass than 3m suns, runs directly behind our solar system as viewed from the heart of the galaxy, but has eluded observation until now.
Continue reading...Suspect said to have taken his own life after attack at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, near Honolulu
A gunman opened fire at the historic military base in Pearl Harbor on Wednesday afternoon, authorities said, with local news media reporting several people were wounded before the suspect took his own life.
Security forces responded to reports of a shooting at the Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickham, the US navy and air force base near Honolulu, Hawaii, around 2.30 pm, the base said in an announcement on Twitter.
Continue reading...‘We all hit the roof,’ passenger says after plane forced to land in Honolulu
Dozens of people on an Air Canada flight to Australia have been injured after the plane encountered unexpected turbulence, forcing it to land in Hawaii.
The flight from Vancouver to Sydney encountered “unforecasted and sudden turbulence” about two hours past Hawaii and diverted to Honolulu, according to an Air Canada spokeswoman, Angela Mah.
Continue reading...No survivors in crash on the North Shore of Oahu after plane burst into flames
Eleven passengers and crew were killed on Friday evening when their plane crashed near an airfield in Hawaii, authorities said.
The twin-engine King Air plane, with eleven people onboard, went down soon after take off from Dillingham Airfield, on Oahu’s North Shore, and there were no survivors, the Hawaii Department of Transportation said.
Continue reading...Amanda Eller, who went missing on 8 May during a hike in the Makawao Forest Reserve, said she fell off a cliff during her ordeal
A woman who was found alive in a forest on Maui on Friday after going missing when out hiking more than two weeks ago has said she struggled not to give up.
Amanda Eller told the New York Times that at such moments, she told herself: “The only option I had was life or death.
Continue reading...65-year-old Californian man attacked off coast of Maui in first such death since 2015
A man has died in Hawaii after being attacked by a shark, local officials have said, the first such fatality in the state in four years.
The victim, a 65-year-old from California, is believed to have been swimming in clear, flat conditions about 60 yards from the shore at on the west coast of Maui on Saturday morning when the attack happened.
Continue reading...Amanda Eller was spotted in the bed of a creek on Maui island by helicopter search team
A woman has been found alive in a forest on Hawaii’s Maui island after going missing more than two weeks ago.
Amanda Eller was found injured in the Makawao Forest Reserve, the Maui News reported on Friday.
Continue reading...Proposal law would protects any shark or ray in state waters and be first of its kind in US
Sharks could soon become more numerous in Hawaii waters – and advocates say that’s a good thing.
Lawmakers in Honolulu advanced a proposed ban on killing sharks in state waters on Wednesday, after receiving hundreds of calls and letters of support from around the country. The law, which would provide sweeping protection for any shark, rather than select species, could be the first of its kind in the United States.
Continue reading...Ocean Ramsey, a shark researcher, came face-to-face with what could be one of the largest great whites ever recorded
Two shark researchers who came face to face with what could be one of the largest great whites ever recorded are using their encounter as an opportunity to push for legislation that would protect sharks in Hawaii.
Ocean Ramsey, a shark researcher and conservationist, told the Associated Press that she encountered the 20ft (6m) shark Tuesday near a dead sperm whale off Oahu. The event was documented and shared on social media by her fiance and business partner, Juan Oliphant.
Continue reading...The Facebook CEO’s involvement in a family dispute over four small parcels of land worries many on an island where longtime residents have lost land to wealthy newcomers
On 22 December 2016, a retired professor of Hawaiian studies named Carlos Andrade sent a letter to dozens of his relatives informing them that he was about to sue them.
The relatives were among hundreds of partial owners of four small parcels of land on the island of Kauai, the legacy of a shared ancestor named Manuel Rapozo. A neighboring landowner, Northshore Kalo LLC, was willing to pay the legal fees to clear up the title on the property – enabling Andrade to take full ownership and compensate his fellow descendants for their shares.
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