Flossie whips across Hawaii after small earthquake hits island

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Hawaii residents rush to load up on supplies; schools, businesses close

5.4-magnitude quake struck 25 miles south of Hilo, causes landslide

Tropical Storm Dean is predicted to become first hurricane of Atlantic season



CNN-- The "big island" of Hawaii is feeling Hurricane Flossie's pounding rain and dangerous winds.


Eric Knopf is on vacation with his wife in South Point, Hawaii, where Hurricane Flossie is causing 15-foot swells.

Winds whipping 39 mph on the ground -- perhaps as strong as 50 mph -- made waves as high as 25 feet as schools and businesses closed in Hilo and the island of Oahu around 2 p.m. Hawaii time (8 p.m. ET).

Meanwhile, in the Atlantic basin, a tropical depression strengthened into Tropical Storm Dean, and the season's fifth tropical depression formed late Tuesday in the Gulf of Mexico, the National Hurricane Center said.

A tropical storm watch was issued for the Texas coast from Freeport southward. Mexico has issued a watch for the northeast coast of the country from Rio San Fernando northward.

Flossie has maximum sustained winds of 105 mph and remains a Category 2 hurricane. Watch as Flossie approaches Hawaii »

Hawaii residents rushed to supermarkets, loading up on water, batteries and nonperishable foods such as peanut butter, noodles and bread. But many of the items were picked over.

Some were still shaken after an overnight earthquake with a magnitude of 5.4 struck 25 miles south of Hilo, triggering a small landslide. There have been no reports of injuries or damage to buildings, according to local CNN affiliate KITV.

The big island's Kau District could receive 10 or more inches of rainfall through Tuesday night, forecasters have said. Smaller amounts of between 5 and 10 inches are predicted on the east slopes of Hawaii.

The rainfall could produce flash flooding, but forecasters have said the amount of rainfall and flooding potential could vary greatly depending on Hurricane Flossie's track across the Pacific.

A state of emergency was declared Monday morning, advising residents to stay tuned to their radios for information on possible evacuations, the National Weather Service said.

In the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Dean was about 1,140 miles west of the southernmost Cape Verde islands and about 1,390 miles east of the Lesser Antilles.

By Friday, the system is expected to become the first Atlantic hurricane of the 2007 season, on a path toward the Lesser Antilles and Puerto Rico. It was racing west at near 21 mph, and was expected to continue doing so over the next day.

Dean's maximum sustained winds were near 40 mph, just reaching the threshold of a tropical storm, according to Miami's National Hurricane Center.

However, forecasters said the storm could strengthen over the next 24 hours.

The current forecast calls for Dean to become a hurricane, with winds of at least 74 mph, just before it reaches the Lesser Antilles on Friday afternoon or evening.


By 2 p.m. Sunday, according to the forecast, Dean is expected to reach Hispaniola as a Category 2 hurricane. However, because hurricanes often move unpredictably, the path a storm takes often varies widely from the long-range forecast.

It is too early for forecasters to predict whether the storm might pose a threat to the United States.