Hawaii's Big Island lashed by rain and wind as Tropical Storm Lala strengthens

BREAKING: Rare hurricane warning issued for Hawaii's Big Island as Tropical Storm Lala strengthens to 70 mph winds, the island's first direct hurricane threat in 155 years.

Hawaii's Big Island is under its first hurricane warning in 155 years.

Tropical Storm Lala is throwing 70 mile an hour gusts at the island right now, and forecasters say it could make landfall as a full hurricane near South Point. The last time that happened, according to old newspaper records, was 1871. This coastline is bracing for something nobody alive there has ever seen.

The National Hurricane Center is warning of up to 25 inches of rain at higher elevations, enough to trigger life threatening mudslides in remote areas where people live off the grid in improvised housing. Governor Josh Green called it an enormous storm, and he's not exaggerating. Tropical storm force winds stretch 220 miles out, and Oahu and Kauai get hit by Sunday morning.

Shelters are opening, events are cancelled, and one meteorologist put it plainly. It doesn't take landfall to create destruction.

This is Liu Yang, reporting for HIT.

Source Read the original reporting at cnbc.com