Hawaii could see a big hurricane season, but most homes aren’t ready

By AUDREY McAVOY
Associated Press

HONOLULU (AP) — Two-thirds of the single-family homes on Hawaii’s most populous island have no hurricane protections. This year’s return of El Nino is highlighting this weakness because it boosts the odds that more tropical cyclones will travel through Hawaii’s waters. El Nino is a naturally occurring warming of equatorial waters in the central and eastern Pacific. It affects weather worldwide. Hawaii has already felt its wrath as a tropical storm passed south of the Big Island last month. Warming oceans heated by climate change could also strengthen tropical storms and nudge them further north, potentially putting them on a collision course with Hawaii.