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For the second time in just over a month, the governor has shut down state of Hawaiʻi government offices in anticipation of severe weather.

Gov. Josh Green issued an emergency proclamation Thursday afternoon as heavy rain and flooding were being felt statewide, with more on the way. By then, a flash flood warning was already in effect on Oʻahu, where most state agencies are located. At a news conference Thursday evening, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi described predictions for a “deluge of rain” in the coming days.

Hawaiʻi Storm Update: Forecast, Schools. Closures And More

The governor’s order, which took effect early Friday morning, closes the Hawaiʻi Legislature, the Hawaiʻi Judiciary and its courthouses, University of Hawaiʻi campuses and all public and charter schools. Private schools typically follow suit through their own announcements.

School closures came on the eve of spring break for students and teachers statewide, which is scheduled to begin Monday.

“Please be careful out there. We are getting a lot of rain out there,” Green said at a press conference at the Capitol, alongside state emergency management and public safety officials. The forecast, he said, could range as high as 15 inches of rainfall over five days.

The governor said mayors for the three counties were expected to close city and county offices, something Honolulu officials went on to announce at around 1:30 p.m. Hawaiʻi island joined the group Thursday evening in closing public schools, offices and courts. Hawai‘i County Mayor Kimo Alameda said he expected conditions there to ramp up a little later, starting sometime on Friday and continuing through the weekend.

State parks on all islands were added to the list of closures Thursday night, which includes ʻIolani Palace, the Queen Emma Summer Palace and Mauna ‘Ala — the Royal Mausoleum — on O‘ahu. The Bishop Museum announced it also would be closed on Saturday.

While no major damage has been reported so far, officials with the National Weather Service and Hawaiʻi Emergency Management Agency said that heavy rains from a Kona low weather system would likely be accompanied by high winds of up to 50 mph or more through Sunday — and even possibly thunderstorms.

By Friday morning, areas around the islands had received up to five inches of rain in the past 24 hours and crews were working to remove trees down across roads in several locations, including on Kalākaua Avenue in Waikīkī and Kamehameha Highway at Karsten Thot Bridge.

Getting around could get tougher as the storm continues. Green urged drivers statewide to avoid flooded areas and HECO warned that some traffic lights were out and to treat the intersections as four-way stops. On Oʻahu, city officials said they would suspend TheBus service if winds blow at over 45 mph and the Skyline trains would be halted at 60 mph of sustained wind.

All airports remained open, but some local flights had been canceled beginning Friday morning. Travelers were advised to check ahead and to get to the airport early — 90 minutes for local flights and three hours for others.

Hearings for Friday at the Capitol had already been canceled prior to the governor’s actions, for a planned Tourism Day celebration — which also now is canceled. Schools had begun to close ahead of time, too, including on Molokaʻi. And on Oʻahu, workers with CORE — a division of emergency services focused on homeless individuals — were out traveling the Westside between Mākaha and Electric Beach, where the storm is expected to hit hardest.

By nightfall Thursday, Director of Emergency Services Jim Ireland said the team had relocated eight people to the U.S.VETS shelter in Waiʻanae, which can hold about 50. They had wanted to do one last swing, he said, to preempt an emergency rescue later.

“Once you get into a situation where it’s one, two, three inches an hour of rain,” Ireland said, “that will potentially be beyond the capabilities of CORE.”

Closures Can Be Hard On Working Families

Statewide school closures in Hawai‘i are rare, with only a handful of instances in the last five years, according to press release archives online.

Working families have limited options when it comes to finding last-minute child care options in response to school closures, said Malia Tsuchiya, early childhood policy and advocacy coordinator at Hawaiʻi Children’s Action Network. While some parents can rely on family members or neighbors to care for their children during the day, she said, others may be forced to take time off from work.

The lack of emergency options for families reflects the state’s larger challenges with maintaining and supporting child care programs, Tsuchiya said. While licensed family child care programs — which run out of caregivers’ homes and can serve kids of all ages — could offer a solution in these emergency situations, Tsuchiya said, the state provides little support for these initiatives.

“There really are no other options,” she said.

The governor last closed the state on Feb. 9 during a period of inclement weather.

Green appears to be taking a more aggressive approach to declaring emergencies based on weather forecasts than his predecessor, who primarily used them when Hawai‘i was in the path of a hurricane or in the aftermath of a damaging storm.

Under Green, Hawai‘i has also seen emergency proclamations issued in advance of Kona low weather systems in 2024 and 2026, an unnamed winter storm in 2025, an unnamed winter storm last month and two weather systems that put the state at high risk for wildfires.

On Thursday, he said several factors influenced his decision to issue a preemptive emergency declaration. It included the fact that the storm was expected to hit major population centers on Maui and Oʻahu in the middle of the night, and he wanted people to prepare ahead of time.

He was also conscious of what happened in previous natural disasters, including traffic jams that made it difficult for people to buy essential supplies.

Green said he wanted to “err on the side of caution,” noting that in his experience storms in Hawaiʻi have “been more intense” in recent years.

The administration plans another update at 4 p.m. Friday.

Contributing: Civil Beat reporters Megan Tagami, Matthew Leonard and Ben Angarone.