(UTV|COLOMBO) Two of Mother Nature’s most potentially devastating forces – a major hurricane and an erupting volcano – appear headed for a close encounter on Hawaii’s Big Island next week, weather forecasters said on Friday.
Hurricane Hector, swirling harmlessly in the Pacific some 1,700 miles (2,760 km) east of the Big Island, grew into a “major hurricane” late Friday, and its maximum sustained winds reached 120 mph (195 km per hour), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Storms of that strength, classified as a Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, are considered capable of causing devastating damage to populated areas.
Hector was on a trajectory that could brush the southern coast of the Big Island late on Wednesday morning, the NHC said.
That would put the storm on a virtual collision course with Kilauea Volcano, situated on the southern portion of the island. The volcano is in the midst of a 3-month-old eruption of lava from vents on its eastern flank while its summit crater continues to collapse.
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