category 4

Even if it does not make landfall, the National Weather Service warned, the storm could bring “life-threatening impacts,” including hurricane-force winds, torrential rain and flash flooding. The storm’s outer rain bands had put much of the eastern part of the Big Island of Hawaii under a flash flood warning by Thursday morning, and one site in Hilo had already recorded more than 18 inches of rain.

Officials warned that the unpredictable track of the hurricane left much of the state potentially vulnerable.

The National Weather Service said Hector remained a category four storm as it moved closer to Hawaii's Big Island.

At 11.30am (Hawaii time) today, the storm was located 1359 kms east of Hilo and forecast to pass to the south of Hawaii, the service said.

Hector continued to move in a westerly direction with winds as high as 250 km at its centre, it said.

The US National Hurricane Centre urged people to prepare for tropical storm force winds across Hawaii County on Wednesday.