Hurricane Lane is heading for Hawaii as a dangerous Category 4 storm

Hurricane Lane is heading for Hawaii as a dangerous Category 4 storm

Hurricane Lane is poised to give Hawaii an unusually major encounter with a major cyclone -- and could batter the Big Island with rain and tropical storm force winds as early as Wednesday night.

The Category 4 storm's dangerous center could make landfall this week, but even if it doesn't, it should draw close to the islands Thursday through Saturday, bringing destructive winds and as many as 20 inches of rain onshore, forecasters said.

The state is bracing for a powerful punch: The governor has declared an emergency, and all public and charter schools on the Big Island and Maui County are closed until further notice.

"(I'm) filling up my bathtub with some water, hoping to board up my main windows in time," a shopper on the Big Island, Shana Bartolome, told CNN affiliate KHON on Tuesday.

Lane is expected to weaken slowly through Friday, but it still is forecast "to remain a dangerous hurricane as it draws closer to the Hawaiian Islands," the National Weather Service's Central Pacific Hurricane Center says.

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