This Is Now (August 21, 2026)

Aloha Warrior fans, the news is out. UH games are coming home to K5. All the games, UH shows, athlete profiles, and throwbacks to your favorites are all in one place. Hawaii News Now. Celebrate the home team with us and let's go Bose. This podcast is sponsored by Long's Drugs. Download the CVS app today and make Longs a part of your day. First, at noon, we are officially tracking Tropical Storm Moke. The system has been strengthening as it makes its way closer to the state. The National Hurricane Center forecasts are keeping the center of Moke passing south of the island chain, but many communities are still devastated from Hurricane Lala and trying to recover. Now, we could see some of the first impacts from Mokke by Saturday night, especially on the Big Island and East Maui. Dan Cook joins us now with the latest track and potential impacts, Dan. Good morning, Ashley. And yes, the storm is strengthening, but it's not expected to get that strong. It's not expected to become a hurricane. It should stay... for the entirety of its track, a tropical storm, which is good news. This is the location set at 11 o'clock by the National Hurricane Center. It doesn't say up here, but it's 660 miles to the southeast of Hilo. It is a tropical storm when sustained at 45. It's moving west-northwest at 9 miles per hour, and I'll put it in motion here. Now, I've left the Lala track here, just so you have some point of comparison, so you can see that it's starting much southern, more south than Lala, and stays south of the Lala track for sure. Sunday morning. 8 a.m. winds at 50 miles an hour. That's considerably less than what Lala was, which was a hurricane, 75 to 80 mile per hour winds when it made its closest pass, much closer to the island. So good news there. It should stay to the west by Monday morning, be a 45 mile per hour tropical storm, cyclone, whatever you want to call it. It's going to continue west. That's great news. It's going to stay well south of us. But as we know, here, let me just get in close and see. I'm considerably south of the Lala line. And I just want to remind you how big this storm is. So even though it's south, we're going to get some of this storm. We're going to get rain. We're going to get wind from Mokey. This is a rainfall model that I'll put in motion Friday. Saturday, 9 p.m. So you can see beginnings of the rainfall day outer bands Saturday night for the Big Island for Maui County. This is Sunday morning at 8 when it's making its closest pass to the south. And it should rain hard on Sunday afternoon for the Big Island and then for Maui County as well by Monday morning. So the showers will come down hard and then we'll have some trailing moisture. But once we get through that initial pass, things should get better soon. These are the totals of rainfall that we're looking at, up to 15 inches for... south, part of Hawaii Island, maybe a foot of rain for Maui County, a couple of inches, maybe five in some areas for Oahu and Kauai. More on that, of course, this storm called Mokey in a little while. Back now to Ashley. Thank you, Dan.

Meanwhile, Hawaiian Electric says it expects to restore nearly all impacted customers on Hawaii Island today, except for customers in remote and severely damaged areas. Currently, 11,290 are still in the dark. Teams from the continent are providing additional manpower to Hiko crews and contractors who have been working around the clock. UH researchers say Lala dumped enough rainwater across our state to fill nearly 2 million Olympic-sized swimming pools. The Hawaii Mezzanet and Hawaii Climate Data Portal found Hawaii Island received 833 million gallons of the rain, so they alone had enough to fill 1.2 million Olympic pools. At one point on Saturday night, the Kai Holena Station upslope of Na'Aleju recorded 4.4 inches of rain in a single hour. This was certainly a significant event. We had storm totals over 40 inches in some areas, particularly on Hawaii Island, but also on Maui. And we had some pretty high wind speeds. We had wind gusts up to about 80 miles an hour measured at our stations. Researchers say the data helps disaster responders and property owners better understand a storm's impact. On Oahu, the incoming storm is increasing the anxiety for families below Lake Wilson in Oahu. Raquel Kahalo continues our team coverage. We're in Waialua near Kaokonohua stream, which is right next to Otake Camp, an area that's known to flood during heavy rain. Now behind me is going to be a depth gauge that actually tracks the levels of the Kaokono Hua stream, which according to the USG website, around 355 today, is going to be at 6.8 feet. That's going to be important to keep track of as this stream is connected to Lake Wilson, which water levels are already being closely watched ahead of more rain. A concerned resident we spoke with near the reservoir says he's worried about what happens if those levels rise too quickly. During the Kono Lowe's, an advisory was issued when Lake Wilson reached roughly 82 to 83 feet. As of about 335 today, the reservoir was about 78.5 feet, just a few feet below those levels. They need to drop this at a reasonable rate in preparation for all this rain coming. And there's another system behind it. Any elementary kid could tell you, if the glass or the bowl is full of water, what happens if you add more water? It will overflow. Why can't our politicians and people in charge who go to school to get master's and doctorates degree? Can't figure common sense things like that. Like, hey, it's full. It was just empty four days ago. What do we do now? Pour it out. So we're going to put National Guard teams there in high water vehicles to be able to physically monitor some of the levels on the dams and the reservoirs that gave us some problems before. This is, I don't know, an abundance of caution right now, but we thought it was a best practice. The city says it's preparing for incoming weather. Department of Facilating Maintenance crews will be monitoring conditions and opening stream mouths around Oahu as needed based on the low tide mark. Crews are also on standby around the clock and ready to respond to flooding or other.

storm related issues. The city says its response can change depending on the forecast and what's happening on the ground. We also reached out to the state and are awaiting a response. Reporting in Wailua, Raquel Kalo, Hawaii News now. Thank you, Raquel. Poi Volcanoes National Park is closing all park sites at five tonight ahead of the new storm system. That means it could be closed during the next lava fountaining episode, which is expected as early as tomorrow. The park also says Highway 11 will be limited to traffic from area residents between the park entrance and Kau if an eruption episode and storm activity happen at the same time. Now, the park is still without power, internet, and phone lines, and many of the park's employees and volunteers. are also recovering from Hurricane Lala last weekend. And the summit area of Haleakala National Park will remain closed through the weekend as well. The park is still clearing roads and restoring its facilities after Lala. The Kippahulu District and Campground are expected to open today. Well, Justin, Kauai firefighters were able to extinguish a brush fire in Wainija at around seven yesterday evening. The blaze sparked yesterday afternoon between Ananalu and Anahulu roads. No injuries or structure damage were reported. Approximately 100 acres were scorched. On Maui, a church needs help cleaning up its grounds after Hurricane Lala. A Ali Duklo shows us an especially sacred part of the property was impacted. Days after the storm, and you can see behind me, there are still large down branches across the grounds here at St. John's Episcopal Church in Keokia. Some of them fell by four graves. You never like to see that happen because obviously along with the whole church at Sacred Ground. They actually fell in... in such a way they didn't damage any gray markers or it's just obviously we want to have them out of the way as cleaned up as soon as possible the church's cleanup efforts are slowly moving forward st john's priest says crews have been in high demand and they're still repairing damages from the kona lows we've got um sort of a Both those things going on now. During the March storm, St. John's got hit with a wall of water that damaged the downstairs area, which housed its nursery and preschool. The ongoing work is meant to restore all those rooms back to. probably even better than they were before because it probably needed some updates. Now after Lala, there are branches scattered across the church in the parking lot and playground. The main thing is no one was injured. And while nothing was destroyed, there's still a lot of debris that the church is asking for volunteers to help remove.

help out with tree work or any other number of things. Part of why the church has been a staple in the community for 126 years is because of the community's generosity, which does not run short in trying times like this. It will come out strong and the space will be improved because the repairs are going to actually freshen up the space and make them even more inviting. If you would like to help the church clean up, call 808-878-1485. We'll have that number on our website as well. Just look for this story. Reporting from Keukha, Aali Iduklo, Hawaii News now. The Trump administration promises to turn up economic pressure on Iran in the coming days. I'm Natalie Brand with Tehran's response, plus why the U.S. Supreme Court says White House ballroom construction can continue for now. Also head on, this is now an investigation is underway after patients at a Nashville hospital were given the wrong drugs before surgery, paralyzing two of them. That story in two minutes. Aloha Warrior fans, the news is out. UH games are coming home to K5. All the games, UH shows, athlete profiles, and throwbacks to your favorites are all in one place. Hawaii News Now. Celebrate the home team with us and let's go Bose.

Pretty nice day outside as we await whatever Mokey is going to be bringing us. It's warm. How warm? Well, 87 with a feels like of 96. Yeah, it's kind of sticky. We'll have the full forecast. Talk more about Mokey when we come back. Aloha Warrior fans, the news is out. UH games are coming home to K5. All the games, UH shows, athlete profiles, and throwbacks to your favorites are all in one place. Hawaii News Now, celebrate the home team with us, and let's go Bose. Now, first alert weather. Hey, welcome back. Just a quick refresher earlier in this newscast, we were talking about the rainfall coming from Mokey and how Mokey is a weaker storm. It's going to be farther to the south, but it's still going to be wet. The big island could get somewhere around a dozen inches. Yeah, a foot of rain. That's certainly possible. In areas that are already saturated, that's a big problem. Flooding and mudslides could be developing very quickly. So be prepared. Be ready. Don't be scared. Be prepared. We talked about rainfall. Let's talk about wind. So this is wind modeling again. Going into the future, let's scoot to Saturday night. And you can see already some of the stronger winds in the 30 to 40 mile per hour range are touching the southeast coast of Hawaii Island. The channels are starting to pick up as well. Let's scoot to Sunday morning when the storm makes its closest pass. And you can see stronger winds yet for the islands and the channels, in particular, Ali Nui Haha channel, Molokai Channel. So we're going to get some wind. It's not expected to be tropical storm strength wind, but we are going to get some wind. And I don't want to alarm you or anything, but the future cast, and we're talking about all the way out to Friday, the 28th of August, has not one, not two, but three more storms potentially developing in the eastern Pacific far away from us. Certainly a possibility that we'll be watching for you here at your severe weather station. All right, we're talking about the chance of tropical storm force winds, which are 39 or more. And you can see it stays well south of us, which is great news. And that's... Not the whole story, though, because because of the terrain and the islands, particularly the big island, we're going to see some strong winds and downslope areas that could be more than 40 miles per hour. So be prepared for that for sure. So here we are with our current winds and the teens. It's not too much to keep us cool because we've got a feels like of 96 degrees outside. That south is finally coming up. Three to five is what we're expecting by tonight and for tomorrow as well. Hope you enjoy those fun waves while we wait for Moki. Ashley, back to you. Thank you, Dan. Well, there is a lot more than movies popping up at the theater this summer as it winds down. Casey Lund explains. Aloha from Consolidated Theater's Ward. A lot to look forward to. The summer movie season is not over, but they've got much more than that. We've got Adrian to talk to us a little bit about some of the movie happenings, but we've got comedy returning to Coppolae and Ward. I've got the Jose's Jose Raymond. Oh, you guys see you're playing with the 25 years of Fast and Fis. Do you think they should have kept that franchise going that long?

I don't know. I just feel interested in the toys. Jose Raymond, Jose Dynamite with us. From Comedy, you promoting this? You guys are excited to be back, yeah? Oh, we can't wait. It's super excited. Everybody that came to all the shows so far have had a great time to see live comedy in the theater experience. One of the cool things that we actually do is we will hold the show until everyone gets the food from the concession stand because every ticket gets a $20 voucher over at the concession stand. So we wait so that... everyone can get the full experience. And Jose Raymond, do you leave, you give everybody one of the giant bag of popcorn? He's like, no. Come and get a comedy show and free popcorn. Hey, I want to talk. You have a buddy coming in. Tell me a little bit about your brand of comedy when you got started. And then tell me who's on the way right now to Hawaii to join you. Yeah, man, I got started in Hawaii on the island of Maui, 2011. And I talk about my life and what I absorbed. How do you say this? Absorbed? You know what I'm trying to say? I didn't graduate high school, so this is why I'm a comedian. You went to comedy, you, yeah. And anybody that you want to thank for where you are today? I mean, yeah, it's not an easy, it's not an easy business to get into. It's not, but people like Jose, man. He does a lot of shows. Sometimes we have a lot of people there. Sometimes, it's just me and Jose. Yeah. I'm wishing we didn't do the show. Just keep supporting comedy, man. I was just in Hilo after the storm and the few people that came out. Thank you, shout out to Hilo. They've been through it this last week. And it was nice to see everybody laughing and then. after the show get back to cleaning out of mess that. Yeah, absolutely. I think that's a really good thing to say. Jose Raymond at Jose Raymond and then at Comedyu.u.com. Okay, let's go. We got a lot to talk about. Adrian's with us, my friend, food and beverage manager, consolidated theaters. We're also talking about, yeah, 25 years of Fast and Furious. And Hogwarts. What do we have here, by the way? Well, for Hogwarts, we have a wearable blanket. Okay. This is a hood. You can go to, you know, Hogwarts yourself if you want to. We have a shoulder plush. Okay, yeah. How did that work? You have to put, that's a magnet. We'd have to totally, but I love the idea. Maybe the next one. All these collectors items. And you guys do this for different things. I want to talk a little bit about incentives for people to sign up and rewards programs that you still have available. Yeah, so we have the free-to-join program or you can do like a monthly paid program with our premium membership. Premium membership is totally worth it. You get free tickets every month. You get, you know, free concession items. There's a mystery perk every month. So it's a lot of cool extra stuff that you can get. Unfortunately, the popcorn isn't free. Yeah, okay. But we do have other stuff. You know, so we have this for the Fast and Furious for this weekend. And then we also have Dom's Charger. Oh, wow. I wanted to keep it intact, but you could open it and put popcorn in it, so there's a lot of cool stuff that we have to offer. Adriene with us from Consolidated Theaters. It was a busy summer theater. You said that they had seen numbers that they hadn't really seen since the pre-pandemic time. So that's good. It means people are going back to the theater and that we're making good movies again, I think is another sign. So we'll have all the details online at Hawaii News Now.com. Come out to Consolidated Theaters this weekend.

Aloha Warrior fans, the news is out. UH games are coming home to K5. All the games, UH shows, athlete profiles, and throwbacks to your favorites are all in one place. Hawaii News Now. Celebrate the home team with us and let's go Bose. Welcome back. The city of Norco, California is known as Horsetown, USA, and one family is capitalizing in a unique way. Here's a look at how they are taking visitors back into medieval times. It's a centuries-old tradition gone viral and having a modern moment. Welcome to Taco Tournament Tuesday, a weekly jousting event in Norco that would make King Arthur proud. It's awesome to come here. It's better than medieval times. It's the brainchild of the Montgomery family who started the free event four years ago in their backyard. After an influencer recently posted on social media, the event has exploded in popularity. This week's event maxed out at 350 people. They even have to turn some away. The tournament is so special because it's a community event. It's free to our community to come in and watch us beat each other up to see who can be the best jouster this week. Hi, handsome. He's my little goober. The horses are all rescues. Lady Sam is the only female night in the troop, but with Anakin Skytrotter at her side, she's confident she can pull off a victory. He was rescued from being euthanized, basically. I was lucky that I found him. He's been amazing for me. So he's going to make me win tonight. But the thrill isn't without risk. I mean, you're running at another person with a giant stick on a horse. It's like riding a motorcycle, but it has a brain that can think. After three thrilling rounds of action, the fan favorite underdog, Lady Sam, takes on reigning champ, Sir Russell. The champion of Taco Tournament, too, is Lady Sam and God. The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat. Oh, my goodness. I just always want to thank, especially the ladies, because they always scream the loudest for me. Heck yeah. With her trusty steed, our new champion rides off into the night. But everyone from competitors to visitors walk out feeling victorious. It's not even worked for me. You know what I mean? It's something I get to do with my family. I get to entertain my hometown once a week, and that's the best thing I can ask for, really. Wow. It looks fun, but it looks dangerous. It's very dangerous. It's probably falling off a horse. That's a long way down. And nothing says medieval times like tacos. Okay, whatever works for you. Tournament Taco Tuesday. That's right. All right, here's a quick look at what's coming up today on our H&N streaming app available to download for free on your smart TV. Let's take one last look outside. Dan, feels like 96? Feels like is 96. It is sticky.

More news coming up for a step four right here on K-Channel. This podcast is sponsored by Long's Drugs. Download the CVS app today and make Longs a part of your day. Aloha Warrior fans, the news is out. UH games are coming home to K-5. All the games, UH shows, athlete profiles, and throwbacks to your favorites are all in one place. Hawaii News now. Celebrate the home team with us and let's go Bose.