Mountains can funnel the wind or block winds and there can be strange local effects. Sounds like some people dodged a bullet after being wing by an earlier one. That really heavy rain stuff in a few days causing flooding and erosion is something that happens in my neck of the woods from Jan to March all too frequently. It is darn inconvenient and I imagine especially so after the inconvenience of the last natural disaster.
If it weren't for the fact that the soil here is actually just lava rock our houses would be flooded up to the roof lines. The coastal areas and areas north of Hilo, where there is actual soil, were the ones most impacted. Anyhow, the storm is over. I think our very tall volcanoes, almost 14,000 feet each, knocked the winds out of the hurricane.
