John Cummings, public relations officer for O'ahu Civil Defense, said National Weather Service forecasters are warning city and state officials to plan for a storm similar to the one O'ahu experienced in mid-January.

That storm hit with gusts of up to 85 mph, snapping utility poles along Kamehameha Highway just outside Wahiawa and causing flooding in East Honolulu and elsewhere. Nearly 70,000 electricity customers lost power.

As is the case this year, the ground was damp before the storm hit — reducing fire risks from fireworks, as Honolulu Fire Capt. Emmit Kane pointed out — but leading to greater flash flooding and the potential for fallen trees and utility poles.

The weather system was expected to hit O'ahu late last night or this morning.

"It's moving slowly eastward," forecaster Norman Hui said. "We're just keeping an eye on it to see what happens."

City maintenance crews on O'ahu have been clearing streams and are keeping a close watch on them, Cummings from O'ahu Civil Defense said.

Residents noticing rising streams or experiencing storm damage should call 911, he said.

Marshall said agricultural dams and reservoirs are a primary concern on Kaua'i, and that their operators were asked to drop water levels by at least a foot to make room for up to 10 inches of rain.

Emergency Medical Services, the paramedics on O'ahu, have added two ambulance teams to handle an expected increase in alcohol- and weather-related accidents tonight, and the police department, fire department and local hospital emergency rooms have regular recall and contingency measures in place.

Power company officials are expecting outages from the winds, which are blowing from the south and expected to gust to 50 mph and higher on mountain downslopes.

Hawaiian Electric Co. is augmenting its crews and advising residents to stock up on canned food and have battery-powered flashlights and radios on hand.

University of Hawai'i personnel, already smarting from devastating flooding and heavy rains in October, were taking whatever precautions they could.

"What we've done is put up plastic funnels so the water that does leak goes into buckets," said Jean Ehrhorn, associate university librarian, in overseeing storm preparations at badly damaged Hamilton Library.

Aside from the catastrophic damage to the library's basement, its collections and staff offices because of the Oct. 30 Manoa flood, the building has a number of leaks in its oldest section.

"There are some roof leaks there on the old side of the building, Phase 1, of the third floor built in the 1960s," said Ehrhorn.

She said workers are caulking the leaks and moving the inventory to drier areas.

UH personnel have also checked the Manoa bridges to make sure they're clear of debris, as part of procedures conducted with the state, city and county.

Part of the cause of the Oct. 30 flooding that wreaked up to $100 million in damage to the UH campus was debris clogging bridges and nearby hurricane fences, forcing raging stream waters to jump their banks.

Meanwhile, roofing companies, still overbooked after the January storm, are getting calls from residents concerned about limiting damage from this one.

Cover All Roofing and Repair is doing all it can, said Dave Stone, the company's owner.

"They heard about the storm and we've had a lot of calls," Stone said. "There's not any problem with their roof. They're asking us to do extra to make sure that nothing blows off."