At Hawaii County Civil Defense headquarters, Administrator Quince Mento scanned a satellite photo of a slowly weakening Hurricane Felicia showing on one of the six large plasma screens dominating one wall.

"If I stare at this too much, I try to read too much into it," he said yesterday afternoon.
Like the rest of the state, he was keeping a keen eye on the storm system slated to reach the Big Island tomorrow evening and release heavy rains as it passes. Felicia was downgraded to a tropical storm today.
The eye of the hurricane was intact up until 11 p.m. Friday night, Civil Defense Administrative Officer John Drummond said. Then Felicia's wind dropped from more than 100 mph to 90 mph late Friday night.
Slow weakening is expected to continue today and Monday as the system moves into increasing westerly shear.
Sea surface temperatures on the track of the hurricane will gradually increase — but so will the westerly shear expected to weaken the system.
The storm is forecast to reach the Big Island as a tropical storm or tropical depression packing maximum sustained winds of 50 mph with higher gusts.
The National Weather Service has issued a tropical storm watch and a flash flood watch for the Big Island and Maui County effective tomorrow morning through Tuesday afternoon.
Felicia could create widespread flash flooding. Rock falls and mudslides are also possible, according to the weather service.
The system will likely take anywhere from six to 12 hours to pass, said National Weather Service forecaster Ian Morrison. The first of Felicia's rain bands are expected to hit the island early tomorrow morning, said Morrison.
"Even if the winds start to die out, we are going to get very, very heavy rains, which can be a significant problem to the Big Island that will likely cause flooding and possibly landslides," said Jim Weyman, director of the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. "We are expecting 10 to 12 inches of rain at least and more in areas that see a lot of rainfall normally."
Saturday afternoon, Mento and Drummond conferred with Mayor Billy Kenoi at the Civil Defense Emergency Operations Center, located in a concrete building makai of the Hawaii County Police headquarters in Hilo.
Kenoi said Public Works is making sure ditches and drainages are clear, and cautioned residents about going to beach parks. The beach parks were tentatively set to be closed at 2:30 p.m. today in anticipation of high surf in advance of the storm's arrival.
Kenoi said his family has restocked their emergency kits and stored up non-perishable food and water.
"I called my sister and made sure they had their emergency kits," Kenoi said. "When your immediate family is taken care of, you can focus better."
After being assured that all was in readiness, Kenoi left Civil Defense around 3:30 p.m. In the lull following the mayor's departure, Mento and Drummond padded over the carpet, answering phones, looking at updates, and discussing the white swirl tracking west toward the mapped outline of Hawaii Island.
"We've been at this since Tuesday and everyone is rolling with it," Mento said. "We're just waiting to see how it unfolds now. Hopefully, the winds will be at the lower end of the scale and we won't see much damage.
"I'm concerned about rain," Mento added. "The weather service says it's not going to be near the November 2006 level, but that can change."
People called the center every few minutes. Most of the callers wanted information on where to get sandbags, or ask where the hurricane was, when the weather was expected to arrive and what the forecast meant.
One caller from Ewa Beach on Oahu wanted to know where her hurricane shelter was, Drummond said.
Civil Defense is open round the clock, with two officers on 12-hour shifts splitting night duty. During the evening, the agency gets a good number of calls from people seeking for weather updates, Drummond said.
Mento said the Garden Exchange in downtown Hilo is reporting brisk sales of sandbags. The bags are also on sale at Hilo Surplus.
Civil Defense will meet at 1 p.m. today with officials from state Civil Defense, the National Weather Service, county Public Works, police, fire and other agencies to discuss preparations statewide. Civil Defense will also make a recommendation to the state Department of Education on school closures and decide when to open hurricane shelters in schools around the island, if needed.
"The shelters are ready to open, we just need to coordinate with the DOE on when," Mento said.
Stephens Media's Chelsea Jensen contributed. E-mail Bret Yager at byager@hawaiitribune-herald.com.