The eighth named storm of the Pacific hurricane season has formed far out in the Pacific but is not expected to strengthen over the next few days, the National Hurricane Center in Miami says.

Tropical Storm Hilda had maximum sustained winds near 45 mph at 11 p.m. yesterday.

Hilda was about 1,125 miles east-southeast of Hilo and was moving west at 11 mph.

The storm's projected track takes it hundreds of miles south of the main Hawaiian Islands — and it's expected to still be classified as a tropical storm when it approaches its nearest on Thursday morning.

USS CHAFEE DUE HOME TOMORROW

The Pearl Harbor-based guided missile destroyer USS Chafee is on its way home from deployment to the western Pacific.

Navy officials say the Chafee is due to arrive tomorrow.

It departed Feb. 24 and operated with the USS John C. Stennis, USS Blue Ridge, USS Harpers Ferry and the Thai navy's aircraft carrier HTMS Chakri Narubet.

During its deployment, the Chafee participated in a number of exercises, including Malabar 2009 off Sasebo, Japan. That was a multilateral exercise with the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force and the Indian navy.

The Navy said that another exercise, CARAT 2009, gave the Chafee an opportunity to train with Southeast Asian navies, including those of the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei.

WAIMANALO LIBRARY TO CLOSE FOR A WEEK

Waimanalo Public & School Library will be closed Aug. 31 through Sept. 7 for a reroofing project.

Library users can still drop off books but will have to go to the libraries in Kailua (239 Ku'ulei Road) or Hawai'i Kai (249 Lunalilo Home Road) for other services.

Patrons can also access the library system at www.librarieshawaii.org to browse the catalog for book titles, eBooks, digital audio books and EBSCOhost — a database of full-text materials from magazines, newspapers, journals and other publications.