Hurricane Iselle grounded flights, shut tourist areas and closed government offices as it approached Hawaii and threatened the first direct strike on the islands in 22 years. Iselle had top winds of 75 miles (120 kilometers) per hour and was 70 miles southeast of Hilo as of 8 p.m. local time on Aug. 7, the U.S. Central Pacific Hurricane Center said . It’s forecast to strike the Big Island overnight, and if it retains hurricane strength, it would be the first such system to hit the state since 1992. “Iselle is expected to make landfall as a Category 1 storm, and in doing so would become the first recorded hurricane landfall on the Big Island of Hawaii,” Scott Stransky, principal scientist at catastrophe-modeling firm AIR Worldwide based in Boston , said by e-mail. Farther east, Hurricane Julio had top winds approaching 115 mph and was traveling west. The storm […]