A family from Steinbach who is currently vacationing in Hawaii says they have survived many blizzards but never experienced a hurricane.

The category four storm which meteorologists are calling Hurricane Lane is expected to severely hit the main islands sometime Friday. Heather Toews along with her husband Gerald and two sons have been on the island of O'ahu since last weekend. She says the first few days of their vacation were beautiful but she adds they woke up to a dark blue sky on Thursday morning and more dark clouds have kept rolling in from the south.

Toews says it's been quite the change in weather within the last day. "The wind has started to pick up. We've seen a different surf than we've seen in the last few days," says Toews noting the waves are usually very calm on their side of the island at this time of year. "Yesterday we had the boys out surfing and snapped some pictures of some near 20-foot waves. So it's definitely picked up." Toews adds when they went out for a walk Thursday morning, they noticed the waves were not getting any smaller.

"You can definitely see that there's something happening out there. The clouds just look different, they don't have that mountain wispy kind of fluffiness that we've seen in the last five days." Toews adds their family is feeling a bit nervous as to what's to come in the next couple days but says the locals have been very helpful in telling them how to prepare for the storm. 

Dark clouds rolling in (Photo credit: Heather Toews)

"The warnings and the messages out there for the people that are here to be prepared. We started out on Tuesday, we did a Costco run, we picked up water and supplies. They originally told us that we make sure we have water and supplies for two weeks and we're getting mixed messages. We're getting that sort of message and then we're getting the message that as long as you're safe and you stay in the condo, you should be okay."

Toews adds they are staying on the sixth floor of their building so she says flooding will not be an issue. She explains they are on the northwest side of the island about a mile away from the coast so she says in that area, everyone is a bit more prepared than people who are in smaller homes right along the coast.

Toews hopes her family and friends from back home will keep them in their thoughts as well as the people of Hawaii whom this storm will directly affect.