Thousands without power and at least 100 homes damaged after Tropical Storm Lala starts to move away from Hawaii

Hawaii Faces Widespread Devastation as Tropical Storm Lala Begins Its Departure

Activelifezero.com – The eye of Tropical Storm Lala started sliding away from Kauai on Sunday, marking the beginning of the end for a system that had battered the Hawaiian archipelago with hurricane-force gusts, catastrophic flooding, and one of the largest utility failures in the islands’ recent memory. Yet for residents still stranded without electricity, water, or safe roads, the storm’s departure brings little immediate relief. Approximately 184,000 customers remained disconnected from the grid across the chain, with nearly 70 percent of Hawaii’s Big Island plunged into darkness.

Governor Josh Green addressed the public during a Sunday news conference, confirming that at least 100 homes had been either damaged or entirely lost to the storm’s fury. He described scenes of infrastructure failure that would take weeks to repair: a collapsed roadway on the Big Island that had effectively created a new waterfall, small bridges rendered impassable, and a small hospital in an area now cut off from the outside world and without power.

Infrastructure Collapse and Trapped Communities

The most severe structural failure occurred along a highway in the Pāhala area, where floodwaters from the Pa’au’au Stream broke through a rock retaining wall and surged onto the pavement, causing the road to buckle and collapse. Up to 2,500 residents were left stranded on one side of the break. Deborah Funai Brown, a lifelong resident of Pāhala, described witnessing the event firsthand and called it “catastrophic.”

“We’ve always been stuck in the middle of nowhere so you kind of feel forgotten about when you’re out here, like you’re on an island by yourself.”

Green added that the heavy rains had likely triggered “a ton of landslides” across the Big Island, compounding the isolation of rural communities already severed by road damage. In Naalehu, he described a “river of water” that washed through the town, taking out “quite a lot” of property in its path.

Human Cost and Rescue Operations

Two deaths were connected to the storm’s passage, though circumstances remained unclear. Green attributed one fatality to a car accident on Saturday evening but said by Sunday it was uncertain whether the crash was directly linked to Lala. A second person was found dead amid the storm’s effects, and authorities had not yet determined the cause of death or whether it was storm-related.

Rescue operations continued through the night. Darryl Oliviera, acting civil defense administrator for Hawaii County, posted a video update Saturday night confirming that occupants of a vehicle trapped in floodwaters were being extracted, though he offered no further specifics. Green also recounted a dramatic save in which rescue crews pulled an elderly woman from a tree after her house was swept away by rushing water.

Meteorological Profile and Ongoing Threats

Lala had intensified to a Category 1 tropical storm by Saturday before making its closest approach to the Big Island at roughly 5 p.m. local time. According to the National Hurricane Center, the eyewall brushed the southern portion of the island from approximately 30 miles offshore. The mountainous terrain of the Hawaiian islands amplified wind speeds at higher elevations, producing hurricane-force gusts recorded in Hawaii, Honolulu, and Maui counties.

The Big Island received more than 30 inches of rain during the storm’s passage. As Lala’s outer rainbands continued to sweep across the remaining islands Sunday, rainfall persisted but grew increasingly sporadic. Kauai remained the exception, still being grazed by precipitation tied to the storm’s core and experiencing tropical storm-level wind gusts.

Tropical storm warnings remained in effect for Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, and Maui. The National Hurricane Center issued warnings for life-threatening flooding and mudslides, particularly in steep terrain. Up to six additional inches of rain were forecast for parts of Kauai. On the ocean side, waves of 8 to 12 feet were expected, especially along east-facing shores where a high surf advisory was in place.

Aviation Disruptions and Recovery Timeline

More than 190 flights into and out of Hawaii were postponed, and 52 were canceled, Green reported. Airports across the state nonetheless remained open. Emergency responders were projected to be engaged with urgent matters for roughly 36 hours as the system passed, with formal damage assessment slated to begin Monday.

Major General Stephen F. Logan, adjutant general for the state of Hawaii, described the widespread outages and road closures as having major impacts on residents. He identified the primary obstacle to restoring electricity as the sheer volume of downed trees that had come down during the storm. State officials expressed confidence in their capacity to manage the cleanup, while active-duty military personnel stood by ready to assist if the scale of the task demanded additional manpower.

As Lala tracked westward, its most persistent danger shifted from wind to water. Torrential rainfall associated with the storm’s remnants could trigger additional flash flooding across the remaining islands, particularly in areas already saturated by more than 30 inches of precipitation. For communities still without power, isolated by collapsed roads, or watching their neighborhoods slowly drain, the coming days will be defined less by the storm’s departure and more by the long, labor-intensive work of rebuilding what the water took.