Tropical Storm Lala Leaves Destruction as It Moves Away from Hawaii

As Tropical Storm Lala shifted westward from Hawaii, residents faced significant destruction caused by the storm’s heavy rains over the weekend. The small community of Waiohinu, located on Hawaii’s Big Island, experienced severe damage when a mudslide destroyed about a dozen homes.

“The boulders that were coming down were so heavy they were like shaking the ground,” Alice Birnbaum, a resident, shared with CBS News. She mentioned that the news crew was the first she had seen from outside her community since the storm hit. “We need water. We need, people need propane, people need gas, people need food,” Birnbaum stated.

While Hawaii hasn’t seen a direct hurricane landfall since Hurricane Iniki in 1992, the eye of Hurricane Lala, then a Category 1, passed only 30 miles off the Big Island over the weekend. The storm brought wind gusts of over 80 mph and significant rainfall, exceeding 3 feet in some regions. Kapalua, in Maui County, particularly suffered with 48 inches of rain over the weekend.

As of Monday, poweroutage.us reported that power had yet to be restored to more than 100,000 customers across the Hawaiian Islands. Bridges on the Big Island were washed away, isolating several communities, including Waiohinu, from the rest of the island. With emergency services unable to access the area, residents had to depend on each other for support. One family, including a young child, narrowly escaped from their home before it was swept away.

State officials announced the closure of all Hawaii state and county offices, Department of Education schools, public charter schools, and courts on Monday.

Tropical Storm Lala has weakened, but the National Hurricane Center forecasts its re-intensification as it continues across the Pacific. By late Tuesday, Lala could become a hurricane again over open waters, with its maximum sustained winds recorded at 65 mph as of Monday night, slightly up from earlier.