Lala weakened to a tropical storm west of Hawaii after extreme rain, wind and waves damaged homes, roads, utilities and hospitals across the islands. The storm missed landfall yet officials said roughly 100 homes were swept from foundations and more than 200,000 customers lost power. Hawaii officials said about 100 homes were swept from their foundations on the Big Island, with no deaths believed to have occurred in those washouts. Rain totals approached three feet in some locations, while a gust above 100 mph was measured at Mauna Kea.
More than 200,000 homes and businesses were without power by midday Sunday, including nearly two-thirds of Big Island customers. At least three hospitals operated on generators, and damaged roads and small bridges made some communities difficult to reach. The recovery problem is distributed: utilities must restore power, road crews must reach cut-off areas, hospitals must conserve generator fuel and housing agencies must verify which structures remain habitable. Those tasks continue after wind speeds fall below hurricane strength.
Honolulu firefighters handled more than 600 weather-related calls, including 147 reports of fallen trees, while flash-flood warnings covered much of the state. The storm’s center remained offshore and weakened, but tropical-storm warnings and dangerous surf, wind and flood conditions persisted across the island chain. A cyclone’s eyewall and rain bands can produce severe effects without the geometric center crossing land. Steep volcanic terrain accelerates runoff and can destabilize slopes after prolonged rainfall.
Island utilities and transportation networks have fewer alternate routes, so localized damage can delay restoration across a larger service area. The principal evidentiary limit at the edition cutoff was this: The statewide housing-damage total and the connection between a fatal vehicle crash and storm conditions were still under review. The next public records to watch are county damage assessments and power restoration and flood, landslide and surf warnings as Lala moves west.