Tropical Storm Lala brings drenching rain, wind across the Hawaiian islands

Tropical Storm Lala continued to bring damaging winds and heavy rains on Sunday after skirting past Hawaii’s Big Island as a hurricane overnight. At least one person died in a car accident in the southernmost point of the Big Island, officials said.

Powerful waves pounded the Big Island’s coast as Lala slowly passed by. Howling winds whipped palm trees and waterways swelled with fast-moving runoff from relentless rain that blew nearly sideways.

The weather system weakened back to a tropical storm as it continued moving west, while remaining south of the smaller main Hawaiian Islands on Sunday. Forecasters with the National Hurricane Center said the storm is expected to weaken throughout the day into Monday but will still pack a punch.

On Saturday, Lala’s eyewall — an area of powerful winds, thunderstorms and heavy rain which encircles the eye of a hurricane —brushed the southern portion of the Big Island, forecasters said. A hurricane has not made direct landfall in the state since Hurricane Iniki in 1992. 

At least one person has died, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said on social media.

“Please be safe. You definitely want to be home, do not be out on the roads,” he added in a social media video.

Two homes were swept away in Naalehu in the Kau District of Hawaii Island during flash flooding on Saturday evening, according to CBS Honolulu affiliate KGMB. 

More than 125,000 homes were without power across the state, according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us. The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency said there were reports of downed trees and power lines across the Big Island. 

The agency implored people to “please stay indoors and off the roads.”

Officials said that Hilo International Airport and Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport, both located on Hawaii’s Big Island, had been temporarily shuttered. Big Island and Maui County commercial ports were also closed.

About 180 Hawaii National Guard members had been deployed to assist with emergency response, the state’s emergency management agency said.

Tropical storm conditions will persist across portions of the Big Island on Sunday and will spread westward from Maui County to Oahu and then to Kauai County later in the day, forecasters said.

A tropical storm warning is in effect for Hawaii County and Maui County, including the islands of Maui, Lanai, Molokai and Kahoolawe. Kauai County, including the islands of Kauai and Ni’iau, is also under a tropical storm warning.

In its latest advisory at 2 a.m. Sunday in Hawaii, Lala was about 105 miles west-northwest of Kailua-Kona and about 100 miles south of Honolulu, which is located on Oahu. It was moving at 15 mph.

Lala was sustaining top winds of 70 mph and moving northwest at about 15 mph. Forecasters expect it to regain hurricane strength midweek as it whirls south of the other islands.

“Lala is expected to produce additional rainfall of 4 to 8 inches across the Big Island and windward Maui, with maximum storm totals of 30 to 35 inches,” the NHC said, adding that the rest of the island chain could expect a total rainfall of 4 to 6 inches. “This rainfall will produce life-threatening flooding and mudslides, especially in areas of steep terrain.”

Mudslides were also a major concern, and large, dangerous surf also brings the potential for coastal flooding and significant beach erosion.