Tropical Storm Lala drenches Hawaii as flash floods sweep away Big Island homes

Tropical Storm Lala continued to bring damaging winds and heavy rains on Sunday after skirting past Hawaii’s Big Island as a hurricane overnight.

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. More than 28 inches of rain fell in parts of the island, and 32 inches of rain was recorded in La Poya, authorities said.

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.

“I’m most worried about the ocean coming into my house,” local resident Cynthia Totty-Hefley said Sunday. “I had a little anxiety last night. I was thinking about the ocean coming through, breaking my house down and washing us out to the ocean, washing us out to sea.”

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 was killed in a car accident in the southernmost point of the Big Island, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said Sunday, but officials said there have been no confirmed storm-related deaths.

“Everyone is safe and healthy,” said Green, a medical doctor who previously worked in emergency departments of remote hospitals on the Big Island. “But boy, a lot of work ahead.”

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. Big Island responders rescued an elderly woman from one of the homes that was washed away, officials said Sunday.

Honolulu EMS transported more than 200 people to the hospital, authorities said at a news conference. At least three hospitals were operating on generator power, the governor said, adding damage to roads and several small bridges was making some places hard to reach.

Hawaii County Mayor Kimo Alameda said on social media that a search and rescue mission, including Civil Defense, the National Guard and Coast Guard, was launched after flash floods apparently swept several occupied homes off their foundations in the coastal communities of Na’alehu and Wai’ohinu, near the island’s southern tip.

“What makes this very challenging is that there’s rushing water, there’s debris and there’s boulders on the road and it’s dark,” he said.

More than 222,000 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.

Hawaiian Airlines reported 52 cancellations statewide on Sunday. On Saturday, about 190 flights were paused or canceled.

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 Maui County, including the islands of Maui, Lanai, Molokai and Kahoolawe. Kauai County, including the islands of Kauai and Ni’ihau, is also under a tropical storm warning.

In its latest advisory at 2 p.m. Sunday in Hawaii, Lala was about 330 miles west-northwest of Kailua-Kona and about 195 miles west of Honolulu, which is located on Oahu. It was moving west at 20 mph with tropical-storm-force winds extending as much as 140 miles from its center.

Lala was sustaining top winds of 65 mph. Forecasters expect it to regain hurricane strength midweek as it whirls south of the other islands.

“Tropical storm conditions, especially in gusts, are ongoing across portions of Kauai County, with the strongest winds occurring in areas of higher terrain,” the NHC said. “Outer bands from Lala are expected to produce additional rainfall of 1 to 2 inches across windward portions of the Big Island and windward Maui, with maximum storm totals of 30 to 40 inches over the windward Big Island.”

The remainder of the island chain can expect up to 4 inches of rain, with isolated totals around 6 inches, according to forecasters.

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