Tropical storm rakes Hawaii with high winds, rain without making landfall

Hurricane Lala weakened to a tropical storm after battering Hawaii with heavy rain and powerful winds, washing away around 100 homes on the Big Island. Flooding, power outages, damaged infrastructure and widespread disruptions were reported, while officials urged residents to remain indoors

Honolulu: Hurricane Lala weakened to a tropical storm Sunday, raking Hawaii even without making landfall, with heavy rains and winds sweeping around 100 homes off their foundations on Big Island, officials said.

Gov Josh Green said no one is believed to have died when the homes washed away. Earlier, a search-and-rescue mission was launched in the coastal communities of Na’alehu and Wai’ohinu, near the Big Island’s southern tip.

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Green spoke at a news conference as the storm continued to punish the islands with strong gusts and pounding rain, reaching a total of nearly 1 metre in places.

He said its not clear if a vehicle wreck that killed one person Saturday in the South Point area of the Big Island was storm related.

Storm brings flooding, power outages across islands

Honolulu, on Oahu, bore the brunt of the tropical storm conditions spreading westward over the island chain. The Honolulu Fire Department had received more than 600 weather-related responses by noon local time Sunday, including 147 reports of downed trees. There were also roofs blown off, downed power lines and one swimmer who had to be rescued, a city statement said.

Much of the state remained under a flash flood warning, though the National Hurricane Center downgraded the Big Island to a flood advisory Sunday.

“Basically, the best thing to do right now is just stay home for a bit longer,” weather service meteorologist Stephen Parker said. “The storm won’t last forever and once those kind of threats get cleaned up, it will be safe to be out and about again.”

More than 200,000 homes and businesses were without power by midday, according to the utility tracker poweroutage.us website. That included nearly two-thirds of customers on the Big Island. 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.

“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.”

Powerful waves pounded the Big Island coast. Just missing landfall, the eyewall didn’t weaken, and its winds pounded mountainsides as bands of rain blew nearly sideways. The storm came three years after the state experienced the deadliest wildfire in the U.S. in more than a century.

Lala isn’t losing strength as wind, rains lash Hawaii

Tropical storm warnings were in effect for the islands of Maui, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe, Oahu, Kauai and Niihau, raising the possibility of destructive flooding.

The heaviest rain Sunday was falling on Lanai, Moloka’i and Oahu, while the highest wind gusts topped 161 kph at the towering Mauna Kea volcano on the Big Island, Parker said.

As of 11 am in Hawaii, Lala was centred about 220 km west of Honolulu with top sustained winds of 100 kph, the US National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory. The storm was moving west-northwest at about 28 kph.

The advisory said the storm’s strength is expected to change little through Monday and forecasters expect Lala could become a hurricane again on Tuesday or Wednesday when it has moved well west of the island chain.

Some higher-altitude places on the Big Island, dominated by Mauna Kea, have been hit with as much as 89 cm of rain. That’s enough to loosen steep slopes where some of the 210,000 islanders live off the grid in improvised housing.

As the hurricane approached, shelters were opened, events were canceled and ranchers were urged to leave their cattle in pastures rather than structures that might collapse. Many residents are still dealing with the aftermath of devastating floods in March and took precautions.