Excerpt:
Hurricane Lala unleashed destructive flash flooding in Hawaii over the weekend as several feet of rain swept homes off their foundations and strong winds left hundreds of thousands of customers without electricity, outages that the islands’ primary utility provider warned could last for months in some rural areas…
Lala skirted by the southern coast of Hawaii’s Big Island late Saturday as a Category 1 hurricane before being reclassified as a tropical storm early Sunday. The storm was moving northwest about 75 miles south of Honolulu at 5 a.m. local time Sunday, with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph. By Sunday evening, the storm was moving westward away from the islands.
At least 100 homes and multiple bridges were damaged on the Big Island, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green announced Sunday. Rainfall was expected to taper off Sunday night, but the risk of continued rain, as well as flooding and mudslides, was expected to persist into Monday morning, according to the National Weather Service.
Hawaiian Electric reported that more than 250,000 customers were left without power early afternoon Sunday as crews began on-the-ground and aerial damage assessments in accessible areas on Hawaii Island, Maui and Oahu. About 190,000 customers remained without power Sunday evening, after crews restored electricity to swaths of Maui County and Oahu. It could take weeks or even months before officials can restore power to some areas on the Big Island, according to the utility. Energy officials asked Oahu residents to reduce energy usage until 10 p.m. Sunday amid heavy storm damage to the electrical system.
Green described Lala as an “enormous storm.” Rainfall totals were estimated to reach up to 30 to 40 inches in some areas of the Big Island, according to an update from the National Hurricane Center issued at 11 a.m. local time Sunday.
Beyond widespread power failures, flash flooding may have also swept occupied homes off their foundations on the Big Island’s southern communities, triggering a multiagency search and rescue mission, Hawaii County Mayor Kimo Alameda said…
