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A 90-year-old woman is confirmed dead in Nāʻālehu, Hawaii, United States, and over 100,000 people remain without power after Hurricane Lala struck the state.
Confirmed
In Short: A 90-year-old woman died in Nāʻālehu, Hawaii, as Hurricane Lala left over 100,000 people without power and caused extensive damage to the island's power system.
A 90-year-old woman was found dead in Nāʻālehu, Hawaii, on Monday, as Hurricane Lala continued to impact the state, causing widespread power outages and extensive damage to the power transmission system, leaving nearly 104,000 customers without electricity as of Monday afternoon.
The storm's effects were particularly devastating in Nāʻālehu, where two cemeteries were washed out and the 911 emergency service was temporarily out of service due to hurricane impacts on radio and telephone communications, though it was restored by the afternoon.
The Big Island's power transmission system suffered significant damage, and the area's most popular tourist destinations, such as Lahaina and Waikiki, were largely unaffected, with those areas cordoned off and no work taking place there.
Mayor Kimo Alameda described the situation in some areas as 'devastation,' and the storm also caused roofs to be blown off, downed power lines, and a swimmer to be rescued, according to a city statement.
The storm's impact extended beyond the immediate aftermath, with Hawaii Electric reporting that the Big Island's power transmission system suffered 'extensive damage,' and the National Hurricane Center warning of life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.
Background
Hawaii is an island state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about 2,000 miles (3,200 km) southwest of the U.S. mainland.
Hurricane Lala was a powerful and long-lived tropical cyclone that was the third-wettest tropical cyclone to affect the U.S. state of Hawaii on record and the first hurricane to directly hit the Big Island since an unnamed hurricane in 1871.
What's confirmed
- A 90-year-old woman was found dead on Monday.
What's still developing
- “It’s the flood and the mud and the rock the poured through Naalehu, Pahala, Waiohinu,” he said.
- The Hawaiian Electric utility said nearly 104,000 customers were without power as of Monday afternoon.
- The Big Island’s power transmission system suffered “extensive damage,” the utility said.
- The 911 emergency service number was temporarily out of service on the Big Island because hurricane impacts were affecting radio and telephone communications, the Hawaii Police Department said, but was back up by the…
- Two cemeteries in Naalehu were “washed out,” she said.
- “Most people when you think of Hawaii, you think of Lahaina or you think of Waikiki,” she said of some of the state’s most popular tourist destinations.
- Tom Callis, a spokesperson for Hawaii County, which is also known as the Big Island, said those areas have been cordoned off and no work is happening there.
- There were no coastal watches or warnings in effect for Hawaii on Monday, but life-threatening surf and rip current conditions remained, according to the National Hurricane Center.