Lala weakened to a tropical storm early Sunday after lashing Hawaii’s Big Island with flooding rain and damaging winds, leaving one person dead in a car crash and knocking out power to tens of thousands of customers across the state.
The National Hurricane Center said in a 2 a.m. HST advisory that Lala’s maximum sustained winds had decreased to 70 mph, down from Category 1 hurricane strength, and that its center was about 105 miles west-northwest of Kailua-Kona and about 100 miles south of Honolulu. The storm was moving northwest at 15 mph.
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Forecasters replaced the hurricane warning for Hawaii County with a tropical storm warning. Tropical storm warnings remained in effect for Hawaii County, Maui County, Oahu and Kauai County, including Niihau. Conditions were expected to deteriorate on Oahu on Sunday morning, the hurricane center said.
Gov. Josh Green said the storm came closest to South Point, the southernmost point of the Big Island, “where we had one terrible car accident, one fatality,” according to CBS News. Green urged residents to stay home and off the roads.
Two homes were swept away in Naalehu in the Kau District during flash flooding Saturday evening, CBS News reported, citing its Honolulu affiliate KGMB. The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency reported downed trees and power lines across the Big Island and urged people to stay indoors and avoid roads.
More than 124,000 homes were without power across the state as of Sunday local time, according to PowerOutage.us. Earlier Saturday, Hawaiian Electric warned customers to prepare for possible extended outages as crews dealt with storm damage.
The National Hurricane Center said tropical-storm-force winds extended up to 175 miles from Lala’s center. The storm’s core was forecast to remain south of the smaller main Hawaiian Islands and the easternmost Northwestern Hawaiian Islands during the next couple of days, with gradual weakening expected Sunday and Monday and possible restrengthening by midweek.
Officials warned that heavy rain could continue to produce life-threatening flooding and mudslides, especially in steep terrain. Residents and visitors were told to monitor local National Weather Service alerts and avoid driving or walking through floodwaters.
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