1 death linked to Tropical Storm Lala as more than 100,000 remain
without power in Hawaii
[August 18, 2026]
By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER
HONOLULU (AP) — Thousands were without power Monday after Tropical Storm
Lala uprooted trees from downtown Honolulu to the Big Island, where
intense flash-flooding and strong winds isolated already-remote
communities.
In the hard-hit southern end of the Big Island, communities were
isolated as they were cut off from communication and roads were blocked
by debris. Floodwaters disturbed some grave sites.
Officials announced one fatality blamed on the storm — a 90-year-old
woman who had been reported missing in Naalehu and then found dead on
Monday. Additional details about the death weren't immediately
available.
Lala weakened from a hurricane to a tropical storm Sunday after lashing
the state without making landfall. Intense rainfall and flooding caused
a muddy mess as the storm moved past Hawaii’s main islands.
Destructive flooding
The flooding proved to be more destructive than the wind, said Gov. Josh
Green, who flew over and walked through the south part of the island
Monday.
“It’s the flood and the mud and the rock the poured through Naalehu,
Pahala, Waiohinu,” he said. “These communities have a lot of cleanup to
do and they’re going to need a lot of support.”
The storm was projected to continue moving westward and was forecast to
become a hurricane again at sea and far from land by Wednesday.
Public schools statewide, some private schools and state offices were
closed Monday. Schools and county offices on the Big Island will remain
closed Tuesday. Cleanup efforts began in earnest with crews repairing
bridges and clearing fallen trees.
The Hawaiian Electric utility said nearly 104,000 customers were without
power as of Monday afternoon. The passing storm’s strong winds took down
trees, utility poles and transmission towers. 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 afternoon.
Cut-off communities and damaged cemeteries
“My district is in shambles,” said state Rep. Jeanné Kapela, who
represents the Kau district on the southern end of the island. Her voice
quivered with emotion as she described communities trapped by collapsed
and debris-blocked roads, including the small community of Punaluu, home
to about 100 households and popular among tourists for its black-sand
beach.
Two cemeteries in Naalehu were “washed out,” she said.
Kapela was working to get satellite internet connections near
communities without power and cellular service.
“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. “You don’t necessarily think of the southern point of the
United States, but at the end of the day, we are the southernmost point
in the United States. That’s the community that got hit. And it’s
probably one of the most rural communities in the entire country.”
[to top of second column]
|
An uprooted tree falls on a home in Volcano, Hawaii, Sunday, Aug.
16, 2026, after a severe weather system went through the area.
(Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
The governor said he was hopeful the area would become accessible within
days, and not weeks or longer.
"Please respect those people who were deceased and buried in the
cemetery there where there was some dispersal of the ‘iwi kupuna’, Green
said, using the Hawaiian term for sacred ancestral skeletal remains of
Native Hawaiians.
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.
The damage was not as catastrophic as feared, governor says
Green vowed that recovery will be “somewhat brisk.”
“And in spite of this loss of one beautiful person,” he said of the
storm-related death, “it could have been a lot worse.”
While he said he saw a lot of devastation he also saw many houses that
survived and bridges that weren't as badly damaged as feared.
Some 100 homes were swept from their foundations and washed away on the
Big Island, authorities said previously.
Officials advised people to stay out of the ocean anywhere water appears
brown or murky.
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. Saturation caused by heavy
rainfall could still cause some landslides, but winds were no longer a
threat, National Weather Service meteorologist Patrick Blood said.
“There's no real looming hazards that we're facing now,” he said.
“Lala's off to the west.”
Laupahoehoe, on the northeast coast of the Big Island, saw the heaviest
recorded rainfall at 43.54 inches (1.1 meters). The highest winds were
atop the towering Mauna Kea volcano, where gusts hit 140 mph (225 kph).
At the lower elevations, residents all across the island chain
experienced tropical storm force winds of 30 to 40 mph (48 to 64 kph)
with gusts up to 60 mph (97 kph), Blood said.
Federal officials have pledged recovery help. U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz
said Monday he spoke with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy about
federal support and urged him to approve a forthcoming request for
emergency funding to help clear debris and repair damaged roads and
highways.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved
 |
