A 90-year-old woman is dead, roughly 104,000 customers have no electricity, and entire communities on Hawaii's Big Island sit cut off by mud and debris after Tropical Storm Lala tore across the island chain, exposing, once again, how vulnerable America's most isolated state remains when nature strikes.
The woman, whose name has not been released, had been reported missing in Naalehu, a small town near the southern tip of the Big Island. Crews found her dead Monday, making her the storm's first confirmed fatality. Gov. Josh Green, who flew over and then walked through the devastated southern coast that same day, acknowledged the loss but said the toll could have been far worse.
Lala weakened from a hurricane to a tropical storm Sunday after passing the state without making a direct landfall, but the downgrade meant little to the communities buried under mud, rock, and floodwater. Rainfall, not wind, did the worst damage. Laupahoehoe, on the Big Island's northeast coast, recorded 43.54 inches of rain, more than three and a half feet. Mauna Kea volcano logged wind gusts of 140 mph at higher elevations, while lower areas across the island chain endured sustained tropical-storm-force winds of 30 to 40 mph with gusts reaching 60 mph.
The result: approximately 100 homes swept from their foundations on the Big Island, roads collapsed or choked with debris, two cemeteries in Naalehu "washed out," and a 911 system that went dark for hours before crews restored it by Monday afternoon.
State Rep. Jeanné Kapela, who represents the Kau district on the Big Island's southern end, did not hold back about the scale of what her constituents face. Her voice, as the Associated Press reported, quivered with emotion as she described the scene:
"My district is in shambles."
Kapela said collapsed and debris-blocked roads had trapped residents in several communities, including Punaluu, a coastal settlement of roughly 100 households popular with tourists for its black-sand beach. She was working to get satellite internet connections set up near areas where both power and cellular service had failed.
The communities that took the hardest hit, Naalehu, Pahala, Waiohinu, Punaluu, sit at the southernmost point of the entire United States. Kapela made that point directly:
"Most people when you think of Hawaii, you think of Lahaina or you think of Waikiki. 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."
That remoteness matters. These are not resort towns with deep infrastructure reserves. They are small, spread-out communities where a single blocked road can strand hundreds of people without power, phone service, or a way to call for help. When Lala's flooding swept homes off their foundations, it also severed the lifelines these residents depend on.
Hawaiian Electric said nearly 104,000 customers were still without power as of Monday afternoon. The utility described "extensive damage" to the Big Island's power transmission system, citing downed trees, snapped utility poles, and toppled transmission towers. Trees uprooted by the storm reached as far as downtown Honolulu on Oahu, though the Big Island bore the overwhelming share of destruction.
A separate tally from the tracking site Poweroutage.com, cited by the New York Post, put the figure even higher at over 113,000 customers without electricity. The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency warned residents to "use extreme caution in damaged areas as numerous safety hazards exist including dangerous debris, contamination risks and electrical hazards."
Brown Water Advisories went into effect statewide. Storm runoff carried pollutants including animal waste, chemicals, pesticides, and overflowing sewage into coastal waters. Officials advised people to stay out of the ocean anywhere the water appeared brown or murky.
Public schools across the entire state closed Monday, along with some private schools and state offices. Big Island schools and county offices were set to remain closed Tuesday. The Hawaii Police Department confirmed that 911 service on the Big Island went down temporarily because the storm knocked out radio and telephone communications, a gap that left residents in an active disaster with no way to reach emergency dispatchers. Service was restored by Monday afternoon.
Gov. Green's aerial and ground tour of the Big Island's southern coast Monday gave him a firsthand look at the flooding's aftermath. He described mud, rock, and debris pouring through Naalehu, Pahala, and Waiohinu, and said those communities face extensive cleanup.
"It's the flood and the mud and the rock that poured through Naalehu, Pahala, Waiohinu. These communities have a lot of cleanup to do and they're going to need a lot of support."
Green said he also saw houses that survived and bridges that were not as badly damaged as feared. He characterized the recovery pace as "somewhat brisk", an optimistic note, though one that may ring hollow to families whose homes washed away or who remain cut off from basic services.
The governor also addressed a grim and sensitive dimension of the disaster. Two cemeteries in Naalehu were washed out by floodwaters, disturbing grave sites and scattering remains. Green asked the public to treat the situation with respect.
"Please respect those people who were deceased and buried in the cemetery there where there was some dispersal of the 'iwi kupuna'."
Hawaii County spokesperson Tom Callis said the affected cemetery areas had been cordoned off and no work was taking place at those sites. How many graves were disturbed, and what plans exist for reinterment, remain unanswered. The storm had already hammered the Big Island with historic rainfall before the full scope of damage to the cemeteries became clear.
U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz said Monday he had spoken with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy about federal support. Schatz urged Duffy to approve a forthcoming request for emergency funding to help clear debris and repair damaged roads and highways across the Big Island. Whether Duffy has responded to or approved that request is not yet known.
Federal officials have pledged recovery help, though no specific agency, dollar amount, or timeline has been announced. For communities like Punaluu, isolated, without power, without cell service, without passable roads, pledges are not the same as bulldozers and generators. The gap between a promise in Washington and a cleared road on the Big Island's southern coast can be measured in days that feel much longer when you have no electricity and no phone.
Hawaii has faced this pattern before. When disaster strikes the islands, the federal response must cross thousands of miles of open ocean to reach communities that already sit far from the mainland supply chain. The state of emergency Green declared ahead of Lala's arrival was supposed to accelerate that process. Residents are now waiting to see whether it does.
National Weather Service meteorologist Patrick Blood offered some reassurance Monday. No coastal watches or warnings remained in effect for Hawaii, though life-threatening surf and rip current conditions persisted.
"There's no real looming hazards that we're facing now. Lala's off to the west."
Forecasters expect Lala to strengthen back into a hurricane at sea by Wednesday, far from land. For Hawaii, the immediate meteorological threat has passed. The human one has not. Cleanup crews were already working to repair bridges and clear fallen trees Monday, but the scope of the job, roughly 100 homes destroyed, a power grid with "extensive damage," roads impassable, cemeteries disturbed, and entire communities cut off, will take far longer than a few days to address.
Storms like Lala are rare for Hawaii. The islands sit in a part of the Pacific that does not often see direct tropical cyclone impacts, a fact that forecasters flagged early when the system first tracked toward the state. That rarity also means the infrastructure and emergency systems are not battle-tested the way they are in Gulf Coast states that absorb hurricane hits every season.
Gov. Green acknowledged the single fatality with a note of relief that the number was not higher:
"And in spite of this loss of one beautiful person, it could have been a lot worse."
That is true. But for the people of Naalehu, Pahala, Waiohinu, and Punaluu, sitting without power, without phones, without passable roads, and in some cases without homes, "it could have been worse" is cold comfort. What matters now is whether the help arrives as fast as the floodwater did.
