Hurricane Lala roared over the Pacific Ocean early Saturday. It lashed Hawaii's Big Island with fierce winds, driving rain and dangerous surf. Forecasters warned that Hurricane Lala could make the first direct hit on the island in 155 years. The National Hurricane Center said Lala's maximum sustained winds climbed to 120 kilometers per hour (75 mph). That officially made it a Category 1 hurricane, just a day after it was a tropical storm, according to the Associated Press and France 24.
Forecasters said the eyewall of Hurricane Lala was expected to move over or near the southern tip of the Big Island by Saturday afternoon. It would drag its worst winds across volcanic slopes thousands of feet above sea level. Hawaii Governor Josh Green urged residents to hunker down immediately. "People should be sheltering in their homes now," he said. He warned that rainfall rates could reach 5 centimeters (2 inches) per hour in some areas.
Meteorologists said the island's higher elevations, dominated by Mauna Kea, could see as much as 63.5 centimeters (25 inches) of rain. That raises the risk of dangerous mudslides in a mountainous region. Many residents there live off the grid in improvised housing. "This is a massive storm," Green said. He cautioned that destructive flooding and even wildfires fanned by strong winds were possible across the island chain. Power had already gone out for nearly 20 percent of Big Island customers, according to tracking site poweroutage.us.
Residents Stock Up And Brace For Impact
Across the island, residents described a familiar routine of preparation. Bobby Camara, 75, has lived on the Big Island his entire life. Speaking from a care home outside Hilo, he said he planned to "hang tough, cross my fingers, hope the power doesn't go out." He told the AP that many people had rushed to gas stations to fuel chainsaws and vehicles. "I think stocking up is just part of life around here... You learn to be self-sufficient," he said.
Mike Caputo, 50, is a local fire captain living in Keaau near the island's east coast. He said his generator was ready. He had also filled a 37,800-liter (10,000-gallon) household water tank. His biggest worries were flash flooding and falling albizia trees, a common but brittle species. "They're not very sturdy, but they grow extremely tall," Caputo said. "They can make roads impassable. I made sure my trees were trimmed a few days ago."
In Waimea, on the island's north side, Christine Matsuda said powerful wind gusts were shaking her entire house every few minutes. "We're finding leaks in places where there's usually no water," she said.
Warnings Stretch Across The Island Chain
A hurricane warning was in effect for the Big Island as Hurricane Lala approached. Tropical storm warnings covered Maui, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe, Oahu, Kauai and Niihau. University of Hawaii atmospheric scientist Steven Businger researched newspaper accounts of past storms. His analysis found that a Category 3 hurricane struck the island in 1871, hitting its northern side. The AP noted other accounts describe that storm hitting the northeast corner instead.
Vanessa Almanza, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Honolulu, said Hurricane Lala would mark the first hurricane landfall on the Big Island "since satellites" have tracked storms. She said the latest forecast track placed Lala "very close to the southern tip of the Big Island."
Shelters opened across the island and several events were canceled ahead of the storm. County officials urged ranchers to leave cattle in open pastures rather than in structures that could collapse in high winds. "It doesn't need to make landfall to cause destruction," Almanza said. She noted that many hurricane impacts are felt well outside the storm's core.
State Representative Jeanné Kapela represents communities in the southern part of the Big Island. She flew from Honolulu on Friday morning and urged constituents to stay alert. "We are encouraging residents to take this storm seriously, remain vigilant and get to a safe place before conditions worsen," she wrote in a text message to the AP as her flight departed. "We are hoping the storm passes quickly, but we are preparing for what may come." Kapela also noted that many parts of the state have not yet recovered from devastating flooding in March. "We know how quickly heavy rain and flooding can affect our rural communities," she said. Hawaii Farm Bureau director Brian Miyamoto said farmers still rebuilding from that earlier disaster feared additional damage from Hurricane Lala.
The hurricane center forecast rainfall totals of 20.3 to 30.5 centimeters (8 to 12 inches) for Maui and the Big Island's lower elevations. The rest of the island chain could see 10.2 to 15.2 centimeters (4 to 6 inches).
Wildfire Concerns Rise With The Wind
As winds intensified across the islands, Almanza said dry, gusty conditions outside the storm itself would heighten wildfire danger. There was no active red-flag warning in place at the time. The concern echoes 2023, when the town of Lahaina on Maui burned during a period of extreme winds as a hurricane passed far to the south. Archie Kalepa, a Lahaina resident known locally for his ocean skills, said awareness has grown since that fire. "Since the fire, everyone is a lot more conscious of the weather in general, of our surroundings and of the things that are happening," he said.
Kauai lies several islands northwest of the Big Island. It was where Hurricane Iniki made landfall as a Category 4 storm in 1992, also an El Niño year like this one, when Pacific warming near the equator boosts hurricane activity worldwide. "It caused $3 billion in damage. It destroyed thousands of homes and killed six people," Businger said. "We can simply never know if a storm is going to change course." That uncertainty was on the minds of many Big Island residents as Hurricane Lala closed in this weekend.
