A woman who went missing in Naalehu during Tropical Storm Lala has been found dead, officials confirmed, as the storm's flash floods and mudslides tore through Hawaii's Big Island and left widespread destruction in their wake. The death is the only fatality officially attributed to the storm so far, according to Hawaii county authorities.
The victim was reported missing in Naalehu, a small community in the district of Kau on the southern tip of the Big Island, and was later found dead on Monday, according to The Guardian. Officials have not released additional details about the circumstances of her death or her identity.
Lala made its closest approach to the Big Island as a category one hurricane over the weekend before being downgraded to a tropical storm early Sunday, according to the BBC. Even after losing hurricane strength, the storm dumped extraordinary amounts of rain on the island. AccuWeather reported that total rainfall over 48 hours topped 3.5 feet in some areas, triggering flash floods that swept homes off their foundations and damaged critical infrastructure.
Hawaii county officials said roughly 100 homes were swept away or damaged by rising floodwaters, along with six bridges. Hawaii county mayor Kimo Alameda described the scene in some parts of the Big Island as outright devastation. Hawaii governor Josh Green estimated the storm caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage statewide, citing the more than 100 damaged homes and several destroyed bridges on the Big Island alone.
The destruction extended to the region's roadways. Parts of a major highway in the Big Island's southeast collapsed overnight, according to reporting cited by The Guardian from the New York Times, cutting off road access to the town of Pahala, home to the region's only hospital. That collapse raised immediate concerns about emergency access for residents in the Kau district, where Naalehu is located, at precisely the moment search efforts for the missing woman were underway.
US Representative Jeanne Kapela, whose district includes the affected areas, called the situation complete and utter devastation in comments to Honolulu Civil Beat. She said families had lost their homes and that entire communities had been impacted by the storm.
Power Outages Threaten to Stretch Into Weeks
The storm knocked out electricity to a large share of the Big Island's population. The BBC reported that more than 200,000 households statewide lost power, while Hawaiian Electric put the figure at as many as 111,000 customers affected by outages, a discrepancy that reflects different measures of households versus individual customer accounts. Utility crews have been working to restore service, but officials warned that residents in rural areas, including communities near Naalehu, could face outages extending into weeks rather than days.
To assess the scope of damage in remote and mountainous terrain, crews have deployed helicopters and drones, according to The Guardian. The tools are being used to survey areas that remain difficult or impossible to reach by road following the highway collapse and other infrastructure damage.
Effects were also felt beyond the Big Island. On Oahu, the Honolulu fire department logged more than 600 weather-related responses by midday Sunday, including 147 reports of downed trees, along with roofs torn off buildings, downed power lines and at least one swimmer who had to be rescued, according to a city statement referenced by The Guardian.
Officials Warn of Post-Storm Dangers
Randy Collins, Hawaii's emergency management director, cautioned that the danger to residents has not passed simply because the storm has moved on. He told reporters that many casualties in disasters like this occur during the cleanup phase, when people are using heavy equipment, chainsaws and generators, or working near downed power lines. Collins urged residents in Naalehu and across the Big Island to exercise caution as they begin repairing and rebuilding.
The National Hurricane Center has warned that Lala could regain hurricane strength by Wednesday as it continues moving west, according to The Guardian, meaning the danger to areas further along its path is not necessarily over even as Big Island communities begin their recovery.
Context for a Rare Hawaii Storm
Lala's impact is notable in part because major hurricanes are historically rare in Hawaii. The Guardian noted that the last time the islands were hit by a major hurricane, defined as category 3, 4 or 5 storms, was in 1992, when Hurricane Iniki killed at least six people and caused billions of dollars in damage. Last month, the islands were also threatened by Hurricane Fausto, which weakened and passed north of the chain before making landfall.
Meteorologists have linked the current storm activity to a strengthening El Niño pattern forming in the central equatorial Pacific Ocean. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has projected a 69 percent chance of what it calls a historic El Niño event, one that could exceed the strength of any recorded since 1950, when it peaks between October and December, according to The Guardian. El Niño tends to increase hurricane activity in the Pacific while suppressing it in the Atlantic, a pattern that could mean more storms like Lala threatening Hawaii in the coming months.
Scientists have also pointed to the broader role of human-caused climate change in amplifying El Niño's effects, since warmer oceans and atmospheres provide more energy and moisture for extreme weather events such as heavy rainfall and flooding, the kind that proved fatal in Naalehu and devastating across the Big Island this week.
For now, residents of Naalehu and surrounding Kau communities are focused on recovery, navigating damaged roads, extended power outages and the loss of homes, while mourning the storm's lone confirmed victim.
