More than half of Hawaiian Electric’s customers on Hawaiʻi Island woke up on Sunday without power after Hurricane Lala passed within 35 miles of the island at hurricane strength on Saturday night. Kimo Alameda said the damage was especially critical for the south side, where floodwater and road damage left several communities isolated and emergency crews racing to restore access.
Alameda and emergency officials took an aerial survey Sunday morning and saw what he described as devastation in the Kaʻū District. He counted six bridges there that were significantly damaged or destroyed, and Darryl Oliveira said the storm likely left long-term damage to roads and bridges that will hamper access for residents. On the island’s east side, parts of Laupāhoehoe on the Hāmakua Coast had already received more than three and a half feet of rain by Sunday morning, a scale of soaking that matched the wider pattern of flooding reported across Hawaiʻi Island.
The outage is why the Heco Power Outage Map is drawing so much attention now. Residents who lost electricity are trying to see whether they are among the customers Hawaiian Electric warned could be without service for weeks, while county crews are still sorting out where roads are passable and where they are not. Hawaiʻi County also launched a damage report form for residents affected by Lala, and Vibrant Hawaiʻi was fielding requests for assistance as the island remained in damage-assessment mode.
The hardest-hit places in Kaʻū were not just dealing with darkness. Pāhala was completely cut off, and Alameda said the region’s only hospital is there, making road access a matter of immediate concern. Nāʻālehu and Waiʻōhinu were partially cut off, the highway heading toward Hilo was blocked, and by Sunday those communities were only reachable from Kona. The Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation and the county’s Department of Public Works were working to reopen the route to Pāhala while search-and-rescue teams responded after residents in Nāʻālehu and Waiʻōhinu called 911 as floodwaters rose.
There was no immediate report of storm-related deaths as of Sunday, but one resident was swept away during the storm and later found by emergency responders with moderate injuries. A person also died in a car collision in Ocean View on Saturday morning, though there was no indication at that point that the crash was caused by storm conditions. With the storm downgraded to a tropical storm by Sunday and crews still trying to reach cut-off areas, the main unanswered question is not whether the island was hit hard. It is how long it will take before the roads, bridges and power lines are back enough for people in Kaʻū to get home, get help and get the lights back on.
