Second Hurricane Lala Death Confirmed: 90-Year-Old Woman Found Dead in Big Island Floodwaters

Since Hurricane Lala first brushed Hawaii's Big Island as a Category 1 hurricane on August 15, the confirmed death toll has climbed to two. Gov. Josh Green announced Monday that crews found the body of a 90-year-old woman who had been reported missing in a flooded neighborhood in Naalehu, on the island's southern tip, according to CNN. She was the second fatality tied to the storm, after a man died in a storm-related car crash on the Big Island over the weekend.

Officials had not released the woman's name as of Monday. Green said she "perished in the flood," and multiple agencies, including the Hawaii National Guard, had been searching for her since she went missing during the flash flooding that tore through Naalehu and Waiohinu.

The storm has since moved off to the west, away from the islands, and its final rain bands cleared Kauai early Monday, CNN reported. More than 100 homes on the Big Island were "damaged and lost," Green said Sunday. Some were swept entirely off their foundations.

Rainfall totals were staggering. The Big Island's mountains saw more than three and a half feet of rain, according to CNN. Maui's mountainous areas got up to two feet. The storm stayed unusually strong for a system approaching Hawaii because it moved over abnormally warm ocean water tied to an ongoing marine heat wave stretching to California and a developing Super El Niño, rather than the cooler waters that typically weaken tropical systems before they reach the islands.

Power and communications still down

Hawaiian Electric reported more than 117,000 customers without power as of Monday, according to the Epoch Times, citing the Associated Press. The utility said the Big Island's power transmission system suffered "extensive damage," with poles, trees and transmission towers knocked down. CNN, citing PowerOutage.com, put the Monday afternoon figure closer to 100,000 homes and businesses statewide.

Mayor Kimo Alameda said Sunday that power restoration in the hardest-hit areas could take days or longer because major transmission lines need to be rebuilt on the Big Island, Maui and Oahu, per Hawaiian Electric.

The Big Island's 911 emergency line temporarily went down Monday because storm damage disrupted radio and telephone infrastructure, the Hawaii Police Department said. Service was restored by the afternoon, though with continued disruptions, the Epoch Times reported.

Rural communities cut off

State Rep. Jeanné Kapela, who represents the Kau district on the island's southern end, described her district as "in shambles" to the Associated Press. She said the small community of Punaluu, home to roughly 100 households and known for its black-sand beach, was cut off by collapsed and debris-blocked roads. Two cemeteries in Naalehu were washed out, with floodwaters disturbing grave sites, according to the Epoch Times.

Kapela pushed back on the idea that Hawaii disaster coverage skips over places like hers. "Most people when you think of Hawaii, you think of Lahaina or you think of Waikiki," she told the AP. "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."

Schools, offices stay closed

Public schools statewide, along with state offices and courts, were closed Monday. On the Big Island, schools and county offices are staying shut through at least Tuesday, Green said, citing damage to some school buildings and the ongoing power outages, according to CNN and the Epoch Times.

Cleanup crews were working Monday to clear fallen trees and repair damaged bridges, with drivers urged to use alternate routes where roads remain blocked.

The storm itself is not done. The National Hurricane Center forecasts Lala could restrengthen into a hurricane by Wednesday, but only after it moves far out to sea, away from any land, according to the Epoch Times' reporting on National Hurricane Center guidance. The immediate threat to Hawaii has passed, even as the state works through power restoration, road repairs and, in Naalehu, the aftermath of two confirmed deaths.

Hawaii County officials have not said when Highway 11 and other washed-out roads in the Kau district will reopen, and Hawaiian Electric has not given a firm timeline for restoring the Big Island's damaged transmission system.