Several homes on Hawaii's Big Island destroyed by mudslide triggered by former Hurricane Lala
As Tropical Storm Lala continued moving west away from Hawaii on Monday, residents were dealing with the destruction from the heavy rain the storm brought to the islands over the weekend.
In the small community of Waiohinu on the southern point of Hawaii's Big Island, a mudslide swept through and destroyed about a dozen homes.
"The boulders that were coming down were so heavy they were like shaking the ground," resident Alice Birnbaum told CBS News. She said the news crew was the first people she had seen from outside her community since Lala swept by the island.
"We need water. We need, people need propane, people need gas, people need food," she said.
In nearby Naalehu, a 90-year-old woman was found dead after being reported missing during the storm, Gov. Josh Green and Hawaii County Mayor Kimo Alameda announced during a news conference. Hawaii County Police Chief Reed Mahuna said foul play wasn't suspected.
While a hurricane hasn't made direct landfall in the state since Iniki in 1992, the eye of then-Category 1 Hurricane Lala passed just 30 miles off the Big Island's coast over the weekend, bringing wind gusts over 80 mph and torrential rain, with some areas seeing more than 3 feet. Kapalua, located in Maui County, was hit with 48 inches of rain over the weekend.
As of Monday night local time, some 71,000 customers were still without power across the Hawaiian Islands, according to PowerOutage.com.
Bridges on the Big Island were washed away, and several communities have been entirely cut off from the rest of the island.
With emergency services unable to reach them, Waiohinu residents have been forced to rely on each other. One resident told CBS News a family that included a young child barely made it out of their home before it was washed away.
All state and Hawaii County (Big Island) offices will still be closed Tuesday, state officials said, as will public schools on Hawaii Island and courts and judiciary facilities. But state and county offices, courts and judiciary facilities and most public schools in Oahu, Maui and Kauai counties will reopen.
Lala weakened to a tropical storm as it left the Hawaii area but then got stronger and became a hurricane again over the central Pacific, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said early Tuesday EDT. The storm was packing 80 mph maximum sustained winds and is forecast to gain more strength "during the next day or so" and stay a hurricane for several days, the center said. A storm needs sustained winds of 74 mph to gain hurricane status. There are no hurricane warnings or watches posted.
