Lala spins out to sea after storm hammered the Hawaiian Islands
More than 40 inches of rain fell across parts of the Aloha States since Friday.
The remnants of Hurricane Lala were spinning away from the Hawaiian Islands on Monday, leaving widespread destruction across the Aloha State and a new threat of landslides, officials said.
Flood watches remained in effect on Monday as the outer bands of Lala continued to dump rain on the western Hawaiian Islands.
Due to saturated soils from the torrential rains caused by Lala, local authorities expressed concern about possible landslides over the next 24 to 48 hours, particularly in areas of steep terrain.
The Big Island of Hawaii sustained the most damage from the storm. Gov. Josh Green, who declared a state of emergency on Thursday, said during a news conference Sunday that more than 100 homes on the Big Island were damaged or destroyed.
Lala made a direct hit as a Category 1 hurricane in the South Point area of the Big Island on Sunday morning, meaning the system's strongest winds of over 80 mph moved over land, but its eye did not make landfall.
Lala tracked about 46 miles to the south, or about 31 miles to the southwest, of South Point on its closest approach to the Big Island.
The last time that the Big Island took a direct hit from a hurricane was Hurricane Hone in 2024, when it passed to the south of the Big Island before moving westward. Hone passed about 50 miles to the south of South Point on its closest approach to the Big Island.
Lala weakened to a tropical storm, according to the National Weather Service (NWS), after hitting the Big Island. The storm dumped more than a foot of rain over parts of the state, with some areas getting more than 40 inches of rain since Friday.
On Monday morning, Lala remained a tropical storm as it headed away from Hawaii's western islands and out into the Pacific Ocean
Emergency officials said no deaths were linked to the storm after determining that a fatal car crash that occurred on the Big Island on Saturday was not connected to the hurricane.
During a news conference on Sunday, Gov. Green said 100 or more homes on the southern part of the Big Island were either destroyed or damaged. He said numerous water rescues were performed, including an elderly woman whose house was swept away by floodwater.
Green said emergency workers were concerned about landslides being triggered by heavy rain that saturated the ground.
"When you have 28 inches of rain, there's going to be a ton of landslides," Green said.
Conditions continue to improve on the Big Island, where a tropical storm warning has been canceled.
"The Trump Administration continues tracking and monitoring conditions on the ground in Hawaii. While Hawaii has not requested Federal assistance under the Stafford Act as of today, the USCG is supporting search and rescue at the request of the Hawaii County Fire Department," White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement Sunday.
"The Trump Administration is prepared to provide assistance in support of locally led and state managed emergency operations," the statement added.
As it menaced the Big Island as a Category 1 hurricane earlier Sunday, the NWS issued a life-threatening flash flood emergency for parts of the Big Island, including the communities of Naalegu, Pahala and Hawaiian Ocean View.
At one point, rain was falling at a rate of 3 to 5 inches per hour in some areas, according to the NWS.
More than 217,00 utility customers were without power across Hawaii on Sunday, according to PowerOutage.us. As of Monday, the number of utility customers without power was down to about 114,000, most of them in Honolulu County.
Power companies said the storm toppled trees onto power lines, causing the bulk of the power outages.
During the storm, more than 200 Hawaii National Guard members were activated and positioned across the state to support rescue operations. High-water vehicles were also placed in each county, and additional military and federal resources were available if needed.
ABC News' Nadine El-Bawab, Megan Fahrney, Michelle Simmons, Jon Haworth, Kyle Reiman and Jason Volack contributed to this report.
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