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Lucia I Suarez Sang
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Lucia Suarez Sang is an associate managing editor at CBSNews.com. Previously, Lucia was the director of digital content at FOX61 News in Connecticut and has previously written for outlets including FoxNews.com, Fox News Latino and the Rutland Herald.
Faris Tanyos is a news editor for CBSNews.com, where he writes and edits stories and tracks breaking news. He previously worked as a digital news producer at several local news stations up and down the West Coast.
Brian Dakss
Senior Editor
Brian Dakss is a longtime New York-based editor and writer for CBS News, at the Radio network and with CBSNews.com. He has written and edited for NBC News, Dow Jones and numerous radio stations and been a radio anchor and reporter.
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Tropical Storm Lala continued to bring wind and rain to Hawaii late Sunday local time after skirting past the Big Island as a hurricane but was weakening as it moved away, forecasters said.
As a hurricane, Lala pounded the Big Island’s coast with powerful waves as it slowly passed by. Howling winds whipped palm trees and waterways swelled with fast-moving runoff from relentless rain that blew nearly sideways. More than 28 inches of rain fell in parts of the island, and 32 inches of rain was recorded in La Poya, which is on Maui, authorities said.
The weather system weakened back to a tropical storm as it continued moving west, while remaining south of the smaller main Hawaiian Islands on Sunday, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said.
State officials said all state and county offices, state Department of Education schools and public charter schools, courts and judiciary offices would be closed Monday.
On Saturday, Lala’s eyewall — an area of powerful winds, thunderstorms and heavy rain that encircles the eye of a hurricane —brushed the southern portion of the Big Island, forecasters said. A hurricane hasn’t made direct landfall in the state since Iniki in 1992.
At least one person was killed in a car accident in the southernmost point of the Big Island, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said Sunday, but officials said there have been no confirmed storm-related deaths.
“Everyone is safe and healthy,” said Green, a medical doctor who previously worked in emergency departments of remote hospitals on the Big Island. “But boy, a lot of work ahead.”
A vehicle approaches a downed utility pole dangling above Mamalahoa Highway during Hurricane Lala near Ocean View, on Hawaii’s Big Island, on Aug. 15, 2026. Stephen Lam / San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images 
Two homes were swept away in Naalehu in the Kau District of Hawaii Island during flash flooding on Saturday evening, according to CBS Honolulu affiliate KGMB. Big Island responders rescued an elderly woman from one of the homes that was washed away, officials said Sunday.
Honolulu EMS transported more than 200 people to the hospital, authorities said at a news conference. At least three hospitals were operating on generator power, the governor said, adding damage to roads and several small bridges was making some places hard to reach.
Hawaii County Mayor Kimo Alameda said on social media that a search and rescue mission, including Civil Defense, the National Guard and Coast Guard, was launched after flash floods apparently swept several occupied homes off their foundations in the coastal communities of Na’alehu and Wai’ohinu, near the island’s southern tip.
“What makes this very challenging is that there’s rushing water, there’s debris and there’s boulders on the road and it’s dark,” he said.
More than 160,000 homes and businesses were without power across the state Sunday night, according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us. The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency said there were reports of downed trees and power lines across the Big Island.
The agency implored people to “please stay indoors and off the roads.”
All airports were open throughout Hawaii Sunday night.
Hawaiian Airlines reported 52 cancellations statewide on Sunday. On Saturday, about 190 flights were paused or canceled.
About 240 Hawaii National Guard members were deployed to assist with emergency response, the state’s emergency management agency said.
A view of the rising water levels at the Wainaku Street Bridge in Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii, on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. Taylor Cozloff/Civil Beat via AP 
Maps show storm warnings, path
In its latest advisory at 8 p.m. Sunday in Hawaii (2 a.m. Monday EDT), the National Hurricane Center said Lala was about 270 miles west of Honolulu, which is located on Oahu. It had sustained winds of 60 mph and was moving west at 13 mph, with tropical-storm-force winds extending as much as 140 miles from its center.
All hurricane warnings and watches were discontinued.
The path of Tropical Storm Lala after it brushed past Hawaii’s Big Island. Nikki Nolan/CBS News 
The hurricane center said some restrengthening is in the cards and Lala could become a hurricane again by Wednesday.
“Large waves generated by Lala will gradually trend down from east to west across the Hawaiian waters through Monday. Life-threatening surf and rip current conditions will continue into Monday.”
The rain forecast for Hawaii from Tropical Storm Lala. Aug. 16, 2026. Nikki Nolan/CBS News 
Lala’s outer bands are expected to bring one-to-four more inches of rain to Hawaii with some spots getting six more, and that could bring flooding and mudslides, especially in areas of steep terrain, the center said.
The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
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