Hurricane Lala has skirted Hawaii’s Big Island without making landfall and is expected to gradually weaken after lashing the region with strong winds and drenching rain that flooded roads and turned rivers into raging torrents.
The possibility the island could witness its first direct hit from a hurricane in 155 years faded as the eye of the storm passed the island’s southern tip on Saturday afternoon local time.
Landfall is not expected at this point, said National Weather Service meteorologist Joseph Clark.
However, hurricane-force winds were expected to continue into the overnight hours, with the strongest wind gusts likely in areas of higher terrain, the National Hurricane Center said.
Heavy rainfall into Sunday could produce flooding and mudslides, while powerful waves pound the coast, the agency said.
One person had died in a car accident, State Governor Josh Green said in a video posted on X, urging people to stay home.
More than 60,000 households had lost power “at least temporarily”, Mr Green said, and 190 flights had been postponed.
“Three hospitals also lost power but they have back-up generators, they’re going to be OK,” he said.
“The storm will weaken now that it’s passing the southern part of the Big Island. It peaked at 80 miles (130 kilometres) per hour which was a hurricane, category 1 designation,” he said.
“Now as it goes kind of in a trajectory to the southern part of our state, hopefully we’ll just see the winds on the periphery of that storm affecting us again.”
The Hawaii Department of Transportation said it was closing Hilo International Airport and would close Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keahole at 2pm Saturday local time (Sunday, 10am AEST).
The department also closed the Hawaii Island, Maui County, and Kaua‘i commercial ports.
The National Weather Service warned of dangerous surf and localised flooding.
Forecasters said higher elevations on the island, dominated by the towering Mauna Kea volcano, could get as much as 63 centimetres of rain.
That could cause life-threatening mudslides in a mountainous area where people live off the grid in improvised housing.
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