Hurricane Lala cuts power to thousands in Hawaii — rural outages could last months - San Francisco Chronicle

The storm unleashed destructive flash flooding over the weekend, sweeping an estimated 100 homes off their foundations across the islands. Sustained winds topping 70 mph also knocked out electricity for huge swaths of the population, impacting essential services. Lala initially skirted the Big Island's southern coast as a Category 1 hurricane late Saturday, then weakened to a tropical storm by Sunday morning while moving northwest, 75 miles south of Honolulu. Local utility providers are warning that some remote communities could lack power for several months, a monumental recovery task.

For those living through it, daily life transformed into a grueling recovery effort, a vastly different reality from grabbing coffee near Tech Terrace or catching a show at Buddy Holly Hall. Thousands now face the immediate, overwhelming challenges of finding shelter, securing clean water, and sourcing basic supplies. The disruption extends far beyond electricity, impacting everything from communication to commerce.

The sheer scale of recovery for island communities will stretch well past the immediate storm, a devastating undertaking most of us on the High Plains can barely fathom.