Nearly 15,000 homes and businesses remain without power
The Central Pacific Hurricane Center, part of the National Weather Service, issued the warning in its Thursday advisory as the system moved west and northwest across the Pacific. Forecasters said the depression could strengthen into a tropical storm by Thursday and pass near or south of the Big Island over the weekend.
The center said the developing system could produce up to 15 inches of rain across the Big Island and bring life-threatening flooding, mudslides and rip currents to the island.
Cleanup from Hurricane Lala continued across the Hawaiian Islands. Lala tore roofs off houses, uprooted trees and covered roads in mud and rock when it swept past the islands the previous weekend. Nearly 15,000 homes and businesses across the state remained without electricity on Thursday as crews worked to clear debris and restore power.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green and other state officials planned a Thursday afternoon news conference to address both the developing cyclone and the continuing recovery from Lala. The hurricane has been blamed for two deaths in the state.
As MSI previously reported, Tropical Storm Lala swept past Hawaii’s Big Island the previous weekend, damaging more than 100 homes and collapsing parts of a major highway on the island’s southeast side that cut off road access to Pahala, the region’s only town with a hospital. The storm later strengthened to a Category 3 hurricane over the Central Pacific as it tracked away from the islands.