HONOLULU — Communities still recovering from last weekend’s hurricane in Hawaii could get pounded again in coming days from another tropical system gaining strength over warm Pacific waters.
Hurricane Lala tore roofs off houses, uprooted trees, covered roads in mud and rock and left many households without electricity. With thousands of homes and businesses still in the dark Thursday, forecasters warned another tropical cyclone is likely to form southeast of the islands soon.
A depression moving west and northwest could become a tropical storm later Thursday and pass near or south of Hawaii’s Big Island over the weekend or early next week, according to the U.S. Central Pacific Hurricane Center. That system could dump up to 15 inches of rain across the Big Island and trigger life-threatening flooding, mudslides and rip currents, the hurricane center added.
Forecasters said the disturbance had top sustained winds of 35 mph and was located about 900 miles east-southeast of Hilo, Hawaii.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green and other state officials were holding a news conference Thursday afternoon to discuss preparations for the approaching system as well as ongoing recovery efforts from Lala, which has been blamed for two deaths.
Residents found the body of a man in his 60s in a pasture Tuesday, a day after authorities recovered the body of May Doi, 93, whom neighbors said was trying to escape from floodwaters in her home. Doi was a beloved former kindergarten teacher who taught generations of residents in a small town on Hawaii’s Big Island.
“She taught grandkids of her students,” said Aina Akamu, a former student of Doi who is now a vice principal at a local school. “She was a fixture in this community.’’
Lala’s heaviest recorded rainfall, 43.54 inches, occurred on the northeast coast of the Big Island, the National Weather Service said. Dozens of homes were washed from foundations, bridges were damaged and about 13,200 customers on the Big Island remained without power Thursday.
Efforts to restore power in the hard-hit areas of the Big Island could take at least two weeks, the Hawaiian Electric utility said.
Lala is the first major hurricane of 2026 in the Central Pacific Ocean. Now well west of Hawaii’s main islands, Lala had top sustained winds of 90 mph on Thursday and was spreading hurricane conditions across parts of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument — a remote area at the northwestern edge of the Hawaiian Archipelago. The impacts were being felt between Lisianski Island and Maro Reef, authorities said.
Forecasters said Lala would cross the waters of the marine national monument for a few days and remain at hurricane strength despite some gradual weakening.
Even in that vast and remote area, people were seeking safety. A charter boat carrying a 16-member crew dedicated to removing marine plastics and abandoned fishing nets from the shores of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands got out of Lala’s projected path this week.
Kevin O’Brien, president of the nonprofit Papahanaumokuakea Marine Debris Project, said the vessel left Lisianski Island on Monday and headed hundreds of miles out to sea.
“We were ready for it,” O’Brien said. “We keep on our toes out here during hurricane season.”
