A fixture in the community, May Doi taught generations at Naalehu Elementary. Another system could hit the islands by the weekend, the hurricane center said.
Alpha Score of 44 reflects weak overall profile with moderate momentum, poor value, weak quality, weak sentiment.
HONOLULU – A 93-year-old former kindergarten teacher who taught generations of students in a small Big Island town was among the two people killed as Hurricane Lala swept through the islands, police said.
May Doi was found dead Monday after she was reported missing, police said. A neighbor believes she was trying to escape floodwaters in her home and reach a nearby shelter when she died, said ʻĀina Akamu, a former student who is now a vice principal at a local school.
Doi taught for decades at Naalehu Elementary on the island's southern tip. Akamu's father was one of her students. "She taught grandkids of her students," he said. "She was a fixture in this community."
Akamu often saw her walking around the small, rural sugar plantation town. "She was so strong," he said. Everyone looked forward to having Mrs. Doi as a teacher because she sometimes let students camp in her classroom. Her husband was a math teacher.
The remains of a man in his 60s were found by residents in a pasture Tuesday, a day after police were asked to do a welfare check. Police have not released his identity.
Residents across the Big Island are struggling to clean up. Strong winds tore roofs off houses, uprooted trees and left roads covered in mud and rock. Floodwaters damaged buildings and washed dozens of homes from their foundations. Bridges were damaged. A collapsed section of a two-lane road cut off access to the community of Pahala.
About 17,000 customers remained without power Wednesday, Hawaiian Electric Utility said. Repairs in the hardest-hit areas could take at least two weeks.
Forecasters warned Wednesday that another tropical cyclone could form southeast of the islands. The National Hurricane Center said conditions looked favorable for a tropical depression to develop within days. It is too early to predict its exact path or impacts. "Interests in the Hawaiian Islands should closely monitor the progress of this system," the center said, adding it could be a hurricane when it moves near or over the islands by the weekend.
Lala, now well west of the main islands, reached Category 3 strength with top winds of 120 mph Wednesday. It was moving northwest toward a remote area at the northwestern edge of the Hawaiian Archipelago. Hurricane warnings were posted for parts of Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument from Lisianski Island to Maro Reef.
Akamu also cried over the destruction of two area cemeteries, including one where his ancestors have been buried since 1850. Caskets were sticking out of the ground across the town of about 800 people. Headstones littered the roadways. "Our graveyard is now scattered all over the community and how do we heal from that?" he said.
He worries crews clearing roads could accidentally run over remains. "Don't clear the road, my grandma could be in there," he said. "That's what makes me most emotional, it's like you lost them again."
Akamu was trying to help his community recover by setting up a hub for donated supplies. The most urgent needs are generators, gasoline and propane. "We just ask the ancestors to protect us," he said of the threat of another storm.
The U.S. Department of Transportation approved $6 million in emergency relief to repair transportation infrastructure damaged by Lala, said U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii.
The heaviest recorded rainfall, 43.54 inches, occurred in Laupahoehoe on the northeast coast of the Big Island, the National Weather Service said.
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