VICTORIA BUDIONO / STAR-ADVERTISER
President Donald Trump approved a federal disaster declaration today for Hawaii island in the aftermath of Hurricane Lala. On Thursday, nearly a week after the hurricane pummeled the Kau district, a home and truck in Naalehu remained buried in mud and rocks from massive flooding in the area.
President Donald Trump today approved a disaster declaration for Hawaii County, making the Big Island eligible for federal assistance to clean up and rebuild after the devastation from Hurricane Lala.
Lala was a Category 1 hurricane as it moved just off the southern end of Hawaii island Aug. 15-16, then passed farther south of the smaller islands as a strong tropical storm. It left behind an estimated $81.4 million in damage to the state, mostly on the Big Island, but also on Oahu and Maui. Two people were killed and hundreds of structures were damaged or destroyed in the Kau district.
The costs from the storm’s destruction are expected to grow as crews continue to conduct damage assessments and receive reports.
FEMA officials said Trump’s authorization allows it to coordinate the federal government’s Lala disaster response.
Hawaii Emergency Management Agency teams will continue to be on Maui and Hawaii Island – tentatively until Sept. 1 — and the “Kau region may require more time to assess because of significant damages,” HI-EMA spokesperson Kiele Amundson wrote in an email to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser today.
Hawaii island so far estimates its damage to private and public structures and buildings at $49.3 million, followed by Oahu, with $25.6 million, and by Maui County, at $6.4 million.
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Honolulu officials are still assessing damage across the island and do not have precise locations for individual damage.
Agriculture operations on Hawaii island, Maui County and Oahu reported a total of $3.4 million in damage over 79 total farms, encompassing 360 acres. About $1.3 million in damage involved “infrastructure,” followed by $913,000 in damaged or destroyed crops, $777,000 worth of machinery, and $32,000 in livestock damage.
On Oahu, officials said one structure was destroyed, 27 had major damage, 368 had minor damage and 256 were “affected.”
FEMA lists “major” structural damage as requiring “extensive repairs or damage from flood waters when the waterline is at or above the electrical outlets in an essential living space in a conventionally built home, or when the waterline enters the living space of a manufactured home.”
Minor damage is characterized as “repairable, non-structural damage to … a conventionally built home, or when the waterline is in the floor system of a manufactured home.”
Properties that are “affected” are safe to occupy.