Race against time: Naalehu braces for more rain from Moke following Hurricane Lala

NĀʻĀLEHU, Hawaiʻi(HawaiiNewsNow) — Just one week after Hurricane Lala lashed the state, residents in Nāʻālehu and other hard-hit areas of the Kaʻū district on Hawaiʻi Island are preparing for another onslaught of damaging rain, this time from Tropical Storm Moke.

Read more Hawaii Island faces another storm threat with nearly 9K still out of power

Nāʻālehu Elementary School sustained minor structural damage from Hurricane Lala, but multiple classrooms were left flooded. Piles of storm debris now litter the campus, leaving the once-vibrant county school empty and quiet.

“It makes me emotional. It’s so hard to see my community go through so much,” said Waiʻōhinu resident Kamalani Fujikawa.

She noted that many local students have been left roaming the streets without shoes or slippers, and with only the clothes on their backs.

“I really appreciate people coming from all over to help in any way they can,” Fujikawa added.

Read more Firefighters respond to reports of smoke in Wainiha

A Race Against Time at the Resilience Hub

Down the road from the school, dozens of volunteers are working around the clock at the Nāʻālehu Resilience Hub, operating out of the Nāʻālehu Hongwanji Mission. They are trucking in water, ice, and emergency supplies in a race against time, with devastating rain from Tropical Storm Moke expected to arrive as early as Sunday.

“My heart is bursting with joy that everyone has come together with so much compassion and aloha,” said Marcia Masters, team lead for the Nāʻālehu Resilience Hub. “Most of our crew here has never worked together before, and they just melded amazingly.”

The hub has operated as a soup kitchen in Nāʻālehu since the COVID-19 pandemic and officially mobilized after Hurricane Lala on Monday. Hub leaders say they currently have an adequate supply of clothing but urgently need donations of water, ice, generators, batteries, and other essential supplies to weather the next storm.

Volunteers know that once the southern areas of Hawaiʻi Island begin feeling the outer bands of Moke, they will have to quickly move their entire outdoor relief operation indoors.

Read more Hawaii County damage from Lala nears $50M as Moke approaches