Governor urges preparations for Lala: ‘This is a very serious storm’
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Hawaii officials made one last push for residents to be prepared as Tropical Storm Lala neared the state Friday.
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They also said state agencies are also more prepared, thanks to last spring’s destructive storms.
“This is a very serious storm,” said Gov. Josh Green at a late-afternoon press conference at the State Capitol. “We have not had a hurricane make landfall in quite some time, so none of us really have experienced this in the last couple of decades.”
The last hurricane to make landfall was Iniki, on Kauai, in 1992. The last known hurricane to hit Hawaii Island was in 1871, according to newspapers at the time.
Lala comes just five months after most of the state got walloped by a pair of kona lows.
“What I would say is we learned from the extreme weather that we experienced in the spring, and we went through and we addressed those streams specifically that were giving us the most problems,” said Maj. Gen. Stephen Logan, the state adjutant general.
State and county crews have been clearing waterways all week.
The state has also been keeping a much closer watch on water levels in reservoirs and streams after the Wahiawa Dam emergency in March.
“We now monitor those a lot more closely,” said Logan. “In fact, we monitor some of the major ones, such as the Nuuanu Reservoir and the Wahiawa Reservoir on an hourly basis, even when we don’t have a storm approaching.
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Forecasters also want residents to remember Tropical Storm Iselle, which made landfall along the Kau coast in 2014, causing severe wind damage. The National Weather Service said the damaging wind field from Lala is much larger than Iselle’s.
“Even through the track shows it passing south of the islands, the tropical storm force winds, which can be damaging, will extend north and could impact all the islands,” said John Bravender, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service forecast office in Honolulu.
The governor said the state’s major disaster fund has $100 million immediately available for a quick response to Lala. Government agencies are also working together more closely.
“FEMA and the White House have been in touch with us,” said Green. “They’re fully aware of what we’re dealing with, and we’ll give them an update in the wee hours of the morning, too, on how much damage we expect.”
Maj. Gen. Logan said 180 Hawaii National Guard personnel have already been activated and positioned statewide to support rescue operations. He added that other National Guard units around the country have already pledged support if it becomes necessary.
The big message now is for people to hunker down, especially on the island of Hawaii.
“We want to make sure that residents use common sense,” said Hawaii County Mayor Kimo Alameda. “We don’t want your extracurricular activity to become our rescue mission.”
Watch Gov. Green’s full press conference here:
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