HONOLULU (AP) — A beloved former kindergarten teacher who taught generations of residents in a small town on Hawaii's Big Island was among the two who died as Hurricane Lala's wind and rain lashed the islands over the weekend.
May Doi, 93, was found dead Monday after she was reported missing, police said. Neighbors think she was escaping floodwaters in her home and trying to get to a nearby shelter, said ʻĀina Akamu, a former student of Doi's who is now
a vice principal at a local school.
The remains of a man in his 60s were located by residents in a pasture on Tuesday, a day after police were asked to conduct a welfare check, police said. Authorities hadn’t yet released his identity, the second death attributed to the storm.
Doi taught generations at Naalehu Elementary on the island's southern tip, including Akamu's father.
“She taught grandkids of her students,” he said. “She was a fixture in this community.”
Akamu often saw her taking walks around the small, rural sugar plantation-era town: “She was so strong.”
He recalled how everyone looked forward to having Mrs. Doi as a teacher because she sometimes allowed students to camp in her classroom. Her deceased husband was a math teacher, Akamu said.
Residents were struggling to clean up after strong winds tore roofs off houses, uprooted trees and floodwaters covered roads in mud and rock and left many households across the state without electricity for days. On top of all that, forecasters warned Wednesday of the likelihood of another tropical cyclone forming southeast of the islands.
Akamu was also crying over the destruction of two area cemeteries, including one where Akamu’s ancestors have been buried since 1850. Caskets were sticking out of the ground through the town, home to about 800 people, and headstones littered the roadway, he said.
“Our graveyard is now scattered all over the community and how do we heal from that?” he said.
He worries crews working to clear roads could inadvertently 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 focus Wednesday on helping his community recover by setting up a hub where residents can get donated items. They are in most need of generators, gasoline and propane, he said.
“We just ask the ancestors to protect us,” Akamu said of the threat of an another storm.
Now well west of Hawaii's main islands, Lala has reached major Category 3 strength with top sustained winds of 120 mph (195 kph) on Wednesday in what the National Hurricane Center called the first major hurricane of 2026 in the Central Pacific Ocean. But Hawaii residents were put on notice for another storm system, located far to the east-southeast.
The hurricane center said conditions appeared conducive for a tropical depression to form within days.
It's too early to tell the exact location or potential wind, rain and storm surge impacts. However, “interests in the Hawaiian Islands should closely monitor the progress of this system,” the hurricane center said, adding it could be a hurricane when it moves near or over the islands by the weekend.
Work continued Wednesday to clear away tons of mud and debris left behind by a torrent of water that inundated buildings, some of whose roofs were sheared off by the winds. Dozens of homes were washed from foundations, bridges were damaged and a collapsed section of a two-lane road had cut off access to the community of Pahala.
The U.S. Department of Transportation approved an initial $6 million in emergency relief to help repair transportation infrastructure damaged by Lala, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii said.
The heaviest recorded rainfall, 43.54 inches (1.1 meters), occurred in Laupahoehoe on the northeast coast of the Big Island, the National Weather Service said.
About 17,000 customers on the Big Island remained without power on Wednesday, the Hawaiian Electric Utility said. Pockets of customers on the islands of Oahu and Maui were still in the dark. Repairs in the heavily damaged areas of the Big Island, including the southern end, could take at least two weeks, the utility said.
On Wednesday, Lala was moving to the northwest at 9 mph (15 kph) and was expected to turn toward the north early Thursday. It was bearing down on a remote area at the northwestern edge of the Hawaiian Archipelago. Hurricane warnings were posted for portions of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument from Lisianski Island to Maro Reef.
The weather service said the storm was forecast to veer east of the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. The population in one of the most remote places on Earth consists entirely of a few dozen U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff, volunteers and contractors. Forecasters said there were no tropical-related advisories for the Midway Atoll and any impact might include some elevated surf with a limited amount of rain.
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Raby reported from Charleston, West Virginia.
