Lala Didn't Even Make Landfall — And It Still Killed Someone: Hawaii's Hurricane Blind Spot Just Got Exposed
Hurricane Lala killed at least one person, swept homes off their foundations, and knocked out power to roughly 130,000 customers in Honolulu County — and according to multiple reports, it did much of this without ever making a direct landfall on the Big Island. That's the part that should get your attention: Hawaii just took serious damage from a storm that, on paper, was a glancing blow.
Bottom Line
Hurricane Lala is deadly proof that a storm doesn't need to make landfall — or even stay at hurricane strength — to kill people and destroy homes, especially in a state whose infrastructure and insurance habits were shaped by 150 years of near-total hurricane absence. The debate over whether Lala 'technically' hit Hawaii misses the point. The water hit. The outages hit. And Hawaii's geographic isolation means recovery will be slower than a comparable storm on the mainland.