“Tropical Cyclone Lala brought intense flooding and strong winds to the islands last month, leaving behind significant damage throughout the state,” wrote Governor Josh Green of Hawai’i. “Luckily were were spared further damage from Tropical Storm Moke, which passed further away from us with only some additional rainfall.”
In addition to being far enough away from Moke to avoid any damage, Hurricane Lowell, a Category 4 storm as of this morning, slid to the south of the Hawai’ian archipelago.
But it could have been much worse.
Efforts have been underway in the state to clean up the damage done by Lala, including at Mid-Pacific Institute, which had to close temporarily to repair the damage Lala’s high winds caused.
“They put out a call just for guys to come in and help kind of clear some of the debris and whatnot on the campus,” sixth grade teacher Nate Hu told the student newspaper at the school in Honolulu. “Because obviously, the goal was to open up, right? And so, we just came, got a whole bunch of the branches and the debris that was around the campus, just kind of cleaned it up, picked it up, took us a couple hours.”
Elsewhere, the Hawai’i Department of Education has been providing free boxes of nonperishable meals to support children and families in Ka’ū communities in Pāhala, Nāʻālehu, and Ocean View. For those 18 and under, the meal is free.
“Each meal box will contain five breakfasts and five lunches that meet school meal nutritional standards,” the governor wrote. “Plans are currently being developed to support learning while campus and community recovery efforts continue.”
