A tropical storm in the Pacific Ocean will bring additional flooding and gusty winds to Hawaii as the state recovers from damage from last week’s Hurricane Lala, according to forecasters.
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Tropical Storm Moke is impacting the Big Island of Hawaii and will bring rain to other islands through Monday, according to an advisory by the NOAA NWS National Hurricane Center issued late Saturday night, local time.
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Lala is again a tropical storm, sending drenching rain and winds across Hawaii
“This rainfall may produce life-threatening flooding and mudslides for the windward and southeast Big Island, especially in deep terrain and over areas that were recently affected by Lala,” the center said in the advisory.
The center of Tropical Storm Moke is not expected to make landfall and will pass to the south of the Hawaiian islands, but up to 15 inches of rain could fall across Big Island and 3 to 6 inches of rain are expected to fall on eastern Maui, the center also said.
Potential damage from Tropical Storm Moke is set to occur less than a week after Hurricane Lala battered the islands.
Hurricane Lala, now downgraded to a tropical storm and moving northwest across the Pacific Ocean away from Hawaii at a slower speed, did not make landfall either, but dropped more than 30 inches of rain on some parts of Hawaii in a short period of time.
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That heavy rainfall triggered floods and mudslides that destroyed roads and bridges. Floodwaters swept through several towns, lifting homes from their foundations.
More than 8,000 people were still without power as of Saturday morning, and full restoration of the electricity supply is not expected until Sept. 8, according to the local grid company, Hawaiian Electric.
At least one person, a 90-year-old woman, died in a flood caused by the hurricane, according to Hawaii Public Radio. Hawaii Gov. Josh Green on Saturday signed a request asking the White House to declare an emergency in the wake of the earlier hurricane, Lala.
Hawaii County Mayor Kimo Alameda on Sunday encouraged residents to prepare for another battering, with the strong winds and heavy rains expected from Tropical Storm Moke.
“Please anticipate interruptions in power and communication and hazardous road conditions,” Alameda wrote on social media.
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