Severe gales and heavy rain triggered by Hurricane Lowell battered the western islands of Hawaii on Tuesday, severing power to thousands and tearing up stretches of coastal roads. Along the Southern California coast, dangerous surf conditions created by the remnants of Hurricane Marie are expected to linger for several days. In Hawaii, high winds uprooted trees and caused widespread blackouts on Kauai, home to 73,000 residents.
The Kauai Island Utility Cooperative stated that nearly all of its roughly 35,000 members were left without power early on Tuesday. Emergency officials asked residents to conserve water and stay off the roads as authorities assessed the damage. Waves that crashed onto Kauai's southern coast tore apart a road along the coast and pushed piles of sand and lava rocks into a beachside park, said Rochelle Ballard, a former professional surfer who runs a surf school across from the park.
It will take weeks of cleanup, she said. Her family’s surf shop and neighboring restaurant came away without damage, but she said a friend’s house was destroyed. I think we'll be fine,” Ballard said.
The storm's tropical storm-force winds extended well beyond the center, the National Hurricane Center said. On Kauai, sustained winds measured just above 50 mph (80 kph) at Lihue Airport, the island's only commercial airport that was closed after the storm. Hurricane warnings for Kauai and the tiny island of Niihau, which has less than 100 permanent residents, were no longer in place by Tuesday morning local time.
A tropical storm warning was also lifted for Oahu, the state's most populated island with close to 1 million residents. But flooding and mudslides will continue to be a risk through the day, said Eric Blake, of the National Hurricane Center. Some wind gusts reached 80 mph (130 kph), according to the hurricane center.
But the force of the sustained winds had decreased by early Tuesday and later the storm weakened and was no longer a hurricane. Lowell is expected to continue weakening in the coming days. There was extensive damage across Kauai, and crews were using heavy equipment to push trees and debris off the roads, said Derek Kawakami, mayor of Kauai County.
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