Hurricane Lowell leaves trail of destruction across Kauai

POIPU, Hawaii — On Kauai’s south shore, Hurricane Lowell lifted a home off its foundation and split it in two, the storm’s powerful winds thrusting part of the structure across the street. At a nearby Sheraton hotel, the hurricane carried several cars across the parking lot and destroyed the hotel’s oceanfront restaurant. Its pool sits full of sand. These are just two of the many scenes of destruction the hurricane has left in Hawaii after lashing the state’s western islands with heavy rain, widespread flooding and tropical-storm-force winds on Monday and Tuesday. Now the extensive recovery efforts begin. Lowell passed just west of the islands of Niihau and Kauai on Monday as a Category 2 hurricane, prompting the National Weather Service to issue the state’s first-ever tornado watch. Flash flooding was widespread across Kauai, where the NWS recorded preliminary rainfall totals of up to 21 inches. In a video update Wednesday, Kauai County Mayor Derek Kawakami said crews had been dispatched islandwide to assess the aftermath of the storm. “Plan to be without power for a while,” he said. “Some areas should expect several days or longer.” Around 80% of homes and businesses remain without power in Kauai County — more than 30,000 customers — according to the tracker poweroutage.us. Gentry Cruz, who manages the property that the storm split in half, was resigned while surveying the extent of the destruction. “It sucks, but I mean, you cannot do nothing about it,” he said. “Mother Nature is Mother Nature.” In Waimea, on Kauai’s southwest coast, Facebook user Benjamin E.J. Apilado shared footage of the destruction in his neighborhood early Tuesday morning, showing fallen coconut trees, downed power lines and an uprooted mango tree that had narrowly missed his car. Other social media users posted videos of destroyed homes, with smashed windows and possessions strewn about. Drone footage captured by photographer Braden Geddes revealed extensive damage to homes and roads across Kauai. Other islands were also battered, including Oahu, where maximum wind gusts topped 50 mph. Parts of the island were inundated with nearly 10 inches of rain, according to preliminary totals from the NWS. One person died on Oahu, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said, though it has not yet been confirmed that the death was storm-related. Lowell has since weakened to a tropical storm and continues to move away from Hawaii, but residual tropical moisture could bring additional precipitation and storms Wednesday over the island chain, which could slow cleanup efforts in some hard-hit areas. This was far from the first storm to leave a trail of damage in Hawaii over the last six months. Parts of Oahu and the Big Island saw intense flooding from Hurricane Lala just weeks ago, with some additional rain from Tropical Storm Moke on the Big Island soon after. In March, more than 25 inches of rain fell over parts of Oahu, with Maui recording more than 19 inches. Lowell was one of three storms in the Pacific Ocean last week. The remnants of Hurricane Marie fueled dangerous surf conditions Tuesday along the coast of Southern California, and leftover tropical moisture is driving up temperatures and humidity across the region this week. A rare extreme heat warning was in effect for Southern California on Wednesday, including for Los Angeles and San Diego. Meanwhile, Hurricane Karina, which had been churning east of the Hawaiian Islands, weakened into a tropical storm on Saturday and did not generate any hazards that affected land. The uptick in storm activity in the Pacific basin is largely being driven by El Niño, a natural climate pattern characterized by warmer-than-usual sea surface temperatures in parts of the Pacific Ocean. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other forecasting agencies predict an exceptionally strong El Niño, or “super El Niño,” this time around. NOAA last month estimated that this El Niño event has a 69% chance of becoming the strongest on record.