Hurricane Lowell Hawaii damage: Kauaʻi faces outages and battered roads
Hurricane Lowell left severe damage, outages and blocked roads, but no verified statewide tally of homes destroyed has been released.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
3 min read
Hurricane Lowell Hawaii damage includes severe impacts in Kauaʻi County and on Oʻahu, state emergency officials said Tuesday, while stressing that conditions were improving after the storm moved away. The Hawaiʻi Emergency Management Agency said the hurricane warning for Kauaʻi County and tropical-storm warning for Oʻahu had both been canceled.
At 8 a.m. Tuesday, Lowell was 190 miles north-northwest of Līhuʻe and had weakened to a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 80 mph, according to the agency’s update, which was last revised at 8:55 a.m. Conditions were improving across Niʻihau, Kauaʻi and Oʻahu, it said.
What damage did Hurricane Lowell cause in Hawaii?
The official update confirmed severe damage in Kauaʻi County and on Oʻahu, including widespread power failures on Kauaʻi and significant outages on Oʻahu. It did not give a count of homes damaged or destroyed.
Honolulu Civil Beat reported that residents and visitors on Kauaʻi woke to flooding, wind damage and coastal storm surge after Lowell passed near Niʻihau overnight. The outlet said North Shore and Westside highways were blocked by floodwater and debris, and that sand and boulders from damaged seawalls covered some roads.
Civil Beat also reported that officials had begun assessing effects on homes, businesses, utilities, infrastructure and government facilities. At least one storm-related injury had been reported, it said, while the scope of damage was still emerging.
Resident accounts collected by Civil Beat described the road along Hanapēpē Bay as washed out and Waimea Pier as badly damaged. Those observations are firsthand reports, rather than a final government assessment of the island’s losses.
How widespread were the Kauaʻi power outages?
Kauaʻi Island Utility Cooperative reported that 33,000 of its 36,000 members were without electricity Tuesday, Civil Beat said. The utility’s crews were checking 1,500 miles of transmission and distribution lines where access allowed.
KIUC President and Chief Executive David Bissell said the cooperative needed to determine the damage and the repairs required before it could issue dependable restoration estimates, according to Civil Beat. Hawaiʻi Public Radio separately reported that Lowell had cut power to most Kauaʻi residents Monday night.
FOX Weather reported that more than 60,000 customers across Kauaʻi and Oʻahu were without power at the height of the storm early Tuesday, citing PowerOutage.us. The outlet said the storm’s center did not make landfall, though it passed close to the western islands.
What should residents do after Hurricane Lowell?
Hawaiʻi Emergency Management asked people who were safe to limit travel so emergency crews could carry out repairs. The agency warned residents to stay clear of downed lines and to inspect for damaged power lines, gas lines, foundation cracks and other exterior damage before entering a damaged property.
Kauaʻi Mayor Derek Kawakami said crews were clearing highways and cleaning county roads, according to Hawaiʻi Public Radio. Emergency officials were also expected to use a helicopter to survey damage on the island.
For now, the available reports document serious damage to roads, utilities and some properties. They do not establish that homes across Hawaii were devastated or provide a verified statewide total of residential losses.
This story draws on original reporting from CBS News.