Hawaii's Big Island lashed by rain and wind as Tropical Storm Lala closes in

HONOLULU (AP) — Tropical Storm Lala was already whipping and soaking Hawaii’s Big Island early Saturday, and was expected to strengthen into a hurricane as it approaches land. The National Hurricane Center issued a rare hurricane warning for the island, where it would be the first to make landfall in 155 years.

Forecasters said higher elevations could get as much as 25 inches (63.5 centimeters) of rain. That could cause life-threatening mudslides in a mountainous area where people live off the grid in improvised housing, and authorities urged them to find safe shelters quickly.

“This is an enormous storm,” Gov. Josh Green said. Tropical storm force winds extended outward for as much as 220 miles (350 km), and were expected to hit the islands of Oahu and Kauai by Sunday morning.

Destructive flooding and even wildfires kicked up by the strong winds were possible in the islands. A hurricane warning was issued for the Big Island, and a tropical storm warning was in effect for Maui County, which includes the islands of Maui, Molokai, Lanai and Kahoolawe.

According to a University of Hawaii atmospheric scientist's research of newspaper accounts, a Category 3 hurricane hit the northeast corner of the island in 1871. The latest forecast has Lala striking "very close to the southern tip of the Big Island,” said Vanessa Almanza, a weather service meteorologist in Honolulu.

Officials and residents braced for Lala regardless of whether Hawaii takes a direct hit. Shelters were scheduled to open, and various events were canceled.

“It doesn’t take landfall to create destruction,” Almanza said, noting that a lot of the impacts are felt outside the hurricane's center.

The hurricane center predicted 8 to 12 inches (20.3 to 30.5 centimeters) of rainfall totals across Maui and lower elevations of the Big Island, and 4 to 6 inches (10.2 to 15.2 centimeters) across the island chain.

The center also warned that the storm could cause “life-threatening flooding and mudslides, especially in areas of steep terrain,” along with a dangerous storm surge and ocean swells “likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.”

As of 2 a.m. in Hawaii, Tropical Storm Lala was located about 140 miles (225 kilometers) southeast of South Point, Hawaii, with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph) and was moving toward the west-northwest at 13 mph (20 kph), the hurricane center said.

State Rep. Jeanné Kapela traveled from Honolulu to be closer to her constituents on the Big Island and urged people to remain alert.

The southern end of the island is remote and rural, with agriculture including coffee and cattle, but it's growing in population because of its affordability. Kapela said she was especially worried about people who live off the grid in unpermitted structures.

“If you feel now that your house doesn’t have a great roof or might not be able to withstand hurricane force winds, then first things first you go to a family or friend’s house and you kind of hunker down there,” she texted to The Associated Press as her flight took off Friday. “We're hopeful the storm moves through quickly, but we're preparing for whatever comes.”

Many parts of Hawaii are still dealing with the aftermath of devastating flooding in March, Kapela said. “We know how quickly heavy rain and flooding can impact our rural communities.”

Growers still recovering from the spring floods, including on Oahu’s North Shore, were worried about suffering more damage, according to Brian Miyamoto, executive director of the Hawaii Farm Bureau.

Coffee farmer Bruce Corker said it was “sunny and beautiful” Friday in Holualoa, on the west side of the Big Island, and the island's only Costco seemed normal a day earlier, but the prospect of “streams overflowing and high winds” was worrisome.

As winds ramped up across the islands, Almanza said dry and breezy conditions outside the storm would elevate fire concerns.

In 2023 the Maui town of Lahaina burned during extreme winds as a hurricane passed far to the south.

“Since the fire, everybody is way more aware of weather in general and our environment and things that are happening,” said Archie Kalepa of Lahaina, who is well known in the area for his surfing, paddling and other ocean skills and has been watching the storm closely.

Kauai, which is several islands northwest up the archipelago from the Big Island, saw Hurricane Iniki make landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in 1992. That, like this year, was an El Nino year, when a warming of the Pacific near the equator increases Pacific hurricane activity and affects weather patterns across the globe.

“It did $3 billion worth of damage. It destroyed thousands of homes, and it did kill six people,” said Steven Businger, the University of Hawaii professor who researched the 1871 hurricane. “We just can never know if a storm is going to turn.”

Sandbags are seen at a Hawaii County Department of Public Works sand pile ahead of Tropical Storm Lala in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026. The tropical storm is forecast to strengthen into a hurricane as it approaches Hawaii, with up to 25 inches of rain possible on the island of Hawaii, also commonly known as the Big Island. (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

Casey Delaries makes a sandbag in preparation for Tropical Storm Lala in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026. The tropical storm is forecast to strengthen into a hurricane as it approaches Hawaii, with up to 25 inches of rain possible on the island of Hawaii, also commonly known as the Big Island. (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

Shaheer Faltas, left, and his father-in-law, Joe Brosnan, fill sandbags in preparation for the arrival of Tropical Storm Lala in Captain Cook, Hawaii, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026. (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

This satellite image released by NOAA shows Tropical Storm Lala over the Pacific Ocean, near Hawaii, Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. (NOAA via AP)

MAUMERE, Indonesia (AP) — A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia early Saturday, killing at least 40 people, collapsing buildings and causing panic in a region prone to deadly quakes. Authorities said dozens of residents were injured.

Authorities issued a tsunami warning and urged coastal residents to move to higher ground, but later lifted the warning when Indonesia’s meteorological agency said monitoring showed no significant sea-level changes that would pose a threat to coastal communities.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit Indonesia's Flores region with a depth of 10 kilometers (six miles) at 5:58 a.m. local time. Its epicenter was 68 km (42 miles) north-northwest of the city of Ende in East Nusa Tenggara province.

The meteorological agency said the quake was followed by 235 aftershocks by Saturday afternoon, with the largest up to magnitude 6.2.

The agency's sea-level monitoring stations recorded tsunami waves reaching coastal villages in Manggarai and East Manggarai regencies, with waves up to 1.61 meters (5.3 feet) high, while waves measuring 0.94 meters (3.1 feet) were observed in Maurole, Ende Regency.

Videos obtained by The Associated Press showed a coastal village blanketed in mud and debris after a 1.61-meter (5.3 feet) tsunami reached Ngada village in East Manggarai. Fishing boats were stranded ashore, infrastructure damaged, and homes surrounded by sediment left by receding waters.

Tsunami waves exceeding 0.5 meters (1.6 feet) were also detected in Bulukumba, South Sulawesi, and Sape in Bima Regency

East Nusa Tenggara Police Chief Rudi Darmoko said the earthquake caused severe damage and collapsed buildings. He said power outages in cities and villages have hampered information flow and complicated search and rescue efforts.

“We are continuing to collect reports of damage and casualties, but there are communication disruptions,” Darmoko said. He said landslides in Ende regency triggered by the earthquake also cut off the Trans-Flores highway, a roughly 700-kilometer (435-mile) paved mountain road spanning Flores Island, from Labuan Bajo to Larantuka.

The head of the National Search and Rescue Agency Fathur Rahman said rescuers have recovered at least 40 bodies, mostly in the three devastated regencies of Sikka, Manggarai and East Manggarai, and about 50 people were transported to hospitals. More than 2,000 villagers in Nagekeo regency fled their homes to temporary shelters.

The death toll could rise because landslides triggered by the earthquake buried or cut off many remote villages across six regencies on Flores Island, Rahman said.

Some remote villages were completely buried, he said, and damaged infrastructure and a lack of heavy equipment have hampered rescue efforts.

Authorities said three helicopters and a rescue vessel were deployed to support logistics and emergency response operations, including possible evacuations if needed, given East Nusa Tenggara’s geography, which consists of numerous islands and presents significant transportation and access challenges.

The quake was felt across much of Flores island with initial reports indicating heavy damage.

Yohanna Embu, a resident of Sikka regency, said a number of buildings were damaged by the strong shaking and panicked people ran to higher ground.

“Many buildings here were damaged ... I saw that the waiting room at the port terminal in Maumere had collapsed,” she said.

Students at St. Peter Major Seminary in Sikka who were attending morning Mass fled in panic when the roof of an assembly hall collapsed, said the Rev. Guidelbertus Tanga, rector of the seminary, known locally as Ritapiret Seminary on the predominantly Catholic island of Flores.

“Our students and nuns ran out in panic beneath a collapsing roof,” Tanga said. “At least one priest suffered a broken leg after jumping from the second floor of a building during the quake.”

The quake also reportedly caused panic in Labuan Bajo, a gateway town to eastern Indonesia’s Komodo National Park, one of the country’s best-known attractions. Damage was also reported in Bima, a city in neighboring West Nusa Tenggara province, and in parts of southern Sulawesi island.

Indonesian authorities initially issued a tsunami warning for parts of East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi provinces, and urged residents to stay away from beaches and riverbanks. The agency located the shallow undersea quake near Flores island.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity because of its location on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.

Most notably, a powerful earthquake caused a tsunami in 1992 that killed about 2,500 people on Flores, part of a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia, while in 2018, a magnitude 7.5 quake spawned a large localized tsunami that wiped out coastal areas, killing more than 4,400 people.

In December 2004, a massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra in western Indonesia triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini and Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

People evacuate to higher ground following an earthquake in East Manggarai, East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia, Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Muhammad Nur)

People examine the damage to a house following an earthquake in East Manggarai, East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia, Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Kurniawan)

In this photo released by the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS), rescuers attempt to clear debris at building damaged by an earthquake in Maumere, East Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia, Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. (BASARNAS via AP)

In this photo released by the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS), rescuers inspect a damaged building following an earthquake in Maumere, East Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia, Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. (BASARNAS via AP)

In this photo released by the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS), rescuers search for victims at a damaged building following an earthquake in Maumere, East Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia, Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. (BASARNAS via AP)

A building is seen damaged following an earthquake in East Manggarai, East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia, Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Kurniawan)

A man examines the damage to a building following an earthquake in East Manggarai, East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia, Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Kurniawan)