Former teacher, 93, among the deaths blamed on storm as Hawaii residents
struggle to clean up
[August 20, 2026]
By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER and JOHN RABY
HONOLULU (AP) — A beloved former kindergarten teacher who taught
generations of residents in a small town on Hawaii's Big Island was
among the two deaths authorities blamed on a hurricane that lashed the
state over the weekend with heavy rain and strong winds.
May Doi, 93, was found dead Monday after she was reported missing,
police said. Neighbors think she was escaping floodwaters in her home
and trying to get to a nearby shelter, said ʻĀina Akamu, a former
student of Doi's who is now a vice principal at a local school.
She taught for so long at Naalehu Elementary on the island's southern
tip that “Mrs. Doi was my dad's kindergarten teacher,” Akamu said
Wednesday.
“She taught grandkids of her students,” he said. “She was a fixture in
this community.”
Akamu often saw her taking walks around the small, rural, sugar
plantation-era town: “She was so strong.”
He recalled how everyone looked forward to having Mrs. Doi as a teacher
because she sometimes allowed students to have sleepovers in her
classroom. Her deceased husband was a math teacher, Akamu said.
The body of a man in his 60s was located by residents in a pasture on
Tuesday, a day after police were asked to conduct a welfare check,
police said. Authorities said it was the second death attributed to the
storm and have not yet released his identity.
Residents were struggling to clean up after Hurricane Lala tore roofs
off houses, uprooted trees, covered roads in mud and rock and left many
households without electricity for days. On top of all that, forecasters
warned of the likelihood of another tropical cyclone forming southeast
of the islands.
‘We just ask the ancestors to protect us’
Akamu also lamented the destruction of two cemeteries, including one
where Akamu’s ancestors have been buried since 1850. Caskets were
sticking out of the ground through the town, home to about 800 people,
and headstones littered the roadway, he said.
“Our graveyard is now scattered all over the community and how do we
heal from that?” he said.
He worries crews working to clear roads could inadvertently run over
remains.
“Don't clear the road, my grandma could be in there,” he said. "That's
what makes me most emotional, it's like you lost them again."
Akamu was trying to focus on helping his community recover by setting up
a hub where residents can get donated items. They are in most need of
generators, gasoline and propane, he said.
“We just ask the ancestors to protect us,” Akamu said of the threat of
an another storm.
Now well west of Hawaii's main islands, Lala has reached major Category
3 strength with top sustained winds of 115 mph (185 kph) on Wednesday in
what the National Hurricane Center called the first major hurricane of
2026 in the Central Pacific Ocean. But Hawaii residents were put on
notice for another storm system, located far to the east-southeast.
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A roadway is washed out by mud on Monday, Aug. 17, 2026, in Naalehu,
Hawaii, following heavy rains from Hurricane Lala. (Aina Akamu via
AP)
The hurricane center said conditions appeared conducive for a
tropical depression to form within days.
It's too early to tell the exact location or potential wind, rain
and storm surge impacts. However, “interests in the Hawaiian Islands
should closely monitor the progress of this system,” the hurricane
center said, adding it could be a hurricane when it moves near or
over the islands by the weekend.
Power repairs could take weeks
Work continued to clear away tons of mud and debris left behind by a
torrent of water that inundated buildings, some of whose roofs were
sheared off by the winds. Dozens of homes were washed from
foundations, bridges were damaged and a collapsed section of a
two-lane road had cut off access to the community of Pahala.
The U.S. Department of Transportation approved an initial $6 million
in emergency relief to help repair transportation infrastructure
damaged by Lala, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii said.
The heaviest recorded rainfall, 43.54 inches (1.1 meters), occurred
in Laupahoehoe on the northeast coast of the Big Island, the
National Weather Service said.
About 17,000 customers on the Big Island remained without power on
Wednesday, the Hawaiian Electric utility said. Some customers on the
islands of Oahu and Maui were still in the dark. Repairs in the
heavily damaged areas of the Big Island, including the southern end,
could take at least two weeks, the utility said.
Lala was moving to the northwest at 10 mph (17 kph) and was expected
to turn toward the north early Thursday. It was bearing down on a
remote area at the northwestern edge of the Hawaiian Archipelago.
Hurricane warnings were posted for portions of the Papahanaumokuakea
Marine National Monument from Lisianski Island to Maro Reef.
The weather service said the storm was forecast to veer east of the
Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. The population in one of the
most remote places on Earth consists entirely of a few dozen U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service staff, volunteers and contractors.
Forecasters said there were no tropical-related advisories for the
Midway Atoll and any impact might include some elevated surf with a
limited amount of rain.
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Raby reported from Charleston, West Virginia.
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