With nearly two weeks having passed since Hurricane Lala impacted the island of Hawaiʻi, HPR spoke with Hawaiʻi County Mayor Kimo Alameda to hear how the island's recovery efforts have been progressing.
He told HPR that basic services have mostly been restored, but no quick fix will be available for Nāʻālehu Cemetery, where floodwaters unearthed buried remains.
Interview Highlights
On Hawaiʻi Island’s recovery status
MAYOR KIMO ALAMEDA: Our road crews are cleaning up the debris now in these pocket areas on the island, and they did a real good job in cleaning debris for the main arteries and getting back access, especially to the Kaʻū district. So, that's really good. Hawaiian Electric Company has done a fantastic job at restoring power. I believe now we're in the hundreds. We were in the thousands not too long ago, and so it's really nice to see. Of course, water now is, you know, everybody has access to water, except in some places, they got to go to the spigot to get it, and we're working on that. Our water department's working hard on that as well. So, it's these major infrastructure utilities that concern me the most.
On the impact to Nāʻālehu Cemetery
ALAMEDA: It's just a super sad situation. It's like a second death for many of these families, you know. And so I feel their pain, but we wanted to let them know our status, right? Be as transparent as possible and let them know that it's going to take awhile.
There are phases of this. First, we got to make sure we preserve the site, make sure that we can identify, well, collect first, right? Collect every single revered, sacred remains as possible. And not just the remains, but sometimes, people are buried with very sacred items, you know, like a wedding ring or a necklace. And so we were finding those as well, and we want to make sure that we connected to the right loved one.
So we let them know that's the first phase, that the second is identification, and the third is to reunify the loved ones with their families. … Some tombstones got moved, but we feel like we can preserve those sections. But we're definitely going to have to look at the future of the cemetery.
On the priorities for further recovery efforts
ALAMEDA: Right now, it's basic needs. We've got to get a better understanding of the basic needs. You know, if it's housing, then we've got to get a list of people who need housing. And we kind of have that already, but I want to make sure we capture the whole island, 'cause the whole island was impacted. Kaʻū was hit the hardest. And then after housing, we want to make sure that we work with the state, 'cause kids got to go school. … So it's kind of getting back to normalcy, you know? It's, you know, if some people lost their jobs, or because businesses have been destroyed. There are eight businesses that were destroyed. That's employment for some folks. We want to address that as well by working with our business communities. So every single aspect that brings us back to normalcy, that's the path to recovery, and we're addressing it one day at a time.
This story aired on The Conversation on Aug. 28, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
