By Nathaniel "Beltway" Steele
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green declared a state of emergency Saturday as Hurricane Lala, now a Category 1 storm, closed in on the Big Island, bringing heavy rain, punishing wind and the threat of life-threatening flooding and mudslides, CBS News reported.
Conditions were already deteriorating Saturday, with NBC News and CBS crews on the ground describing strengthening wind and rain hours before the storm's core was expected to arrive. NPR reported that if Lala makes landfall on the Big Island, it would be the first hurricane to do so there since 1871 — a fact that underscores how rare, and how unprepared local infrastructure may be, for a direct hit.
Hawaii's emergency declaration frees up state resources for shelters, road crews and utility crews bracing for outages. Residents on the Big Island were urged to secure property and review evacuation routes ahead of the worst of the storm.
More than 4,000 miles away, Indiana on Saturday formally requested federal disaster aid as flooding that has battered the Midwest for days showed no sign of relenting, CBS News reported. State officials did not immediately detail the scope of damage or the dollar figure being sought from Washington, but the request signals that state resources alone are no longer sufficient to manage the crisis.
The two disasters, unfolding on opposite sides of the country, are testing federal emergency response capacity simultaneously — a reminder that FEMA and its state partners are increasingly asked to fight fires, floods and storms on multiple fronts at once. [Editor's note: specific damage estimates and federal response timelines for both Hawaii and Indiana were not available at time of publication.]
— Compiled from reporting by CBS News, NBC News and NPR.
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