Hurricane Lala devastated a cemetery in Hawaii, scattering coffins and bodies across the streets.

Flooding caused by Hurricane Lala literally tore the dead from the ground in the village of Naalehu on Hawaii's Big Island. Torrents of water swept through the small local cemetery, leaving behind a grisly scene: mud everywhere, cracked headstones, scattered open coffins, and broken sarcophagi, writes The New York Times.

According to the latest reports, Hawaii is currently under attack from Lala, which passed through the islands as a Category 1 hurricane and weakened to a tropical storm in some places.

The storm brought heavy rain and gusty winds with gusts of approximately 120–130 km/h, causing flooding and landslides on some islands. The main problems now are widespread power outages (tens of thousands of homes are without power), transportation disruptions, and over a hundred canceled or delayed flights. At least one fatality has been reported as a result of a weather-related incident.

On the subject: Hurricane Lala is destroying homes in Hawaii, with power outages in rural areas likely to last for months.

Authorities are warning of a continuing risk of further flooding and localized landslides, particularly on the Big Island and Maui. Emergency recovery efforts continue in Hawaii.

The devastation in the village of Naalehu was particularly horrific: on August 17, dead bodies, body parts, and empty and broken coffins were scattered across the ground. The smell of opened graves hung over the entire devastation zone.

"It's really scary to drive through our city right now," said 46-year-old John Masters, the owner of Ka'u Auto Repair, located near the cemetery, which is now buried under several feet of mud and debris. "It's like your worst nightmare."

Families of relatives buried here came to check on the condition of the graves while heavy equipment worked nearby in the village, moving boulders. At the cemetery, mountains of dirt were mixed with debris from destroyed homes—refrigerators, clothing, and household items.

A small group of people stood near the destroyed Punalu'u Bakery, located down the hill from the cemetery.

Almost a meter of mud coated the foundation of the building, and a brown trail showed the water level after Lala—almost one and a half meters. Trucks and outbuildings slid down the slope and were partially buried in the mud.

The former road to the cemetery was completely washed away. Deep fissures, approximately 15 meters deep, formed on either side of its remains.

"There are tombstones everywhere," said the bakery's general manager, 35-year-old Zach Kennedy.

They've been ripped from the ground and scattered everywhere. On top of the rubble lies an overturned gray coffin.

Just up the road, at Ka'u Auto Repair, dozens of cars and trucks are stuck in mud, and coffins are also scattered along the street.

Inside the workshop, the door was blown off its hinges and the windows were shattered. Employees found an object resembling a human femur on the floor.

"I no longer have a place I can call my workshop," Masters stated. He started working here as a teenager and inherited the business almost 20 years ago from his father, who is buried in the cemetery. According to a friend, his father's grave was undamaged.

"I don't even know what to do next," Masters added.

Down in the devastation zone were 42-year-old Jukwa Balos, her 19-year-old nephew Manny Hirata, and his 17-year-old sister Laurina. They had come from Kona, about an hour and a half south, where the damage was minimal, to check on the cemetery.

Most of their relatives are buried there: aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters.

Looking at the ruins above, Balos said, "My son is buried there."

Leige Balos died suddenly about eight months ago at the age of 25.

"We were supposed to come this Saturday for his birthday," his mother clarified, sobbing. "He was my only child."

She now takes care of her brother and sister's children, Manny and Laurina.

The family was told that a man who looked like a military man had forbidden them from climbing the hill to the cemetery because it was too dangerous.

However, the relatives desperately wanted to make sure their loved ones' graves were undamaged. They began to make their way through the rubble up to the cemetery, located about 250 meters away at the top of the hill. Others followed them, climbing up the dried-up mudflows between the boulders.

Hawaii County Mayor Tom Callis said authorities are trying to determine where the remains might have been moved from the cemetery, which contains nearly 500 burials.

According to him, the remains will be collected and handed over to the appropriate services, and once they are identified, families will be contacted for eventual return. However, the area is not yet being cleaned up, and the area remains closed.

Maka Gallinger and eight of her relatives climbed up the slope through the rubble.

"We're going to look for my mother," she explained. "We need to know. We need to take care of the bones of our loved ones."

Her mother died 10 years ago, and her daughter came about once a year to check on the grave.

"Mom was the embodiment of hospitality, a true aloha," Gallinger emphasized.

Her children followed her, and her husband carried an abalone filled with smoking sage. (An abalone is a mollusk shell used in ritual practices to burn herbs. — Approx. Ed.The family walked among torn clothes and shattered tombstones. She remembered clearly that the coffin was white, and her mother was buried in a red dress.

Approaching the site of her burial, Gallinger called her family to her.

"Here she is," the daughter stated. "Okay, Mom. We're just checking."

From above, the destruction looked massive. The hillside containing the older graves had collapsed, revealing the coffins and carrying their contents down toward the bakery. A light breeze stirred the air, and birdsong was clearly audible. In the grass beyond the surviving graves, debris lay in layers, like tide lines.

"How will they know what's where so they can return it all?" Gallinger wondered. "What is nature trying to tell us? Maybe this is how these rivers used to flow—and this is their natural path."

The trunks of tall trees that protected the cemetery from the wind were reduced to splinters.

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Balos walked among the rows of tombstones and pointed out the graves of her relatives - a cousin, an aunt, and a baby who died at birth.

"Maybe his grave was washed away too," she suggested.

Walking around the area that was not damaged by the flood, Balos approached her son’s grave and exhaled: “He’s here.”

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