Waves kill Lanai visitor, injure a woman on Maui
Large waves on Monday left a California man dead on Lanai and washed a California woman over sharp rocks on Maui.
And a group of women with a toddler was stranded on the rocky shore of South Maui after a wave washed away their shoes Monday.
A high-surf advisory remains in effect for the south shores of all islands until 4 p.m. today, the National Weather Service said.
At Hulopoe Bay on Lanai, a 66-year-old California man was playing with a younger family member early Monday afternoon when a large wave struck him, the Maui County Fire Department said.
He went under, and bystanders later spotted him floating face down in the water. They pulled him ashore and performed CPR until firefighters and paramedics arrived.
Paramedics were unable to revive him and he was pronounced dead at the scene, the fire department said.
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He was not identified but was a part-time resident of Lanai.
The bay on the south shore of Lanai fronts the Four Seasons Resort.
Just before noon on Monday, a San Francisco couple was at the shoreline of La Perouse Bay in South Maui when the woman, 29, was hit by a “rogue wave” and knocked down onto the sharp lava, the fire department said. She suffered multiple cuts and a possible broken arm, but decided to drive to a hospital herself.
Farther up on the shoreline, another group — three women and a 22-month-old boy — were hit by the same wave and were almost swept into the ocean, fire crews said. All but one woman lost their footwear, and they lost all their food and water.
Fire crews reached the women and learned two of them had no footwear and could not walk barefoot across the hot, sharp lava. An employee from Makena Stables used an ATV to bring them water and drive them back to the parking lot.
The women, all in their late 20s, were visiting from Oahu, the fire department said.
The weather service said a long-period swell from the south-southwest was producing surf of 6 to 10 feet on Tuesday. The swell was expected to peak Tuesday night but would continue to bring “large breaking surf” and “significant shorebreak” through midafternoon today.
