Hawaiian Electric Restores Power to 17,619 Customers as Hawaii Island Faces 2-Week Repairs
Updated
Updated · Hawaii News Now · Aug 20
Hawaiian Electric Restores Power to 17,619 Customers as Hawaii Island Faces 2-Week Repairs
3 articles · Updated · Hawaii News Now · Aug 20
Summary
About 17,619 customers remained without power Wednesday evening after Lala, with 14,400 of them on Hawaii Island, 2,600 on Oahu, 570 in Maui County and 49 on Kauai.
More than 500 workers have restored service to 99% of affected customers on Oahu, 98% on Maui and 78% on Hawaii Island, but flooding, fallen trees and damaged transmission lines are slowing access.
Hawaiian Electric expects most remaining outages on Oahu and Maui to be repaired Wednesday, while Hawaii Island is targeted for 95% restoration by Friday.
Puna, North and South Kohala, and parts of Ka'u could wait at least two weeks because crews must repair heavily damaged lines across rugged terrain, with helicopter and drone surveys guiding the work.
Roughly 100 mainland utility workers have been requested to help speed restoration, though another approaching storm could still disrupt the effort.