Vehicle Accident, Palm Frond to Blame for Recent Outages

Power restored. Graphic by Wendy Osher.

By Wendy Osher

A motor vehicle accident this morning on Molokaʻi knocked out power to an estimated 1,462 customers on the East End of the island, Maui Electric Company officials said.

Company spokesperson, Kauʻi Awai-Dickson said, the car came in contact with Hawaiian Telcom phone lines on Kamehameha V Highway and the impact of the crash caused electrical lines to swing together, resulting in the outage.

The incident was reported at 9:52 a.m. on Wednesday, May 13, 2015.  Once the lines were cleared, customers were brought back online incrementally beginning at 10:20 a.m. with 328 customers. An additional 720 customers were restored to power five minutes later at 10:25 a.m.; and the remaining 414 customers were returned to service at 10:46 a.m.

Over the weekend, an outage on the West side of Maui occurred at around 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 10, 2015.  Company officials attributed the outage a palm frond that came down on lines and caused a short circuit.

The outage affected customers in parts of Lahaina and service was restored once the line was cleared at around 6:20 p.m.