HECO 12 p.m. update: 111,000 still without power on Oʻahu, Maui County and Hawaiʻi Island

12 p.m. update: 111,000 still without power on Oʻahu, Maui County and Hawaiʻi Island

Pounding rain and damaging winds are challenging Hawaiian Electric crews and contractors who are working as quickly as possible to safely restore power to customers across the islands the company serves.

“Our priority at midday on Oʻahu is repairing the transmission equipment that will bring the most customers back on the fastest, while always working safely,” said Jim Alberts, senior vice president and chief operations officer. “There are smaller outages within large outages, and we’ll circle back on the neighborhood-level work once we can get the large transmission lines back online.”

As of noon:

• Oʻahu: About 76,000 customers are without power in various locations. At around 11 a.m., a helicopter was finally cleared to fly and begin inspection of the storm-damaged high-voltage transmission lines that carry power from Leeward Oʻahu over the Koʻolau ridgeline to Windward Oʻahu and east Honolulu. Depending on the results of the inspection, restoration could take anywhere from hours to days or even longer.
• Maui County: About 10,000 customers remain out in various areas as crews restored half of affected customers in parts of South and Upcountry Maui this morning. Crews rerouted service to about 4,000 South Maui customers who lost power due to a large sinkhole along S. Kīhei Road around 4:50 a.m. today. Flooding, vegetation and other debris must be cleared in other remaining areas of Upcountry, Central, Hā‘iku, and East Maui for crews to access before damage assessments and potential repairs can begin and as weather conditions are deemed safe.
• Hawaiʻi Island: About 25,000 customers are without power in Puna, North and South Kona, North Kohala, and South Point. The majority of the outages are in the Puna area. Power has been restored to about 35,600 customers around the island.

Restoration efforts are being hampered by ongoing hazardous weather conditions and road closures due to flooding, especially in rural areas on the neighbor islands. Some customers are experiencing multiple outages as additional damage occurs after power is restored and causes another outage. All customers are urged to stay prepared for potential extended outages through the remainder of the weekend as the storm continues to make its way across the state. 

The outage numbers above represent a snapshot in time and are subject to change as stated above. Customers can view current outages and report outages on the outage map at hawaiianelectric.com and on the mobile app.