Hundreds of thousands of people were without power on Sunday after Hurricane Lala lashed Hawaii, toppling transmission lines, soaking the electrical grid and requiring a request for assistance from mainland utility workers.
Hawaiian Electric Co. officials, who worked to prepare customers for the storm, asked for patience, especially on
Hawaii island. It could take weeks to restore electricity to rural areas hurt by the hurricane, with workers forced to hike into some isolated areas only after conditions improve.
HECO and Kauai Island Utility Cooperative employees are deployed across the state and working around the clock to reenergize homes and businesses.
Lala’s eye passed about 75 miles south of Oahu on Sunday after getting within 40 miles of South Point on Hawaii
island on Saturday.
As of 7 p.m. Sunday, 178,400 customers were without power. HECO asked Oahu customers to conserve electricity overnight. The initial restoration work is focused on damage inspections and transmission lines.
Road closures, flooding, fallen trees, debris, wind gusts and rain have slowed the restoration process in some areas, the utility said Sunday.
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Aerial inspections by helicopter and drones helped to expedite damage assessments in remote areas, including in rugged and remote terrain not accessible by foot, the utility said,
“While crews are working diligently to complete the inspections and repair damaged infrastructure, Tropical Storm Lala has left flooding, uprooted trees and unstable ground in some areas that have limited access and slowed restorations,” HECO officials explained Sunday.
“Several main transmission lines have been impacted by the storm on Hawai‘i Island, Maui and O‘ahu. Transmission lines are the backbone of our power grid, connecting power plants and other generation sources to our communities, and must be repaired first,” HECO said. “Some of these transmission lines cross remote terrain and mountainous
areas and can span miles, making repairs challenging and lengthy.”
Emergency facilities such as hospitals, the water supply facilities, wastewater plants, military facilities, and the airports always have the first priority for restoration after a storm.
No hospitals, water supplies or military installations reported outages that interrupted operations. People were urged to keep phones charged, stay out of elevators, off the roadways, and avoid any downed power lines.
HECO had restored power to about 180,000 customers statewide by 2:30 p.m. on Sunday.
At 7 p.m. Sunday about 126,500 HECO customers
on Oahu lacked power with the majority in parts of Leeward Oahu, Honolulu and Windward Oahu.
Customers were asked to save power and use only for essentials.
At the intersection of Komo Mai Drive and Waimano Home Road on Sunday afternoon, cars queued at the powerless four-way stop light, taking turns driving between sheets of rain. Honolulu
Police Chief David Lazar asked residents to stay home and off the roads.
When a traffic signal is not working, treat the intersection as an all-way stop, HPD said. Stop, proceed with caution, and watch for other
vehicles and pedestrians.
Jeishia Godoy, the director of a Medicaid waiver service provider agency, lost power at her family’s Mililani home Saturday night, got it back, then lost it again by the times she woke up Sunday. Godoy and her team spent Sunday morning checking in on about 100 field staff and more than 70 clients, a lot of whom were without power.
Her boyfriend told her the electricity came back on for the family of six for “a bit” Saturday night and he used the time to get some work done.
“It was off again by the time we all woke up around 7 a.m. (Sunday),” said Godoy. The family had some water come in near their front door and a chunk of their neighbors’ fence broke off, forcing them to tie up the dogs so they didn’t break out.
“We played cards, the boys read some books and have been playing with blocks. Snacking a lot since we can’t heat up food we
already have prepared,” Godoy said. Her family returned home from dinner with family to find their lights on at about 8 p.m. Sunday.
About 44,900 customers, mostly in Puna, North Kona and South Kohala were without power by 7 p.m. Sunday.
Crews trimmed and removed trees and branches that fell on transmission lines. Customers in heavily damaged rural areas are “asked to prepare for extended outages,” the utility said.
On Maui, about 7,000
customers were without power Sunday night in Kula, Haiku, Olinda and Piiholo — areas impacted by large downed trees and debris, according to HECO.
Some outages remained islandwide Sunday night.
The Kauai Island Utility Cooperative listed about 103 active outages impacting 931 of the utility’s 36,344 customers as of 8:30 p.m. Sunday.
Hawaiian Electric, a member of the 62-utility strong Western Region Mutual
Assistance Group, has requested personnel from partner electric utilities throughout Western North America to help “expedite post-storm restoration.”
About 100 crew members are scheduled to arrive Tuesday to start work Wednesday.
“Even when winds have subsided, conditions can be dangerous. Stay far away from downed power lines, flooding and debris; lines could be energized and
dangerous,” read a statement from HECO.
>> First responders at full power
The power outages plaguing the state after Lala did not impact police and public safety operations during the storm.
In Honolulu, power outages “did not impact
department operations” such as communications or our ability to respond to calls for service, read a statement to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser from the Honolulu Police Department. All police stations on Oahu are equipped with backup generators and power systems. Communications systems have redundancies and backup systems to ensure continuous operation, police said.
Between Saturday and about 8 a.m. Sunday, HPD officers responded to more than 150 storm-related calls for service across the island. They directed traffic, closed unsafe roadways and worked alongside other city agencies, including the Honolulu Fire Department, to address downed trees, power transmission lines, storm debris and flooded areas.
On Saturday, HPD responded to multiple downed trees along the Pali Highway; the closure of Kalakaua Avenue after debris fell from the roof of a Waikiki hotel; and the closure of Komo Mai Drive due to downed power lines that temporarily blocked access to and
from the Pacific Palisades neighborhood.
On Sunday, HPD, city Emergency Medical Services, and HFD conducted a rescue operation in the Waikane–Waiahole area and helped rescue 12 people from four homes impacted by flooding.
“In each instance, HPD coordinated with fellow first responders and partner agencies to secure affected areas, manage traffic and restore safe access as quickly as conditions allowed,” HPD said. “Inclement weather always presents a challenge. However, HPD responses went uninterrupted due to HPD’s Rescue Task Force which mobilized specialized high-water vehicles staffed by National Guard soldiers and HPD officers.
Partnering with agencies, like the Hawaii National Guard, and other military and state first responders, to pre-position assets and resources was a “crucial part of HPD’s response plan.”
HPD credited a pair of
factors that made a “huge impact” on the effectiveness of emergency response.
The first was the implementation of a Joint Operations Center and the Rescue Task Force.
“In the JOC, placing City departmental leadership in the same room, allowing them to identify problems, come up with solutions, and combine resources while
receiving real time intelligence makes for better interoperability. Decisions are made quicker and therefore improves response time,” HPD said. “The Rescue Task Force played a huge part in response capability. As HPD prepared its plan to utilize this resource, the Hawaii National Guard decide to adopt the idea across the state.”
Power outages have not affected police operations on Maui either.
MPD reported that aside from storm-related calls involving flooding, downed trees, and utility poles, no other “non-storm-related incidents have been reported.”
As we remain in hurricane season, MPD asked residents and visitors on Maui to continue exercising caution. MPD said do not drive through flooded roadways and obey all road closure signs and barricades. If traffic signals are not operating, treat the intersection as a four-way stop.
Hawaii Police Department Chief Reed Mahuna, speaking at a news conference Sunday morning on the
island hit hardest by
Lala, asked residents for “strength, patience and aloha.” At least a half-dozen bridges on Hawaii island were washed out, Pahala is landlocked and 100 homes were destroyed.
“We know many families are still facing challenges and difficult conditions,” said Mahuna, who urged people to stay off the roads and avoid hard-hit areas. “Your cooperation helps keep communities safe …we’re going to get through this together.”
On Kauai, police had
no problem navigating power outages to respond to about 263 calls for service between midnight and about 4:30 p.m. Sunday.
“There were some intermittent phone outages to the Kauai PD Dispatch Line with Tropical Storm Lala. The outages were remedied quickly,” KPD told the Star-Advertiser in a statement. “They were due to phone lines and not so much power outages.”
KPD officers responded to roads blocked by fallen trees, branches, and debris. KPD also went around assessing and managing downed traffic lights on roadways.
“The Hanalei Bridge was closed in both directions due to water flooding the Kuhio Highway just after the bridge as you enter Hanalei Town,” KPD said.
KPD worked with Kauai Emergency Management Agency to help with awareness of incidents and partnered with county and state agencies to help residents and visitors.