NANAKULI — Wai'anae Coast residents and businesses are breathing a collective sigh of relief after the high winds last Sunday that blew down a dozen high power utility poles across Farrington Highway, damaged 20 vehicles, trapped motorists and transformed the area into what looked like a scene from a Hollywood disaster film.

HECO said termite damage may have played a role in some of the poles failing to withstand the high winds.

"Things are pretty much back to normal," said Berta Kamaunu, manager of Sack 'N Save Foods in the Pacific Shopping Mall, even as rays of sunshine broke through the pervasive rain clouds outside.

Still fresh in everyone's mind was the mess caused after 60-mph winds wreaked havoc but left folks here amazed that nobody had been killed or even seriously injured.

Kamaunu said the fallen poles — some of which carried 46,000 volts of electricity — landed across all four lanes of Farrington Highway, bringing the only road in and out of Wai'anae to an immediate standstill.

"Traffic was by far the biggest problem, because nobody could get in or out," Kamaunu said. She said the situation would have been a nightmare had the military not opened Kolekole Pass, which is normally closed to civilian traffic.

As it was, Kolekole Pass got a workout. According to Navy Region Hawai'i spokeswoman Agnes Tauyan, more than 10,000 vehicles made their way through the pass during the 24 hours it was open between Sunday and Monday.

She said the military tries to open Kolekole Pass whenever the state requests it during emergencies. But that requires considerable coordination among the state, the Navy (which occupies lower Kolekole Pass) and the Army (which has control of the upper pass).

"Because we have operations and stuff stored there, so we have to stop what we're doing up there to open the road," Tauyan said. "But we're glad to help out."

Hawaiian Electric Company faced the triple task of clearing out the downed poles, putting in new ones and getting the juice back on as soon as possible.

For some lucky retailers, power returned sooner than expected. While Pacific Shopping Mall outlets fronting Farrington Highway went without electricity throughout Sunday and all day Monday, businesses on the mountain side of the mall had power within two hours of the time the poles went down at 1:04 p.m. on Sunday.

"We were just lucky," said Guy Wages, district manager of Sack 'N Save, whose sentiments were shared by others in the same building, such as Nanakuli Chop Suey and Subway Sandwiches.

According to HECO spokesman Jose Dizon, "it depends on where you're located in relation to which poles went down. Some customers were able to (get rerouted) power from another source."

Dizon said by late Sunday or early Monday workers had managed to clear out fallen poles and allow one lane of traffic open both ways along Farrington. New poles were in place and power for most businesses was restored by 4:43 p.m. Monday.

"Power is now back for everybody up and down the line," he said. "There is one pole that still needs to be replaced — it was cracked although it didn't come down — but it's not affecting traffic or anything like that. We'll get to that next week.

"Basically, we're pretty much done."

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.