High winds thrash Isles
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Video: Windward side hit by high winds |
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By Eloise Aguiar and Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writers
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The wind blew big Monday, reaching 74 mph on Makua Ridge and knocking over poles and trees, downing utility wires and cutting electricity to more than 30,000 customers statewide.
The high winds were out of the southwest, moving ahead of a cold front and blowing strongest in the opposite direction of normal trade winds, the National Weather Service said.
"It's a wintertime event," said Ray Tanabe, a weather service forecaster. "You can expect to see several cold fronts through the winter. This is not out of the ordinary, but it is fairly rare."
Late yesterday, Hawaiian Electric Co. was bracing for more high winds and had crews standing by to handle further problems, said Peter Rosegg, HECO spokesman.
"The weather report is for the winds to intensify and to get stronger until midnight, so we're gearing up for perhaps more problems," he said Monday afternoon. "We have 125 crew members altogether. Everybody who's available who's not working on long-term or regular projects is devoted to getting power back."
By 4 p.m. Monday, 15,000 O'ahu customers had lost power for a significant period during the day, Rosegg said. Blackouts affected customers from Kane'ohe and Kailua to Barbers Point, Nu'uanu, Wilson Tunnel, Hale'iwa, Waialua and Wahiawa.
SEWAGE ENTERS LAKE
Castle Medical Center and Kailua High School were without power for part of the day. In Wahiawa, a brief power failure prompted the release of about 8,000 gallons of partially treated sewage from a treatment plant into Lake Wilson, city officials said.
HECO spokeswoman Janet Crawford said most of the power failures she had seen were caused by trees hitting electrical lines.
By 4 p.m., three pockets of problems remained, affecting 4,450 customers in Wahiawa Heights, Waipahu and Kane'ohe.
Power was restored to 21,700 Hawaiian Electric Co. customers by 6:30 p.m. However, HECO spokeswoman Sharon Higa said 920 customers in Kane'ohe and Wahiawa lost electricity between 6:30 and 7 Monday night. Just before 10 p.m. about 400 customers in Kane'ohe and 20 in Waialua were still without power, Higa said.
Honolulu's Emergency Services Division reported several weather-related injuries.
A 38-year-old woman on Sheridan Street suffered partial amputation of the index and ring fingers on her right hand after wind slammed a door on her. She was taken to The Queen's Medical Center in serious condition.
Two people were injured in Waikiki after they were struck by a beach chair sent flying by a strong gust of wind. They were taken to Straub Hospital in stable condition.
High winds weren't the only threat. Waves as high as 45 feet were predicted for O'ahu's North Shore overnight, and O'ahu Civil Defense had volunteers on alert, said spokesman John Cummings.
The waves were expected to reach shore after midnight, and combined with a high tide, put low-lying areas at risk of being inundated.
Wind-related blackouts were the most widespread problem yesterday, but the Honolulu Fire Department responded to a variety of other calls for help as well, said Capt. Frank Johnson.
"We had them all over the island, but they were slightly more concentrated on the Windward side," he said.
WIDESPREAD PROBLEMS
There were seven wind-damaged roofs, four downed utility lines, seven calls for arcing wires and one tree fire caused by an arcing wire.
The strong wind blew down the back wall of a Kane'ohe welding business.
The concrete block wall, 20 feet high and 100 feet long, fell backwards onto an empty lot. No one was injured. "Lucky it didn't fall on us," said Brian Lopez, owner of Lopey's Welding at 45-558 Kamehameha Highway.
Lopez, who was in his shop with four others, said that before the wall fell he saw a small gap at the top of the wall, indicating the wind was separating it from the columns.
"It was a strong gust that came through the front and it pulled the columns away," said Lopez. Just the back wall is missing and Lopez, who has been at the location for 12 years, says it'll be business as usual Tuesday.
On the Leeward Coast, a tree landed on a house in Wai'anae, and a utility pole went down on Lualualei Homestead Road.
The wind accelerated as it crossed the Wai'anae and Ko'olau mountains, screaming into Central and Windward O'ahu.
But powerful gusts were recorded in many locations:
On the Big Island, winds that gusted up to 50 mph pushed trees into power lines and caused electrical failures, including a brief afternoon blackout that hit 10,000 customers across the island.
Branches that blew into a transmission line in Pohoiki cut service to about 1,600 customers at 2:34 p.m., and at 4:15 p.m., a second transmission line tripped open, cutting service to about 8,000 customers, according to Hawaii Electric Light Co. Power failures caused the Puna Geothermal Venture generating plant to automatically disconnect from the Big Island power grid, a development that cut off power to about 10,000 homes and businesses.
Helco said other generators were started by 4:25 p.m. to replace the loss of the geothermal plant, but some 6,000 customers in lower Puna, from Kalapana to Hawaiian Paradise Park, were still without power at 6 p.m.
Helco spokesman Jay Ignacio said scattered electrical problems related to the windy weather were reported on North Kulani Road in upper Puna, in Waikoloa and in North Kohala.
SCRAMBLING ON KAUA'I
On Kaua'i, firefighters, road crews and police were scrambling to respond to dozens of reports of wind-related problems, from brushfires to downed trees and fallen power lines.
Kaua'i Island Utility Cooperative reported numerous isolated power failures islandwide starting at 4:20 a.m. and continuing through the day. Problem sites included Makaha Ridge in Koke'e, Wailua, Wailua Homesteads, parts of Lihu'e, the airport, Hanalei, Lawa'i, Kipu and other areas. Among the most significant was a power line that fell near the steel Hanalei Bridge, and an associated brushfire. The bridge was closed for nearly two hours at noon.
Police closed Kamalu Road briefly because of a fallen tree. Firefighters responded to a brushfire between Kaua'i Lagoons and Lihu'e Airport. County public works crews cleared fallen trees or branches from roads in Lawa'i, Lihu'e, Wailua Houselots and Wailua Homesteads.
County water safety personnel did not close beaches, but they were discouraging people from entering the water due to the high winds and surf. Surf was estimated at 25 to 30 feet on the island's north shore.
On Maui, winds gusting at up to 60 mph atop Haleakala forced the National Park Service to close the summit building at the 10,000-foot level. The visitor center at the crater remained open.
Meanwhile, Maui Electric Co. reported scattered blackouts around the island from fallen utility poles and downed tree branches hitting power lines.
Anyone wondering just how windy it was yesterday need only ask Susan Siu, who lives on a small farm in Kahalu'u on O'ahu.
"Oh my God, it's so windy the chicken laid the same egg twice," she said.
Siu raises rabbits and was horrified to discover about 9 a.m. that the wind had toppled a portable garage that she uses to house them. Cages were toppled, and several of her 18 rabbits were loose.
That sent Siu, still in pajamas and wielding a long-handled fishing net, darting across her yard scooping up the furry critters.
Advertiser staff writers Kevin Dayton, Jan TenBruggencate and Christie Wilson contributed to this report.Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com and Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com.
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