HONOLULU (KHON2) — Hawaiian Electric announced they are ready for the anticipated wet and windy weather expected to take over the islands later this week.
Officials said they are continuously working to maintain and upgrade the grid. With the bad weather expected, HECO said they will make sure to have extra staff on hand to respond to emergencies around the islands.
“We know that when bad weather happens, unforeseen things happen,” said Hawaiian Electric spokesperson Darren Pai. “We can’t always control which direction the wind blows or whether or not trees will blow into power lines.”
HECO said the power outages in Hawaii Kai on Friday were caused by trees blowing into powerlines that are high up in the mountains. The lines are used to bring power to East Honolulu from other parts of the island.
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Customers are still advised to take precautions. “Protect your electronic equipment and make sure that you’re prepared. If you do experience an outage, please report it to us. That way we can make sure it’s in our system and we can make sure that we have crews responding,” said Pai.