(BIVN) – Hawaiian Electric has restored power “to all customers who can be restored” following the widespread damaged caused earlier this month by Hurricane Lala. The task was completed one week ahead of the estimated September 8 timeframe.
The power company says the remaining outages are “likely due to damage to customer property or to access issues,” with the exception of Wood Valley in the Kaʻū area. From Hawaiian Electric:
In Wood Valley, Hawaiian Electric will be rerouting power lines to help speed restoration. Storm waters washed out portions of Wood Valley Road, where some of Hawaiian Electric’s utility poles were based. Since it’s not clear how long it will take for the road to be rebuilt, Hawaiian Electric plans to reroute its lines and make other improvements that will help get customers back online as quickly as possible.
“We thank our customers for their patience through the difficult recovery process from Hurricane Lala. We know that extended outages are more than an inconvenience and appreciate your support for our employees and mainland utility crews as they safely rebuilt miles of infrastructure as quickly as possible,” said Jim Alberts, Hawaiian Electric senior vice president and chief operations officer.
During Hurricane Lala, Hawaiian Electric says it lost 174 utility poles in locations across Hawaiʻi Island. This compares to the 210 poles were damaged or destroyed during Hurricane Iselle, which were mainly in Puna. The company credits the lesser number over a wider area to resilience work that has been done on the island.
From a company news release:
Despite the $20 million a year the company spends on vegetation management, more than half the Hawaiʻi Island outages during Lala were caused by invasive albizia and other vegetation knocking down poles and power lines. On Hawaiʻi Island alone just in the first six months of this year, the company has removed or trimmed 20,000 trees. In many neighborhoods, crews needed to wait until roads were cleared of debris before they could access the area and complete repairs. In some cases, even while crews were working on restoration, trees and branches were still falling in areas where the ground was over saturated. Crews are continuing work to prepare for incoming storm systems as hurricane season continues through November.
“Addressing the risk that overgrown trees and vegetation pose to our island infrastructure is both urgent and essential,” Alberts said. “Hawaiian Electric will continue collaborating with partners and stakeholders on a holistic, collective approach to vegetation management.”
