Wind, rain
cut power,
snarl traffic
The weather service says more of the
By Jaymes Song
same can be expected tomorrow
Star-BulletinIf you were late to work or stressed out this morning, you weren't the only one. Residents islandwide awoke to blinking alarm clocks, no electricity to brew some coffee, gridlock on the highways and their favorite radio station off the air.
All this in addition to the cause of the chaos -- the weather.
You may expect the same tomorrow, says the National Weather Service, with gusty winds and rain expected throughout the evening commute and tomorrow as well. Today's forecast called for passing showers and continued winds between 25 and 30 mph.
Hawaiian Electric Co. spokesman Fred Kobashikawa said about 35,000 homes experiencing power outages since yesterday afternoon were all weather related.
The first hit was Kalihi Valley, which lost power for about 30 minutes starting at 5:22 p.m. Then at 12:25 a.m. today, 31,000 homes from Sea Life Park to Olomana had outages, with about 11,000 of those extended outages for almost two hours.
At 4:40 a.m., 200 Windward residents were out for about five minutes, Kobashikawa said. Then at 6:56 a.m., 1,700 Aiea residents were out of power for 27 minutes because of a bamboo tree which brushed against a power line. And at 7:14 a.m., about 1,500 Mililani homes experienced a momentary outage because power lines got too near each other, Heco officials said.
The only major outage as of 10:30 a.m. was a radio transmitter on the Koolau mountain range, knocking at least one station off the air.
KRTR program manager Wayne Maria said the station has been flooded with calls from concerned listeners. "We're anxious to get back on the air."
Meteorologist Norman Hui said the gusty winds are caused by a high-pressure system north to northwest of the islands. He said the winds should start slowing down tomorrow.
Police advise motorists to drive with caution and patience during the inclement weather.
