GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Golfers Joe Marino, left, and Fred Friis made their way yesterday afternoon through the obstacle course created by the heavy winds that toppled potted plants at the Pali Golf Course.
Power failures Die-hard golfers dodged flying leaves, branches and an occasional uprooted tree to hit the greens at the Pali Golf Course yesterday, as high winds caused trouble throughout Windward Oahu.
par for course
in high winds
Toppled utility poles cause
headaches in Waialua and KaneoheBy Nelson Daranciang
ndaranciang@starbulletin.com"We don't worry too much how the game goes," said Mario Klarick.
But golfing partner Ernest Chang said the wind forces them to adjust their game. "We hit low shots," he said.
Course officials estimated about half as many golfers showed up yesterday compared with a normal Friday.
High winds plagued Windward Oahu with traffic delays and power failures and even prevented fire rescue crews from extracting an injured hiker yesterday.
At 4 p.m. the National Weather Service canceled the high-wind watch for Kauai and Oahu and replaced it with a high-wind advisory. The cold front that is responsible for the strong southwesterly winds was expected to pass over Oahu last night and today, bringing northeasterly winds tomorrow.
The 20- to 40-mph winds and low visibility made things too dangerous for the Fire Department's Air One helicopter to airlift a 55-year-old female off Haaula Loop Trail. Instead, firefighters hiked for an hour and carried the injured woman out.
High winds also cut off power to more than 5,000 businesses and residences in Kaneohe after toppling two utility poles, several power lines and a tree.
The first outage occurred at 10:55 a.m., affecting 2,900 Hawaiian Electric Co. customers on both sides of Kamehameha Highway between Kaneohe Bay Drive and Castle Junction. About 1,300 customers had their electricity restored by 11:55 a.m., the rest by 12:31 p.m., said Fred Kobashikawa, HECO spokesman.
An additional 2,300 customers along Kaneohe Bay Drive on opposite ends of the Bay View Golf Course were without electricity from 2:48 to 3:15 p.m.
Earlier in the day, the winds knocked over utility poles in Laie and Waialua and felled a tree fronting Castle High School in Kaneohe.
HECO officials received reports of a broken pole in Laie at 5:59 a.m. Kobashikawa said the downed pole did not cause an interruption in service to any customers, and police received no reports of the pole disrupting traffic.
The other utility pole went down about 7 a.m. on Kaukonahua Road between Wahiawa and Waialua, forcing police to close one lane of traffic. The broken pole caused five other poles to lean into the roadway. Police closed one lane and directed contra-flow traffic on the other.
The pole belongs to Verizon Hawaii and carries only telephone lines. Service was not interrupted as the lines remained intact, said Ann Nishida, Verizon spokeswoman.
The tree fell about 7:20 a.m. onto a parked car off Kaneohe Bay Drive. No one was in the car at the time.
Star-Bulletin reporter Rod Antone contributed to this report.
Hawaiian Electric Co.
National Weather Service
