Isle rains disconnect
telephone customersTechnicians on four islands work
to fix more than 3,000 lines
About 300 Verizon Hawaii technicians have been working overtime to restore service to more than 3,000 customers on Oahu, Maui, Kauai and the Big Island who lost telephone service during heavy rains Sunday.
"The local phone disruptions have been exacerbated by the continued rain," said spokesman Bill Kula.
As of yesterday, about 2,600 Verizon customers on Oahu were without telephone service after Sunday's rain. An additional 600 customers were affected on Maui, Kauai and the Big Island. Kula anticipated that service would be restored within 24 to 48 hours, but some areas may take longer.
"We are making good progress, but Mother Nature has made it difficult to make repairs," Kula said.
Several stores at Pearlridge Center lost service, causing long lines as customers lined up for functioning cash registers. Some businesses had their telephone service restored yesterday while others continued to deal with interference on their lines.
"We are placing a high priority for the business customers in the Aiea area given the fact of the busy shopping holiday season. It is important for the phone lines to work," said Kula. "We want to help our local businesses as efficiently as we can."
At Crazy Shirts in Pearlridge Center Uptown, sales clerks manually processed credit card transactions after two of its electronic machines were rendered inoperable, supervisor Cheryl Kirito said.
One of the two cash registers was not affected, but customers left the store due to the long wait, she said. "There were piles (of shirts) left on the counters."
Service was restored yesterday, but credit card transactions took up to four attempts before information was transmitted.
"It's frustrating," she said. "We're getting worried. If we have this problem on Saturday, we're going to have a hard time."
Kirito said they generally can ring up three sales a minute, but it now takes about five minutes for one transaction.
Customers at Beyond the Beach at Pearlridge also endured long lines and transactions Monday because one of its registers was down. The credit card machines were down and customers had to withdraw cash from automated teller machines and return to pay for items, said Assistant Manager Preston Deponte.
Pearlridge Center spokesman Scott Creel said he did not have an exact number of how many of the 180 businesses were affected.
Since last week, 200 Verizon technicians have been working 12-hour shifts to restore telephone service on Oahu while an additional 100 technicians have been working overtime to restore service on the neighbor islands.
At its worst, about 5,000 phone lines were reported out of service statewide, with the majority on Oahu, Kula said.
Heavy rains saturated copper phone lines and cable sheaths containing thousands of strands of copper that are installed underground, he said.
"We have to open up manholes or dig underground, open up the actual sheaths, let them dry out and then repair the lines," he said.
Kula said the rainy weather has prevented the company from having enough time for the telephone lines to dry.
"Heavy bouts of rain for a prolonged time can wreak havoc," he said. "We have to cross our fingers and hope the weather remains dry."
The rain also affected Hawaiian Electric Co. customers in Kaneohe and Mililani. HECO spokesman Jose Dizon said 1,400 customers in Kaneohe/ Temple Valley were without power Monday because of an underground cable problem. The power outage occurred sometime after 5 p.m. and was restored by 6:35 p.m.
About 3,500 Mililani residents went without power Sunday during the rain and lightning storm. The outage that occurred at 7:40 p.m. was due to a problem with one of its transformers. Customers were re-routed to an alternate transformer and power was restored to all residents by 10:50 p.m., Kula said.