Game-Day Glitch

Power loss can't foil fans' Super parties

hen the lights went out, panic set in. And for a while after a sport utility vehicle crashed into a pole, breaking it in half, a few dozen residents in Leeward Oahu didn't know if they were going to get to watch the Super Bowl.

Thank the football gods for generators and quick thinking.

Resident Marianne Barroga had help from her brother-in-law, Max Barroga, who brought a generator to power a small TV set in the carport and her 62-inch flat-screen TV in the living room at her home in the Honokai Hale housing subdivision.

"If it wasn't for my brother-in-law, I think we'd be sitting here staring at each other," Barroga said.

With the generator humming, nearly 20 family members and friends sat in Barroga's living room watching the game and celebrating her daughter Loke's 20th birthday.

It wasn't looking too good earlier in the day, when Barroga drove to her mother's house in Waipahu to cook a turkey, stuffing, rice and other dishes for her Super Bowl party.

"I did everything there," Barroga said.

The vehicle that broke the utility pole in half along Farrington Highway at about 5 a.m. yesterday caused a great deal of anguish throughout the area, cutting electricity to hundreds of customers and forcing the Board of Water Supply to ask residents to conserve water.

As a Hawaiian Electric Co. crew replaced the pole, police contra-flowed traffic, causing traffic delays for Waianae-bound traffic. Some drivers simply gave up and made a U-turn over the grassy median.

About 690 residents on the Leeward Coast were left without electricity but had it back within an hour of the crash, HECO spokeswoman Lynne Unemori said. About 30 other customers had to suffer without power until 6:30 p.m., and many of them had to scramble to watch the much-anticipated Super Bowl.

Lawrence Calica started "freaking out" when the power went out, said his wife, Florence.

After they were told by HECO that the power would not be restored until last night, the couple drove to Home Depot in Kapolei, where they rented a generator for $34.

"It was the only resort we had," Lawrence Calica said.

By the time they hooked up the generator to a TV set in their carport, the first quarter of the game was pau.

"We almost never make 'em," Lawrence Calica said as he carried a 12-pack of Bud Light into the carport.