Weekend windstorm wallops Hawaii

Wind gusts that clocked in as high as 84 mph over the weekend snapped power poles on Lanai, blew roofs off on Oahu and sent tree limbs crashing onto electrical lines, causing outages from one end of the state to the other.

On Oahu more than 100 separate outages over 24 hours affected about 100,000 residents, Hawaiian Electric Co. said Sunday afternoon.

As of 8 p.m. Sunday about 670 remained without power on Oahu, including 435 in Waianae and Makaha, and 40 elsewhere.

High wind snapped or damaged 19 utility poles on Lanai on Saturday, knocking out power to all 1,700 customers. Maui Electric crews were making progress in repairs and hoped to restore power to Lanai City on Sunday night and the Manele Bay area by tonight.

The windstorm was unusual in that its effects were so widespread, rather than mainly hitting areas prone to high wind.

“This (windstorm) hit everything hard from Oahu to Hawaii island,” Hawaiian Electric spokesman Jim Kelly said. “I think it was just that every part of the state felt some impact from it.”

A backyard trampoline was launched into power lines in Manoa. A church bell reportedly fell and became lodged in a tree in Kaneohe.

Cionita Salvador fretted through the night about the house-shaking wind that tore off roofing at her home on Ala Iolani Place in Moanalua Valley.

“It was just a nightmare. I couldn’t sleep. I thought the whole roof was going to be blown away,” Salvador said.

Parts of the roof started blowing off at about 7:30 p.m. Saturday, and a Honolulu Fire Department crew arrived to help remove loose pieces so they wouldn’t be thrown into neighboring houses, she said.

She estimated that about 95 percent of a second layer of roofing peeled off, but an earlier roof layer stayed on.

“This is the worst we’ve had,” she said of the wind damage. She and her husband have lived in the house since 1974. “We’ve had strong winds, but it never happened before — no damage or anything,” she said.

Others also spoke of unusual damage.

Manoa resident Mae Harris, 77, said she was eating dinner Sunday when the wind knocked over the Christmas berry tree in her friend’s yard.

“We went to look at what was happening, and this had fallen down,” Harris said. “We had no clue. This is the first time in all of the years. I have lived here since ’68. This is the worst wind.”

Palama resident Luella Forsythe, 73, said her neighbors told her that the shingles of her roof blew off Saturday night.

“I didn’t know what was going on,” Forsythe said. “I had all of these things falling and slamming, the doors slamming in the house.”

Forsythe said she had to hold onto the handrail of her stairs when she went out into the wind.

“One gust and I grabbed on,” she said. “Because I could fall … I’m holding on, yeah, to get in and out the house.”

Chevy Chevalier, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said the peak wind gust was 84 mph at Kohala Ranch on Hawaii island.

Oahu’s highest gust was 73 mph in Kuaokala (on the North Shore, west of Waialua). Lanai Airport recorded wind of 66 mph.

Chevalier said such conditions can occur in winter with the combination of a high-pressure system and cold fronts that dip a little farther to the south, clipping the islands.

“It’s all about the pressure, so strong high pressure, in combination with a cold front, can give you pretty strong winds,” he said.

The Honolulu Fire Department recorded 155 wind-related responses for the two days as of 5:15 p.m. Sunday.

Fire Capt. Michael Jones said there were 93 cases of blown roofs with varying degrees of severity, 40 downed trees, seven reports of arcing wires, 12 cases of power line trouble and three miscellaneous incidents.

“Peak intensity was kind of from late afternoon (Saturday) through the night,” with the worst of the gusts tapering off at about noon Sunday, Jones said.

Most of the calls required a single-company response for damage that included portions of roofs coming off. In a few cases solar panels came partially or completely loose.

In one instance the American Red Cross was called to assist a homeowner, Jones said.

Damage to electrical equipment from the windstorm “was some of the most widespread in years,” affecting customers on each of the five islands serviced by Hawaiian Electric, Maui Electric and Hawaii Electric Light, the utilities said.

High wind was challenging aerial inspections and potential repairs of high-­voltage transmission lines over mountains. Those inspections and repairs will not take place until today at the earliest, the electrical companies said.

On Maui, crews were working Sunday afternoon to restore about 129 customers in pockets of Upcountry Maui and Paia. On Molokai, Hawaii Electric Light crews were assisting Maui Electric with the restoration of power to a radio tower.

Hawaii island experienced scattered outages caused by branches in lines, affecting about 7,500 customers over 24 hours. The largest outage was in the Waimea-Kawaihae area, affecting about 2,700 customers Saturday night. All customers on the island have since been restored, the utilities said.

On Kauai, power was out in Omao, Lawai and Kalaheo, according to the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative.