Some residents on Kauai’s north shore asked to conserve water

Kauai officials are asking Wainiha and Haena residents and visitors to conserve water while the storage tank pumps are down.

About 9:30 last night, an electric transmission line fell, causing power to go out for the island’s north shore power, said Shelley Paike, Kauai Island Utility Cooperative spokeswoman.

Electrical crews restored power to most of the customers in about an hour, except for in Wainiha and Haena, Paike said.

For those areas, repair crews had to repair the transmission line, which could only be reached by helicopter.

They waited until daylight and had the line repaired about noon, Paike said.

She didn’t know how the transmission line fell.

The Kauai County Department of Water said the storage tanks for Wainiha and Haena are nearly empty and cannot be replenished until the power is restored.

A Department of Water crew is hooking up a generator to pump water to the storage tanks while power is being restored. It will take up to six hours to replenish the tanks if water conservation measures are followed, the county said.

The county said water conservation by residents and visitors will reduce the likelihood of a total water outage and allow the tanks to be refilled once the pump is running.