The blustery weather that caused a spate of power failures, raised surf on east-facing shores, downed trees and forced the postponement of a men’s professional golf tournament is expected to continue today with high winds and rain.
Organizers of the Hyundai Tournament of Champions at the Kapalua Plantation Course, where breezes gusted to 45 mph Friday, were hoping to restart the West Maui tournament this morning.
Windy and rainy conditions prevailed on Oahu and felled trees in Manoa.
National Weather Service officials said at 1:30 p.m. Friday winds were blowing at 26 mph and gusting to 33 mph at Bellows Beach in Windward Oahu, where there also were choppy 8-foot waves.
"The wind is the main concern," Weather Service meteorologist Leigh Anne Eaton said.
Eaton said winds are expected to be fairly strong through Sunday and diminish by early next week.
A northwest swell that arrived Friday was expected to peak today. Eaton said the swell does not look like it will reach the advisory level of 15 feet for the North Shore.
A small-craft advisory is in effect until 10 p.m. tonight for the Pailolo and Alenuihaha channels between Molokai and Maui.
A 34-year-old Hawaiian Telcom worker suffered a leg injury and some abrasions to his right arm in Makawao at about 1:40 p.m. Friday after a large eucalyptus tree fell on a boom holding the hydraulic lift bucket he was in, Maui firefighters said.
The man, who was repairing phone lines damaged in the morning due to a fallen tree, fell about 20 feet, firefighters said. He was taken to Maui Memorial Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries. The fallen trees were in the area of Meha and Hanamu roads.
High winds caused tree limbs to fall on power lines, cutting power to several places on the Valley Isle on Friday, including Haleakala National Park, where a high-wind warning was issued through 6 p.m. today.
Haleakala chief ranger James Mar said Friday afternoon that the park’s headquarters at the 7,000-foot level was relying on its emergency generator after losing power at 6 a.m.
Mar said winds were blowing at 20 to 25 mph with gusts to 35 mph, and that it was rainy and cloudy.
Maui County officials closed the 4th Marine Division Memorial Park in Haiku after wind and rain toppled a 40-foot eucalyptus tree, narrowly missing a picnic pavilion. County officials said the eucalyptus fell in an area known as "Giggle Hill."
While the steady but light winter rainfall was expected to continue through the weekend, especially in windward and mauka areas, it was not expected to generate serious flooding.
