Heed warning of weekend’s stormy weather

Downed trees, power outages and other problems wrought by a swift and powerful storm over the weekend don’t bode well for Hawaii’s overall disaster readiness. Conditions would be much worse if hurricane-force wind, rain and storm surge hit Oahu head on. Individual property owners, government agencies and businesses including the electric companies clearly need to do more to prepare. Downed trees, for example, can have a ripple effect, by bringing down power lines and blocking roads with debris. This storm should be a wakeup call for property owners — public and private — to deal with overgrown trees.

Hotels face the inevitable: free Wi-Fi

Ironically, it was the lower-end hotels that have moved first to offer free Wi-Fi to guests as a matter of course, and now it seems the more luxe accommodations are following suit. There’s always a catch, of course: In most cases, the hotelier is asking guests to join loyalty programs, ponying up more personal information, in exchange for the free Web surfing.

Net access is evolving into a necessity. For a little historical perspective, consider the lowly air conditioner. First developed in 1902, it started out as an elite upgrade. Most Americans had to wait until the 1960s for it to become an expected part of their everyday environment.

With any luck, we won’t have to wait that long for Wi-Fi to be free everywhere — like the air we breathe. Or would that be unhealthy?