More than 12K without power on Maui, extended outages expected
Hawaiian Electric said it is asking for patience as crews continue to work to restore power to more than 12,000 customers in West and Upcountry Maui.
Maui customers without power, however, should plan for extended outages due to limited access to impacted areas during the wildfire emergency.
“We are all hands on deck in supporting and responding to Maui communities affected by the outages, active wildfires, and sustained high wind damage,” said Hawaiian Electric spokesperson Shayna Decker in a news release. “Our focus right now is the safety of our communities, customers, and workforce and prioritizing power restoration to areas that our crews can safely access.”
“We continue to actively monitor the fluid wildfire situation and will move our restoration efforts to other areas if and as they become safe and accessible,” she continued. “We appreciate the continued understanding and ask customers to please prepare for possible extended outages as we conduct damage assessments and make extensive repairs.”
This morning, crews restored power to parts of Kula to Kanaio, but are repairing more than 30 spans of downed power lines to bring remaining Kula customers back online.
In West Maui, approximately 12,400 customers remain offline due to multiple downed poles and power lines.
Hawaiian Electric said it has deployed additional crews from Oahu to help with the massive restoration efforts. The company’s incident management team is also coordinating efforts with the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency and other emergency response organizations.
Anyone who sees a downed power line should assume it is energized and dangerous, and stay at least 30 feet or two car lengths or more away.
Report downed lines to Hawaiian Electric’s trouble line at 808-871-7777.
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