Morning Catch Oahu, which serves poke in Chinatown, wasted “thousands of dollars worth of fresh sashimi-grade fish and other ingredients” because of a power outage that has spanned three days this week, business owner Crystal Lieu said.

“Summer is our busiest season and we’ve received many calls in the last two days from customers wanting to order fresh and fatty poke bowls,” Lieu said. “Breaks our hearts when our regulars call to put in their weekly lunch orders and we have to tell them that we’re closed due to a blackout in the area, unsure when we’ll be able to reopen.”

Similarly, Wing Ice Cream Parlor on Maunakea Street discarded over 20 gallons of melted ice cream after the outage began Monday night. The parlor has remained closed for the duration of the blackout.

For businesses across Chinatown, the latest Hawaiian Electric Co. outage has meant thousands upon thousands of dollars in lost revenue, with many restaurants and other food establishments being forced to throw away spoiled products.

And for many of those businesses and other Hawaiian Electric customers, it was the second time in less than a week that they were left in the dark for an extended period.

According to Hawaiian Electric officials, the latest outage was caused by an underground fire Monday that burned four circuits, comprising 12 high-voltage cables, in the areas between the intersections of King and Bethel streets, and King and Alakea streets, cutting power to 3,000 customers in the Chinatown area. As of Tuesday evening, the power company reported that about 600 customers were still without service, with an estimated restoration time of 6 p.m. Wednesday.

But at 10 a.m. Wednesday, the company announced, “Due to the complexity of additional repair work, the estimated time of restoration for affected customers is midnight Wednesday. If additional challenges are encountered, the outage may continue into Thursday.”

At 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, Hawaiian Electric amended its estimate and said that it anticipated restoring power to the remaining 600 customers by 8 a.m. today unless additional unexpected challenges were encountered.

As electricians were making the repairs and pulling the damaged cables underground, they discovered more extensive damage. The fire had melted and fused some of the lines together and damaged the conduits through which the lines passed, according to Hawaiian Electric spokesperson Darren Pai.

Miller Royer, owner of Wing Ice Cream Parlor, said he had been working past midnight for the past month to restock the store with ice cream. As the summer season begins, business has been getting busier, and he wants to keep up with inventory.

“I actually just restocked this past weekend and fully filled up the freezer,” he said.

Over 1,000 servings and prepacked pints of ice cream were compromised. The value of the 20 gallons of ice cream, Royer said, amounted to about $6,000.

“It’s not just that. Because it’s homemade ice cream and I make it from scratch, I do it by hand,” Royer explained. “It’s a three-day process, and I only have enough time in the day to make one or two batches. It’s not like I can whip all of that back up again quickly.”

Royer’s store is not open for business Mondays. He first heard about the power outage from his mother, who lives in the downtown Honolulu area and informed him that her power was out.

On Tuesday morning, she told him that the store didn’t have power. By the time Royer arrived at his store from his home in Liliha, “it was already too late,” he said.

With the power out, Royer had to discard his entire inventory due to both quality and health concerns.

“Once it melts, the quality’s gone, and for the amount of time it was out of temperature, it becomes a food safety issue,” he said. “There’s that question of whether or not it’s safe to serve, so I had to just dump it all out.”

He said the shop would typically average 100 customers a day, but he expects more during the summer. On an average day, he would make anywhere between $500 and $1,000.

“I’d like to hear some accountability from HECO or an explanation for how there was a fire underground,” he said. “I’ve been paying my bills on time for the past 11 years, so I expect reliable service. They should have some sort of backup plan. It’s ridiculous that one fire can cause so much disruption for so long.

“We’re all suffering from the effects of COVID. The whole ecosystem downtown has changed. Everyone’s struggling just to pay the bills, and something like this is just adding insult to injury.”

Royer, a father of a 1-year-old, noted the irony of spending so much time away from his family to focus on his business, only to lose so much in a single night.

“Right now, I’m just trying not to think about it,” he said. “It makes it seem like all that hard work was a waste.”

He filed a claim with Hawaiian Electric on Tuesday but hasn’t received any further information beyond a confirmation email acknowledging that the claim was received.

Royer expressed frustration with Hawaiian Electric’s lack of communication with consumers, only receiving updates by checking social media.

Chu Lan Shubert-Kwok, president and founder of the Chinatown Business & Community Association, also criticized Hawaiian Electric’s communication efforts, describing them as “very terrible,” particularly for local small businesses in Chinatown that may lack language access to understand the situation.

“They don’t know where to go for help,” Shubert-Kwok said.

She said Chinatown also has many vulnerable communities, including elderly people who might be “feeble.” The lack of power in their residences, coupled with closed restaurants in the area, is “truly unforgivable,” she said.

Pai told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the company has been circulating updates through social media, on their website, news releases to the media, as well as coordinating with customer services to assist larger buildings in the area.

Tiara Martinez, assistant general manager of Yakitori Hachibei on North Hotel Street, also said she’s been receiving updates only through the social media platform X.

Yakitori Hachibei had to cancel 29 reservations Tuesday and 35 reservations Wednesday, typically serving 52 people a day at an average of $80 a person.

Martinez sympathized with her employees because they couldn’t come in to work and earn money, especially since they are tipped workers whose finances could be significantly disrupted.

She recalled first realizing something bigger was going to happen when the lights at the restaurant started flickering toward the end of her shift because of the first power outage last week.

Another restaurant by the corner of North Hotel Street, Fete, shut down full service on June 13 when the power went out for most of the day in the downtown and Chinatown areas.

Last week’s outage affected 900 customer accounts, leading to the shutdown of traffic signals, office buildings, condominiums and government buildings, including the state Capitol.

“We’ve had three other blackouts, but this is by far the most extreme,” Chuck Bussler, owner of Fete, said. “We’re more experienced this time, but having two blackouts in back-to-back weeks is super-­frustrating,”

Bussler arrived at the store Wednesday morning with hopes of opening for dinner service later in the day. However, he received word at 10 a.m. that the return of power was delayed again.

Bussler expressed frustration with Hawaiian Electric’s changing updates on when power would be restored because of the extensive preparations required for the restaurant, including alerting staff, canceling reservations and addressing concerns about food security.

“The estimated time for the power to be back on has been moved about six times,” he said.

Bussler said the outage had a significant financial impact on the restaurant, his staff and suppliers.

“It’s a loss of money for us, but also a loss of revenue for our staff and potential loss of revenue for farmers and purveyors — it definitely has a cascading effect,” he said

Fete’s usual business hours are from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., serving about 250 to 300 guests a day. Over three days, Bussler estimated losing from $40,000 to $45,000 in revenue.

The restaurant had to discard some food but managed to salvage some using dry ice and regular ice.

Bussler also commented on the tight-knit community in Chinatown, noting their willingness to support one another.

“Everybody’s always helping each other out,” he said. “We’re in a building with four other places, so we’ve been communicating with each other a lot and assisting each other.”

Hawaiian Electric customers experiencing a power outage have 30 days to file a claim with the company for compensation for any losses caused by that outage. Customers may be eligible to receive either the cost to repair or the depreciated value of the damaged items, whichever is less.

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File a damage or loss claim

Oahu customers can file claims by mail, email or telephone. The claim must include the affected customer’s name, contact information and Hawaiian Electric account number. The website also requests that customers include the date and time of the power outage. “List the items that were damaged, including the year purchased and model number. If you have estimates or receipts for repairs or replacement costs, keep them until requested by our adjuster. Keep damaged items until your claim has been resolved,” the company says.

>> Email: Complete the Oahu Claim for Damage or Loss form (808ne.ws/3TUZXYX) and email it to claims@hawaiianelectric.com.

>> Mail: Mail the claim form or a letter with the necessary information to Hawaiian Electric Claims Department, P.O. Box 2750, Hono­lulu, HI 96840-0001.

>> Call: The Oahu Claims Department at 808-543-4624 and a representative will document the information.