Technology — or, the lack of it — reared its ugly head this week, leaving citizens across the state unable to obtain or renew driver’s licenses and conduct other vehicle-related business.

The newly installed mainframe computer system in Honolulu failed — and since it runs the system statewide, county offices were unable to provide services, from vehicle transactions to state IDs.

Workers with the city Department of Information Technology and two subcontractors were working on the problem, first detected Monday. The fixes can’t come soon enough, especially for drivers whose vehicle registrations expire at month’s end. And after things are up and running again, a postmortem must disclose what went wrong with this new system and how to avoid a recurrence.

Storms brewing, on sea and on land

Every hurricane season, Hawaii kamaaina rush to stores to stock up on supplies, out of fear that a really serious storm could delay shipping replenishments. Islanders live in fear of being stranded. So, given that the June-through-November season has begun, people are driven to refresh — or build from scratch — their 14-day survival kit.

Meanwhile, other dark clouds are gathering — in the realm of collective bargaining. Labor unions representing Matson Inc. sailors and firefighters are threatening to strike, so shipping could stop in any case. Looks like a perfect storm.