LIHUE — A tree-fall caused a disruption of power, phone and Internet services to several Wainiha residents on Labor Day. Kauai Island Utilities Cooperative said that power was restored at 5:20 a.m. Tuesday, after an outage that was reported at
LIHUE — A tree-fall caused a disruption of power, phone and Internet services to several Wainiha residents on Labor Day.
Kauai Island Utilities Cooperative said that power was restored at 5:20 a.m. Tuesday, after an outage that was reported at 5:24 p.m. on Monday.
“People were without power for just about 12 hours,” said Jim Kelly, KIUC public relations. “About 150 customers were affected and we really appreciate their patience.”
The outage occurred as the result of an albizia tree that broke off at its base and fell directly onto power lines along Wainiha Powerhouse Road. The falling tree pulled down four spans of wires and snapped four poles, with damage estimated to be about $30,000, according to KIUC.
A total of 13 line workers from both the KIUC Kapaa and Eleele base yards were dispatched to make repairs. They worked through the night to replace the poles, lines and transmission equipment.
Crews from Hawaiian Telcom and Oceanic Time Warner cable continued with their own repairs on Tuesday. Lines and equipment on the poles was also damaged, according to KIUC.
Ann Nishida Fry, senior manager of Corporate Communications for Hawaiian Telcom, said the outage effected between 300 and 400 phone customers and about 100 Internet customers.
All service was restored when the power went back up early Tuesday morning, she said.
The work was essentially hanging the cable lines back onto the lines properly.
“The power company has to go first in these issues that affect poles,” Nishida Fry said. “Our folks can’t get in there until the power is restored first.”
The County Water Department lifted its water conservation request for the Wainiha and Haena area on Tuesday. The power outage shut off water pumps temporarily.
