Hawaiian Electric restores power on Hawaiʻi Island after Hurricane Lala

Hawaiian Electric has completed repairs to its electric systems on Hawaiʻi Island following Hurricane Lala, restoring power to all customers who can be reached ahead of the original September 8 estimate. The company reported that the restoration work was completed one week earlier than anticipated.

Remaining outages are attributed to customer property damage or access issues, with the notable exception of Wood Valley in the Kaʻū area. In Wood Valley, storm waters washed out portions of the road where utility poles were located. To expedite service, the company plans to reroute power lines while waiting for road reconstruction.

During the storm, which brought wind gusts up to 91 mph, the utility lost 174 poles. The company noted that more than half of the outages on the island were caused by invasive vegetation, such as albizia, knocking down lines. Hawaiian Electric has been conducting extensive vegetation management, including trimming or removing 20,000 trees in the first half of the year.