Honolulu Electricity fails second time in two days

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Posted on: Wednesday, November 22, 2000 Electricity fails second time in two days By Brandon Masuoka Advertiser Staff Writer

An electrical failure left 1,000 Hawaiian Electric Co. customers near Ala Moana Center in the dark yesterday morning. The Hawaii Pacific University cheerleading squad practiced a routine at Magic Island after yesterday's power failure forced them out of the Central YMCA, where they normally practice. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser It was the second major failure since Monday, when nearly 13,000 customers lost electricity in Honolulu.

Yesterday morning’s outage began at 8:35 and affected areas on Atkinson Drive and Kaheka, Makaloa, Amana and Kanunu streets, Hawaiian Electric spokesman Fred Kobashikawa said.

HECO crews restored power at 11:37 a.m. The blackout was traced to a failure in an underground electrical cable, Kobashikawa said.

Darkness brought a halt to gym activities at the YMCA on Atkinson Drive, clerk Thaxton Lukela said.

The outage also closed the deli at the Y, Lukela said, adding that the "only thing working was the phone."

Police reported one accident involving a bus hitting a car at Atkinson Drive and Ala Moana Boulevard at 8:40 a.m. It was unclear whether the power failure played a role in the accident that pinned a 69-year-old woman in her car, police said. She was treated at Kuakini Medical Center and released, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The fire department reported no outage-related emergencies in the area, fire spokesman Capt. Richard Soo said.

Police directed traffic in the affected intersections of Atkinson Drive and Kona Street, and Atkinson Drive and Ala Moana Boulevard.

On Monday, nearly 13,000 customers in the Makiki, McCully, Ala Moana, Kewalo and Kaka‘ako neighborhoods went without power when an insulator failed at a substation on Ward Avenue.

That outage knocked out traffic lights, trapped people in elevators and darkened Ala Moana Center. The fire department received 18 outage-related calls, 13 of them from people stuck in elevators.

The Monday failure occurred at 5:55 p.m., and power was restored at 7:30 p.m.

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/1122localnews17.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), November 22, 2000


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