UPDATE: Albizia Causes Outage Affecting Approximately 11,700 Customers

1:39 p.m. UPDATE:

Hawai‘i Electric Light reports that about 11,700 customers in the Puna and Hilo areas experienced a power interruption today.

Power was interrupted at 9:59 a.m. Thursday morning when a large albizia tree fell on to transmission lines and broke utility equipment on Ainaloa Boulevard.  A private tree-trimmer was in the process of removing the tree when it fell into power lines.  Hawai‘i Electric Light crews responded quickly to safely repair the damage and restore power.

Crews were able to re-route power for about 8,100 customers, restoring power by 10:09 a.m.  The remaining customers had their power restored at 12:56 p.m. after the tree was removed from the lines and the damage was repaired.

Updates on power outages and restoration efforts can be found on Hawai‘i Electric Light’s Twitter account: @HIElectricLight. To report a power outage, please call (808) 969-6666.

Original Post:

Hawai‘i Electric Light Company (HELCO) reports that a power outage occurred at approximately 10 a.m. affecting approximately 9,000 customers in the Puna area including: Ainaloa, Orchidland, Waiakea Uka and Pāhoa.

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Power was restored for most of these customers, but approximately 2,500 residents in the Ainaloa area and the shelter at Pāhoa Community Center remain without power.

HELCO crews are onsite working to safely restore power. The cause of the outage was a downed tree in Ainaloa.

Treat all intersections controlled by signal lights as 4-way stops until signals are back to working order.  Drive with caution.