Downed Pole Caused Power Outage, Road Closure

By Catherine Cluett Pactol
Electricity was out across the island last Saturday morning after a utility pole fell across Kalae Highway in Kualapu’u shortly before 7 a.m., causing downed power lines to lie over the road, which was closed for about nine hours.
“Preliminary assessments show that after a utility pole came down along Kalae Highway, it caused a fault on the electrical system and triggered a loss of power generation at the Palaau baseyard,” said Hawaiian Electric spokesperson Shayna Decker.
The outage affected all 3,200 electric customers on Molokai. A majority of the island’s electricity service was restored by crews around 11 a.m.,…