Power Outage on Oahu

[rockjock3]

Power came on in Hawaii Kai at 1250 hours (~45 min ago). Only took the Keystone Kops at HECO 17 hours 20 minutes to get their thumb out. And the cause was a single lightning strike I hear now. Wife was out to score ice (the cold stuff) and said a lot of signals are still out.

Incompetent idiots, you'd think after their humiliation at losing the entire island two years ago to a moderate quake, they might have a clue now how to avoid a repeat. At least water kept flowing this time..............

Oh yeah, no cell service with Verizon, so much for dumping landline for cell only. Landline continued to work fine unless calling a cell phone!

Tired of worrying about the stuff in the fridge going bad, will buy a modest generator when the latest rush (you know there is one right now) is over. COuld hear them all night around the neighborhood chugging away.

Open to suggestions on size and brand.

12 hours at Hickam and never lost service with Verizon over here. Calling out of and into other verizon phones.

 

[rockjock3]

I have Verizon and had service for the whole blackout, my friend in Kailua also has Verizon service. We were able to text each other through it all!

I do agree though, that now that he has been here through it, maybe Obama will see that something is done!

Its not Obamas problem. It the Governor. She needs to get off her A*# and get it fixed. They (HECO) claim that their system is great and fits the needs of an island, but I hope it is only the feeble minded that buy that one. Here is the story I have heard from several HECO reps and some of their supporters.

The way it works in the mainland is that when a grid goes down in a city the other grids have the ability to share with each other as well grids from other cities and even states. Due to this there is little issue if their is a catastrophic failure in multiple grids because some of those grids can come up by sharing power from other grids and not take the whole system down.

In the islands, as HECO tells it, there is no other state grids to share off (well, duh, we all know we live on an island), so to avoid total catstrophic failure all the grids shut down if their is a major failure in one so that it doesn't cascade and cause any damage to the other grids. I can see this and totally understand it. It makes sense that when we only have the one network they don't want to jepordize it. In fact that is why most people saw two hits. It happened the same way during the Kona quakd. We saw a hit approx 6:20 p.m. (that was the damage occuring I suppose), then about 30 minutes later the power grid automatic shutdown finally hit us at Hickam/Pearl area and it was lights out. Here is what I don't understand--

How in the He*# does it take anybody with more than a 3rd grade education over 12 hours to start getting the other grids back on. HECO knew (as per the radio) which 4 major lines were down within 2 hours of the initial outage. While crews were checking/repairing those why couldn't other techs/crews start checking all the other grids and start bringing them back on line? I will also bet money that the 4 lines that were down (all old and in hard to access areas as per HECO) aren't going to be replaced because of this. HECO will simply slap some bubble gum and electrical tape on them and hope the same ones don't crap out next time.

This problem needs to get fixed, but Pres elect doesn't need to take care of it, Lingle needs to do the job that she is getting paid to do. She has all these "Capital improvement plans" and 5 point economy plans, but what good is any of that gonna do if a stinking lightening strike or minor quake takes the whole island out and back into the dark age for days (yes there were still some areas without power as of this morning). Thank goodness for the Aloha spirit. I know many people that were out and I had to go out once myself. Anyplace else in the world and there would have been major accidents at every intersection within an hour of the power outage. Here people started following the all-way stop almost instantly. I am sure there are cases that they didn't and yes, there were some accidents. For a large part though there were very few accidents and people slowed down accordingly.

 

[Diver Lori]

Tired of worrying about the stuff in the fridge going bad, will buy a modest generator when the latest rush (you know there is one right now) is over. COuld hear them all night around the neighborhood chugging away.

Open to suggestions on size and brand.

Get an inverter, not a generator. A generator will fry your electronics if it surges, an inverter will not.

We were without electricity here in Cincinnati for a week a few months ago when the wind from Ike blew through.

My dive buddy has a Yamaha Inverter. His power came online quickly (he was on the same grid as the hospital) and brought his inverter to my house. We ran the fridge & full size freezer off it for the 4 days we were without power. We would unplug both to briefly run the microwave as needed.

He has the EF2800i.

Yamaha Generators of North America Premium Inverter Generators -

Honda makes some decent inverters too. Honda Power Equipment - Honda Power Equipment

 

[crab lover]

Its not Obamas problem. It the Governor. She needs to get off her A*# and get it fixed. They (HECO) claim that their system is great and fits the needs of an island, but I hope it is only the feeble minded that buy that one. Here is the story I have heard from several HECO reps and some of their supporters.

What I meant was, since he was here to experience it first hand, he may use his position to "encourage" the people here to do more to find an alternate solution to the problem. Since Lingle thinks everything is "ok", then he could suggest to her that maybe not is all "ok". I don't mean strongarm or anything like that, but just a nice suggestion from higher up.

And I get the whole "when one grid shuts down the rest try to take the burden, then they all shut down", but that doesn't seem to work here. I would think it would be the opposite, when one shuts down, isolate it and work on it, so only one part is down and in the dark, not the entire island!!!

 

[crab lover]

the power never goes off @ capt scottys house,,,, just come over next time jamie

Thanks capt! But I honestly didn't have any problems! Cell phone worked, had food and water, who need electricity!!!

I just thought the fact that so many people decided to shoot off fireworks early was rather humorous! We'll make our own light!!!

 

[rockjock3]

What I meant was, since he was here to experience it first hand, he may use his position to "encourage" the people here to do more to find an alternate solution to the problem. Since Lingle thinks everything is "ok", then he could suggest to her that maybe not is all "ok". I don't mean strongarm or anything like that, but just a nice suggestion from higher up.

And I get the whole "when one grid shuts down the rest try to take the burden, then they all shut down", but that doesn't seem to work here. I would think it would be the opposite, when one shuts down, isolate it and work on it, so only one part is down and in the dark, not the entire island!!!

No, no. I wasn't trying to explain to you how "the world" works. I was just passing on what HECO was using as their excuse for the power taking 12+ hours to start restoring after such a relatively small issue. I think it is absolutely rediculous that they expect most people to buy it (didn't think you did).

As far as Obama, I see what you mean. That could be a plus. I really don't think Lingle cares though is more the problem. I think she cares more about what she can do for her and not what she can do for the islands. We shall see. This is the second time on her watch that this has happened and hopefully people will stop drinking the kool-aid and start demanding answers and actions from her.

 

[VBlueV]

hmm.. let's just say..
we might be having another kid in 9 months




j/k

 

[crab lover]

No, no. I wasn't trying to explain to you how "the world" works. I was just passing on what HECO was using as their excuse for the power taking 12+ hours to start restoring after such a relatively small issue. I think it is absolutely rediculous that they expect most people to buy it (didn't think you did).

As far as Obama, I see what you mean. That could be a plus. I really don't think Lingle cares though is more the problem. I think she cares more about what she can do for her and not what she can do for the islands. We shall see. This is the second time on her watch that this has happened and hopefully people will stop drinking the kool-aid and start demanding answers and actions from her.

Didn't think you were trying to explain how the world works... just my musing on what might actually be a better idea than the status quo... What HECO doesn't seem to understand is what works on the mainland, doesn't necessarily work on an island. Maybe they get it now...

 

[crab lover]

Get an inverter, not a generator. A generator will fry your electronics if it surges, an inverter will not.

We were without electricity here in Cincinnati for a week a few months ago when the wind from Ike blew through.

My dive buddy has a Yamaha Inverter. His power came online quickly (he was on the same grid as the hospital) and brought his inverter to my house. We ran the fridge & full size freezer off it for the 4 days we were without power. We would unplug both to briefly run the microwave as needed.

He has the EF2800i.

Yamaha Generators of North America Premium Inverter Generators -

Honda makes some decent inverters too. Honda Power Equipment - Honda Power Equipment

Thanks for the info!!!

 

[Puddle Pirate]

Didn't think you were trying to explain how the world works... just my musing on what might actually be a better idea than the status quo... What HECO doesn't seem to understand is what works on the mainland, doesn't necessarily work on an island. Maybe they get it now...

Maybe the power companies in Washington, Michigan, and New York don't understand either. All three currently have power outages in parts of their states. Maybe Lingle and HECO are to blame for their power outages too. Face it s__t happens, you loose utilities from time to time. Maybe Barry will control Mother Nature when he enters office and everything willbe perfect.