Kalei Kamauu and his partner left the Hawaiian Electric Co. baseyard on Kaiwi Street in Kailua-Kona around 6 a.m. Friday morning heading to Ocean View for a traffic control job with Kipapa Traffic Management when poles came crashing to the ground on Alii Drive fronting the Kona Reef.
“I thought it was an earthquake. The one pole started coming down and we tried to dodge it,” Kamauu said. “The transformer exploded when it hit the ground.”
Kamauu said live electric and Hawaiian Telcom wires landed on the truck.
“We knew to stay in the truck until HECO got here,” he said. “It was scary knowing we were only saved by the rubber on our tires.”
He said the pole that came down for no apparent reason caused a chain reaction, bringing down three more poles and leaving another pole precariously leaning.
HECO spokesperson Kristen Okinaka said as of 9 a.m. approximately 300 customers in the area were without power. She said those customers affected should expect an extended outage to last 10 hours, maybe more because four poles need to be replaced with an estimated restoration time of 6 p.m.
Once HELCO has new poles in place and power restored, Hawaiian Telcom and Spectrum will work on restoring service.
