Electrical Storm Causes Power Outage on Oahu

We were in the middle of eating a Chinese banquet dinner--lobster, crab, fried oysters, and a whole Peking duck--when the lights in the restaurant flickered. There had been some type of thunder, what sounded like loud drums coming from Waikiki. But no rain. And only the briefest flash of light in the sky--if that. Barely noticably really. The lights in the restaurant flickered, but the moment of darkness passed and all of us were back to devouring our messy dinner in civility. We paid the check, I went to go use the bathroom, and it wasn't until we recovened outside the restaurant that the blackout took hold. The restaurant went down, as did the shopping center, as did all of the surrouding area, as did--we would find out later--almost all of Oahu except for Waianae, which would go down a little later. We looked across at all of the high rises and everything was out except for the occasional emergency lights of stairwells.

We weren't sure how long it was going to last so decided to avoid the traffic for a while and walked over to Waikiki where each of us got our own discounted Mondo Gelato in a sweet stage of melting. The gas-lit tiki torches along Kalakaua were the only street light along our walk as cars waited patiently for the masses of pedestrians to cross, each side painfully taking turns to go, and always hesitating because neither could never be sure what kind of rules the other drivers were going by.

Meanwhile, my sister had a plane to catch that night back to San Francisco.

We all hiked the 19 floors up to my apartment to fetch my sister's suitcase, the light of Brian's cell phone provided a great flashlight when the occasional emergency light was out.

Despite KSSK reports of hellacious traffic, the drive to the airport from town was not bad. We parked illegally near the elevator and went to see what our options were. The airport, somewhat operational, was a bit of a zoo. Teens were recharging their ipods in the airport's electrical plugs. No one was yelling (yet) but there was a long line for TSA--you know, those people that ask you to take off your shoes because we had one shoe bomber once. The line snaked around the whole entry area. No one seemed to be sure which line they were in. Or rather, people disagreed on which line they were in. One fellow shared that a woman had been waiting in line for some time only to get to the front and be told she was had been in the wrong line. She needed to get to the back of the other line--over on the other side.

My sister was able to rebook her ticket with American only because the delay would have resulted in her missing her connecting flight. Her new ticket was set to depart the next afternoon.

We all hiked back up the 19 stories--it was a little harder and slower this time. Were not able to shower and had to brush teeth with bottled water. (The building uses a water pump to get water to all of its residents.) But were of course wired and sleepless by that point though tired.

The next morning we biked down to Ala Moana Beach Park to shower in our swimsuits. It was a nice cold invigorating shower in the sun. I used Dr. Bronner, supposedly biodegradable, but suspect because it leaves water cloudy. By this time, the power was already up in many parts of the island, 60% of the island reports said today. Street lights and businesses were up all around us while our building one block away remained lifeless.

We returned to the apartment, climbing the 19 stories for the third and last time, grabbed some things and made our way to the airport where we dropped off my sister and breathed a sigh of relief.

Based on the traffic into Waikele, Honoluluans were back to their regularly programmed schedule and completing their after-Christmas shopping by midday. The generators on sale Costco (coupons available in this week's mailings) will probably be sold out shortly.

The story of Oahu's little black-out is making national news only because Obama is here. Reports on HECO's, the city's and Obama's handling of it are pretty hilarious. Wanting to be the gracious host, HECO sent a generator to the Obama's vacation home, but Obama declined because he already had three! The mayor tried to contact him to make sure he was doing okay. But Obama apparently did not speak to him (he was probably trying to put his daughters to bed) and just relayed the message that they were doing fine. Yahoo reports that in the end the Obamas ended up not even using the back-up generators that they had; they spent the evening in the dark with the rest of us.