Oahu Loses Electricity During Obama Visit
OK – Here’s the recent headline news on a day long power outage that hit Honolulu and the entire island of Oahu this past week.
Almost all of Oahu had electrical power restored Saturday after a power failure blacked out the island’s population of about 900,000 and thousands of holiday visitors, including President-elect Barack Obama and his family
Residents had been urged to just stay home after the lights went out during a thunderstorm Friday evening. The Hawaiian Electric Company was investigating the cause.
I’m a little concerned the likely cause could well have been a disgruntled republican interfering with Obama’s holiday visit. No – most likely it was the thunderstorm passing over the island.
Some of the inconveniences suffered island wide as a result of the one day power outage. The average indoor-outdoor temperature immediately prior to the outage was around 80 degrees. As a result of the outage, huge savings on power usage was thrust upon all Oahu households resulting in an average indoor-outdoor temperature of around 80 degrees. Instead of cooking outdoors on barbeques and gas grills on the lanai, at the park, or on the beach, Oahu residents toughed it out through a day of cooking outdoors on the barbeque or gas grill. Island wide, many parks that serve as shelters for the homeless were made available as shelters for all. However, most slept through the night in their homes with no blankets or top sheets pretty much as they usually do on a night with power. In fact, keeping items cold was the most challenging effort of the day for most residents.
Given this scenario, it was not surprising to learn Obama turned down a fourth generator offered to him by Mayor Mufi Hannemann of Honolulu who said three generators had been installed earlier for Mr. Obama’s use at a rented compound on Kailua Beach. Mr. Obama stated he didn’t need anything, was grateful for the offer, and was going to put his own family to bed.
