Gusting tradewinds that knocked out electricity to nearly 5,000 Oahu customers Sunday will continue through most of today, officials said.
The National Weather Service has issued a statewide wind advisory until at least 6 p.m. today. Winds will be from the east at 20 to 35 mph, with localized gusts over 50 mph, the weather service said.
"Winds should be subsiding by the end of the week, but it’s still Hawaii," said Anthony Reynes, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Honolulu office. "This is the time of the year when we’re under the influence of these high-pressure systems, so be ready for strong winds."
A high-pressure system from the north "is going to keep strong winds blowing across the islands (today), mainly from the east and northeast," Reynes said. "The strong winds will also keep bringing moisture upstream and keep feeding mainly windward and mauka showers."
The high-pressure system will slowly move east, to be replaced by a low-pressure system from the north by the end of the week, he said.
Wind-relateddamage to an electrical transmission tower left about 4,300 Hawaii Electric Co. customers in East Oahu without power for more than four hours Sunday, the company said. The outage began at about 8:30 a.m. and affected homes and businesses from Aina Haina to Waimanalo.
Crews restored power to most of those customers by 1 p.m., HECO said, but repairs were delayed because crews had to hike in to inspect transmission lines because winds were too strong to send a helicopter.
HECO said an outage affecting 270 customers in the Maunawili area of Kailua occurred at about 8:30 a.m. Crews restored power there just after 3 p.m. The Maunawili outage was not related to the East Oahu outage, a HECO spokeswoman said; the company believes it was caused by trees being blown into power lines.
In Kalihi, power<$o($)> went out for about 20 minutes for 360 customers due to a wind-related short circuit at about 9:20 a.m.
At about 2 p.m. police closed Sand Island Access Road in both directions for two hours because of a leaning utility pole. At about 4 p.m., HPD said, HECO had stabilized the pole near 24 Sand Island Access Road, and police were contra-flowing traffic on one lane.
A HECO spokeswoman said there were no customer outages related to the leaning pole, but crews were working on replacing it by early this morning.
HECO said the pole wasn’t hit by a vehicle and that strong winds could have been a factor in tipping it.
The Honolulu Fire Department dealt with several wind-related incidents Sunday.
A department spokesman said a tree about 40 feet tall fell over in the parking lot of the Pali Safeway at about 2:30 p.m., causing significant damage to three cars. No one was hurt.
HFD said it responded to three toppled trees and at least two wind-damaged roofs Sunday. No injuries were reported.
