This week’s prolonged power outage in Chinatown caused businesses to lose customers, and forced many to ditch perishable items, such as food stocks and flower lei. To recoup losses, vendors will have to navigate Hawaiian Electric’s claims process — which could be a high hurdle for many mom-and-pop shopkeepers, especially immigrants with limited English.

On Saturday, from 9 to 11 a.m., City Councilmember Tyler Dos Santos-Tam and community leader Ernest Caravalho will host a “Community Walk” in the Downtown-Chinatown area to generate interest in local businesses. What also would be helpful is providing fliers, in a few key languages, to give merchants basic info on claims-filing. HECO could do the same.