Question: Regarding the prolonged Chinatown power outage, will Hawaiian Electric seriously consider claims for lost business revenue, or only for damaged equipment or inventory (spoiled food, lei, etc.)?
Q: If HECO accepts responsibility for the outage, what exactly will they cover in claims? This has been frustrating enough. I don’t want to file a claim that has no chance of being approved.
Q: Does HECO have an established upper limit on claim payments, per claim? Is there a maximum amount it will pay on a damage claim, regardless of the actual loss?
Answer: There’s no preset maximum dollar amount per claim, but otherwise we couldn’t get clarity about exactly what types of power-outage damage and losses Hawaiian Electric Co. will or won’t cover in the outage that lasted about 67 hours for some Chinatown and Downtown Honolulu customers, from Monday night to Thursday afternoon; others lost power for a shorter period. A total of 3,000 customers, many multi-unit buildings, were affected for some or all of the outage.
By order of Hawaii’s Public Utilities Commission, under what’s known as Rule 16, HECO must review each damage claim filed “and shall compensate the customer for any loss, cost, damage or expense as determined by the Company to be within the Company’s control.”
HECO has filing instructions on its website, hawaiianelectric.com, including on a claim form (808ne.ws/3TUZXYX) that mentions damaged electric appliances, food and “other items,” but is silent on lost revenue or wages, as documented, for example, by reservations canceled at restaurants that went dark or hourly shifts unfilled at businesses that couldn’t open.
The website says claims must be filed within 30 days of the outage, must have supporting evidence, that customers should not expect immediate responses and that customers must have taken reasonable steps to protect their equipment.
Questions about the scope of covered losses for this outage were asked at HECO’s news conference on Thursday, but executives didn’t provide details. We followed up with a company spokesperson Friday, but he declined to clarify.
“In fairness to our customers and the claims process, we hesitate to speculate about types of losses that are covered. Each outage is unique and each claim is evaluated on a case-by-case basis looking at its own set of facts and circumstances. We need to first complete the investigation into the underlying cause of this outage before making any determination about what is or is not eligible under the claims process,” spokesperson Darren Pai said in an email.
Regarding claim limits, he said, “We don’t have a ceiling. We look at and consider the claim for loss in totality, and require that the loss be substantiated with documentation, whether that be invoices, prior tax documents, etc. Everything is based on what the loss was, and proof or substantiation of that loss.”
At Thursday’s news conference, Jim Kelly, HECO’s vice president for government and community relations and corporate communications, said he didn’t know whether HECO has ever paid claims for loss of business revenue during a power outage. “I don’t have any information or background on that. I don’t want to be listing the things that people can or cannot put in for,” he said.
Earlier he said, “I don’t want to stand here and tell people what they can put a claim in for and what they can’t put it in for. I think they should fill out the form as best they can and submit, and then someone will get back to them.”
Q: When is the primary and when will we receive our ballots?
A: Hawaii’s primary election is Aug. 10. Registered voters will receive their ballots in the mail by July 23, according to the state Office of Elections. Voted ballots must be received by the County Elections Division by close of voting on Aug. 10 (scheduled for 7 p.m.), not simply postmarked that day.
To answer another reader’s question, yes, voters can learn more about individuals running for office on the elections office’s website, in candidate reports that list the individual’s contest, party, ballot name, legal name, mailing address, email address, phone number and campaign website, if they have one. Closer to the primary, the office will post a Digital Voter Guide on its homepage, elections.hawaii.gov.
“We anticipate the guide, which must also be translated in Chinese, Hawaiian, Ilocano, and Tagalog, will be completed and ready for voters by mid-July, ahead of ballots hitting homes,” Scott T. Nago, chief election officer, said in an email.
Candidates submitted information for the guide when they filed their nomination papers. “For the most part, we had a good participation rate as a majority of the candidates did submit a photo and statement,” he said.
Trail closure
The Kaiwi State Scenic Shoreline, a state park, and Makapuu Lighthouse Trail are scheduled to be closed Tuesday from 6 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. while crews remove de-energized power lines. “The U.S. Coast Guard, which operates the Makapu‘u Lighthouse, asked Hawaiian Electric Company to remove unused power lines along the lighthouse trail for fire mitigation,” the state Department of Land and Natural Resources said in a news release. Both the upper Makapuu Overlook parking lot and the main parking lot at the lighthouse trailhead will be closed during this time, it said.
Mahalo
Many thanks to the man who held up traffic so that I could cross Kapiolani Boulevard to Ala Moana Center. I had the crossing signal, but the countdown is too fast for some of us kupuna! He was also walking, but faster than me, and slowed to my pace so I wasn’t out there alone. — A reader
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, HI 96813; call 808-529-4773; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
