Isles due for high winds, lightning late Friday

A strong cold front is expected to sweep through the island chain Friday evening, bringing high winds and thunderstorms, the National Weather Service said.

Gusty southwest winds will increase Friday afternoon ahead of the front, with heavy rains, strong thunderstorms and potentially damaging winds just ahead of and along the front, the agency said.

The front will pass over Kauai Friday evening, Oahu and Maui County Friday night and Hawaii island on Saturday morning, forecasters said.

Heavy rains and thunderstorms will accompany the front as it reaches Kauai early Friday evening.

Winds will be dangerously strong on the summits of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, where a high wind warning is in effect until 6 p.m. Saturday, forecasters warn.

For the rest of the state, a wind advisory will be in effect from 6 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Saturday.

NEIGHBOR ISLANDS

House fire fatal for 1 resident

One person was found dead as Hawaii County firefighters brought a house fire in Captain Cook under control Wednesday night.

After receiving the alarm at 7:59 p.m., 11 firefighters arrived in less than 10 minutes to find the bedrooms and hallway of the single-story home on Lehua Lane ablaze.

One of the home’s two residents was away at the time, but the other was found dead during the initial search of the home.

Firefighters extinguished the blaze by 8:40 p.m. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Power failure hits Garden Isle

Kauai rang in 2015 on a dark note as the entire island experienced a power outage just after midnight, according to the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative.

The utility said Thursday the outage occurred at 12:23 a.m. when the Kapaia Power Station near Lihue automatically shut down after its control system detected a fault. The cause of the fault is under investigation, the cooperative said.

Because demand for electricity is relatively low in the early-morning hours, the Kapaia plant was supplying most of the island’s power at the time. 

Power was restored to some of the utility’s 33,000 customers by 3 a.m., the utility said

With the exception of a section of Puhi, where some damaged equipment required replacement, power was restored by 5:40 a.m.

At 11 a.m., some parts of Lihue were affected by an outage that lasted about 30 minutes, the utility said. The cause was a transformer in the Lihue switchyard that was affected by the earlier outage. 

The transformer was taken offline.