PAHOA » Cut off from the world — with no water or power and trapped in their homes behind tons of fallen trees — survivors of Tropical Storm Iselle in Hawaii island’s vast Puna district welcomed the news that they will send Hawaii’s next U.S. senator to Washington.

Sandi Alstrand, 60, still had no way to communicate beyond her tree-littered street in Nanawale Estates on Sunday and was despondent that she missed her first election ever because of Iselle.

But Alstrand broke out in a grin and enjoyed a rare post-Iselle happy moment when the Honolulu Star-Advertiser told Alstrand and her husband, Dennis, 58, that their post-primary election votes will help determine Hawaii’s next U.S. senator.

"Wow, that’s really something," Sandi Alstrand said. "Who said your vote doesn’t count?"

No one was reported killed or seriously injured when Iselle blew across Hawaii island on Thursday, but Puna residents are still struggling without water or power.

Iselle flooded roads and unleashed debris that blocked access to the polls Saturday, prompting election officials to close two Puna polling sites, at Hawaii Paradise Community Center and Keonepoko Elementary School.

With U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz leading U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa by only 1,635 votes, the decisions of potentially 8,000 Puna voters who couldn’t get to those polling sites will now determine the race.

The Alstrands are among them.

Trapped on Molokai Road, surrounded by a fallen albizia tree that barely missed his 1993 Toyota truck, not to mention the family’s three-bedroom, two-bath home, Dennis Alstrand said he wished he could have voted on Election Day.

But only half-joking, he said he will now happily cast his ballot for the U.S. Senate candidate who does the most for the Puna district in the aftermath of Iselle.

Even as Schatz and Hanabusa made plans Sunday to tour Puna, Dennis Alstrand said, "If these guys show up with ice and water — and maybe a chain saw — they have my vote."

Puna, a Hawaii island district of 45,000 people with enough real estate to swallow the entire island of Oahu, is often overlooked in Honolulu political circles.

But the significance of 8,000 beleaguered residents in two relatively tiny Puna election precincts suddenly took on enormous importance following Saturday’s tight Democratic Senate primary.

State elections officials have not announced how — or when — people will get to vote.

But to the people of Puna, the delayed ballots they will receive only serve to reinforce their faith in the democratic process.

"I’m honored," said Tom Henneman, 65, who remained trapped behind a 100-yard forest of fallen albizia trees that left him without water or power three days after Iselle struck. "Isn’t that amazing? To the people who don’t vote, tell them it does make a difference."

Word that their delayed but upcoming votes have such importance represented one of the few bright spots following Iselle.

No one had a full accounting — or even ventured a guess — how many homes were damaged by Iselle or how many people remain trapped behind debris-clogged roads without water and power, which Hawaii Electric Light Co. officials estimated could take a week or more to restore.

A preliminary survey Saturday by the Hawaii island Department of Housing and Community Development and Hawaii Air and Army National Guard found that 146 homes and four businesses suffered some form of damage among a total of 266 reports of downed power lines, damaged roads, parks and houses.

On Sunday about 8,100 people remained without power, according to HELCO spokesman Darren Pai.

Most of them were in the Puna district, Pai said, but also in smaller pockets on the east side of the island. Power was restored to a portion of Hawaiian Paradise Park late Saturday afternoon.

While HELCO customers could go without service through this week, Pai warned that outages could last "possibly longer in certain areas."

The hardest-hit areas appeared to be in Nanawale Estates, Hawaiian Paradise Park, Leilani Estates, Hawaiian Beaches, Lani Puni Gardens and along Pohoiki Road, Pai said.

"We want to thank all of our customers for their patience and understanding as we respond to significant damage caused by the storm," Pai said. "We understand that people have been without power for a long time and understand the difficulties they’re going through. We’re working as hard as possible to get power restored and are committing all of our available resources to it. We’ve brought in help from Oahu and Maui to get their power back."

Several dozen volunteers, police, Hawaii island Civil Defense workers and Hawaii island fire cadets continued to pass out shipping containers full of bottled water and ice to grateful Puna residents at Pahoa High and Intermediate School on Sunday.

Fire cadet Max Alcover of Hawaiian Acres continued to load cases of water and bags full of ice to an unending line of vehicles Sunday — even though his own home was still without power.

"No, no power," Alcover said with a shrug and a smile.

As for those who gratefully accepted ice and water, Alcover said, "Everybody’s being so nice and polite."

Bill Clifton, 74, his girlfriend, Joanne Bousquet-Dodson, 69, and their houseguest, Lena White, remained without power or water Sunday after Iselle sent "five or six" 100-foot albizia trees crashing through their roof on Flower Road.

"Boom. Boom. Boom. They all hit," Bousquet-Dodson said.

Albizia trees have smashed into the house at least once in each of the last three years, always leaving them without power that runs their water catchment system, she said.

But none of the annual damage compares to the catastrophe that Iselle left behind Thursday, Bousquet-Dodson said.

The couple can’t decide whether to move or to remain with their four dogs, five cats and "30-something chickens" that run inside the house.

While they debated their future, their neighbor, Solomon Armitage of Nanawale Estates, and his 16-year-old namesake son, SolBoy, spent the last three days cutting through fallen albizia trees to give people like Clifton and Bousquet-Dodson a way out of their homes.

Detached from life beyond fallen trees and power outages, Armitage had not followed Saturday’s election results.

Not getting to vote Saturday was, Armitage said, "kind of a bummers."

So after he was informed by the Star-Advertiser that his post-primary ballot will help decide Hawaii’s next U.S. senator, Armitage said "it feels good."

"Even though we’re in the neck (of the woods), I still feel we have a say — especially now," Armitage said. "I was worried we were going to get left behind."

Megan Moseley, a freelance journalist based on Hawaii island, contributed to this report.