9 a.m. update: Hawaiian Electric restores more than 1,500 customers overnight

9 a.m. update: Hawaiian Electric restores more than 1,500 customers overnight

• About 5,500 without power on Maui, Hawaii Island and Oahu

Release Date: 3/17/2026

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HONOLULU, March 17, 2026 - Overnight and early this morning, Hawaiian Electric restored more than 1,500 customers on Maui and Hawaii Island. Hawaiian Electric crews remain focused on ongoing restoration efforts today as the state continues its recovery from the powerful Kona Low storm system that overwhelmed drainage systems and led to flooded roads, heavy mud, landslides, and vegetation blocking roadways.

"Based on our on-staff meteorologist reports, some areas of the state broke rainfall records and saw rainfall totals that are so rare, they have only about a 1% chance of happening in any given year," said Marc Asano, Hawaiian Electric's incident commander. "While these post-storm effects slowed our progress at times, our crews are working around the clock in challenging conditions to safely bring our customers back online as quickly as possible."

As of 9 a.m.:

• Maui County: Overnight, crews made significant progress and about 975 customers remain without power. Crews restored a majority of Kula customers from Lower Kula Highway to Keokea Place and brought back online about 600 customers in the Kihei area after clearing mud and debris to access underground facilities. Today, crews will focus on the remaining pocket outages islandwide. For customers in these areas restored overnight who may still be without power, please check the main circuit breaker for your house and if still out of power, contact the Maui County Trouble Line 1-855-304-8181 or report it online. In East Maui, about 240 customers are asked to continue planning for extended outages that could last several more days as crews are working around the clock to repair about 20 damaged poles and multiple spans of downed lines.
• Hawaii Island: Power was restored to about 100 customers overnight. About 3,700 customers who were impacted by the storm remain without power, mostly in the Puna area. Today, crews will be working in Hawaiian Beaches, Volcano and Kapoho. In these areas, high winds toppled trees which damaged or broke up to 50 poles and downed multiple spans of power lines. Tree trimmers have been working to remove trees from blocked roadways so crews can access the areas and make repairs.
• Oahu: About 800 customers are without power. Crews continue to address various pockets of storm-related outages and new outages.

Estimated restoration times may not be available until inspections are completed and any repairs are made before power can be safely restored. See the Storm Restoration Process. The outage numbers above represent a snapshot in time and are subject to change as stated above. Customers can view current outages and report outages on the outage map at hawaiianelectric.com and on the mobile app.