Hours-Long Outage Affects 2,100 North Kohala Customers, Restored by 11:30 a.m.

About 2,100 North Kohala customers lost power Wednesday morning, cutting electricity across areas from Waimea Kohala Mountain Road through Hawi and prompting closures at Kohala Elementary, Kohala Middle and Kohala High Schools; Hawaii Electric Light Company reported power was restored to all customers by about 11:30 a.m.

At around 7 a.m., the Hawaiian Electric Light Company reported that roughly 2,100 customers, from Waimea Kohala Mountain Road to all of North Kohala ― were without power. An original company notice described an “ongoing outage affecting ~2,123 customers from Waimea Kohala Mt. Rd. to North Kohala.” Using those on‑the‑day reports, the blackout lasted roughly 4.5 hours between the first H.E.L.C.O. report and the restoration time cited by the utility.

HawaiiNewsNow noted location specifics: “Power lines were down near Hawi Road and Kynnersly Road, HELCO added.” Company postings preserved in the initial report stressed that the incident was “unrelated to PSPS.” The original notice said crews were conducting repairs with safety in mind: “Crews are investigating and repairing during daylight hours for safety, with updates issued throughout Feb. 19.”

The outage forced schools to close for the morning. “The power outage prompted the closures of Kohala Elementary, Kohala Middle and Kohala High Schools, according to the state Department of Education,” one report stated. Local business and household impacts beyond the schools were not detailed in the available notices; the accounts note only that the outage lasted hours and that residents reacted to the disruption, an original line reads, “Local residents express frustration over delayed resol” (truncated in source).

Hawaiian Electric’s separate scheduled outage announcement (Release Date: 5/27/2025) makes clear there is regular, planned work in the same service area to improve reliability. That release said “the outage is scheduled to start at about 9 p.m. on Thursday, June 26, and end at about 6 a.m. on Friday, June 27, 2025,” and explained that “This temporary outage is necessary to allow Hawaiian Electric personnel to safely perform maintenance and upgrades for reliability, resilience and wildfire safety.” That planned outage would affect Hawi, Kapaau and Halaula and customers along Kohala Mountain Road from mile markers 6-9 and 11-19; Kohala Ranch would not be affected. The scheduled work also includes partial road closures on Kohala Mountain Road and Akoni Pule Highway with flagmen providing onsite traffic control.

Customers who depend on medication or life‑support equipment should make arrangements for a back‑up power supply or transportation to a facility outside the affected area, the company’s advisories say. The scheduled‑work release also advised unplugging sensitive equipment and keeping refrigerator and freezer doors closed during outages and referenced the company’s outage‑preparedness page for more tips.

Key follow‑ups remain: Hawaiian Electric/HELCO needs to confirm the final customer count, the precise outage start time, the technical cause and the repairs performed. “This story will be updated.”