Hawaiian Electric says over 60% of customers brought back online

Hawaiian Electric on Sunday said its restoration crews have brought back online more than 60% of customers who have been without electricity since Tuesday and are continuing work to restore approximately 5,000 customers in West Maui and Upcountry. The customer outage count has not been adjusted downward to account for structures that have been damaged or destroyed. “Because there has been a tremendous amount of damage to the system at the distribution and substation level – these are the parts of the system that deliver electricity to communities and neighborhood – the system is still fragile, and the restoration must be done carefully to, above all, ensure the safety of the public and our workers,” the company said in a statement.