Categorized | Business, Energy

Hawaii Electric Light provides safety tips about downed power lines

MEDIA RELEASE

Hawai‘i Electric Light continues to monitor and prepare for approaching Tropical Storm Darby. High winds and heavy rains can uproot trees, break branches, snap utility poles, down power lines, and cause power outages.

“We’d like to remind everyone that any downed power line can be dangerous. It’s important to not approach or touch a downed power line as it may have electricity running through it,” said Rhea Lee-Moku, public information officer. “If you see a power line on the ground, or hanging low, call our trouble desk at 969-6666 to report the situation.”

When the wind blows or we have heavy rains, trees can be a real hazard as they break and fall into power lines and poles. We ask the public to be aware of this hazard and stay safe. Hawai‘i Electric Light has been proactively trimming and removing trees and other vegetation around Hawai‘i Island throughout the year. Since 2014, the company spent an estimated $14 million and cleared nearly 94,000 trees, 31,000 of which were albizia. There is still more work to do and along with the State Department of Transportation, the Big Island Invasive Species Council, and Hawai‘i County Public Works, we are working together to reduce the threat of trees to the utility infrastructure and our roadways.

Hawai‘i Electric Light will provide safety information to local media, including power restoration updates. Outage notifications also are proactively issued on the company’s Twitter account @HIElectricLight with the hashtag #BigIslandOutage. To report a fallen line or a power outage, call 969-6666.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

 

Quantcast