Two utility poles came crashing down along Pumehana Street in Honolulu's McCully-Mōʻiliʻili neighborhood Friday, crushing a parked Honda SUV and plunging about 1,300 customers into darkness. No injuries were reported, though nearby business operators expressed unease about the collapse.
The poles fell with enough force to flatten the SUV parked streetside, according to Hawaii News Now. The outage that followed hit roughly 1,300 customers across the McCully area, and Hawaiian Electric worked through the morning to bring the lights back on.
By around 8 or 9 a.m., nearly everyone had power again. “There are only just a handful, about three remaining, as of about, 8, 9 o'clock this morning,” a Hawaiian Electric spokesperson said, describing the final stretch of restoration work. The utility continued working to restore service, while impacted businesses could file a claim.
Businesses Forced to Shut Down or Go Remote
The disruption rippled through the surrounding block. Matt Bickle, who runs an IT company in the building next to where one of the poles fell, said his offices were shut down for the day and employees worked remotely instead. The outage also made it impossible to safely access the area around the debris.
Nearby, the owner of the Consignment Center, James “Chip” Buchmiller, said the fallen pole blocked access to his parking lot entirely, forcing him to close for the day. “I can't even get access to the parking lot, so we're closed today,” he said. Bickle said the incident made him think more broadly about the safety of the utility infrastructure running through his neighborhood.
A Playground Within Reach of the Lines
The location of the collapse has drawn particular concern because a nearby elementary school playground sits within reach of the power lines if the poles were ever to come down near it, a detail that has heightened unease among people who live and work on the street. No one was hurt in Friday's collapse, but the proximity underscored just how close the infrastructure runs to where children play.
What Caused the Poles to Fall Remains Unclear
It is still not known exactly why the poles failed. Gusty winds and possible termite damage were both raised as potential factors, though the cause has not been determined. Hawaiian Electric says poles are tested and treated for termite damage on a rotating basis every seven years, but spokesperson Darren Pai said he was uncertain when the fallen pole had last been inspected.
Hawaiian Electric has said more broadly that it conducts regular inspections of its poles, lines and other equipment and works to replace or upgrade aging and faulty infrastructure before failures occur, according to the utility's resilience program page. The company also advises the public to stay at least 30 feet away from any downed power line and to treat every line as though it is energized and dangerous, per its downed power line safety guidance.
Part of a Larger Pole-Hardening Push
The Pumehana Street collapse comes as Hawaiian Electric pursues a broader, multiyear effort to shore up aging poles statewide. The utility is seeking regulatory approval for a proposed $190 million resilience program spread over five years that would include hardening targeted poles, building on $95 million in federal funds the U.S. Department of Energy approved in August 2023 to harden grids across the islands the company serves.
That work has already included replacing more than 400 poles on Maui, Lanai and Molokai based on inspection and testing results. A separate Critical Pole Hardening program is swapping out hundreds of wooden poles across Oʻahu, Maui and Hawaii Island for sturdier fiberglass and steel versions, according to KHON2. On Oʻahu's Leeward Coast, a separate three-year project is expected to replace up to 100 aging wooden poles along the Farrington Highway corridor, with work scheduled to start in late July, the station reported.
The stakes of pole failures in Hawaii were thrown into sharp relief by the 2023 Lahaina fires, where a lawsuit brought by more than 140 insurers pointed to the failure of a single termite-damaged utility pole, Pole 7A, as a root cause, according to Honolulu Civil Beat. Hawaiian Electric had said that pole was inspected in 2022 and found to be sound. No such determination has been made about the poles that fell on Pumehana Street, and the cause of Friday's collapse remains unresolved.
