Wind, rain potential through Thursday

LIHUE — It was a windy weekend across the islands and forecasters say there’s potential for big gusts, wind advisories and rain through the holiday.

Winds reached max speeds of 44 miles per hour over the weekend on Kauai and there were two major outages Friday night that affected roughly 2,600 members.

Friday afternoon, Kauai Island Utility Cooperative started gearing up for potential outages, the National Weather Service started issuing high wind advisories and the emergency preparedness steps were streamed over the radio.

It turned out that Kauai’s wind speeds were milder than much of the rest of the state — winds on the northern part of Hawaii Island reached 61 mph — but wind still felled a few trees and downed a few lines.

Overnight on Friday, weather triggered two outages. The first one affected Koloa/Poipu from 10:15 p.m. to 1:20 a.m., affecting roughly 2,500 members. The second affected Kekaha/Kokee and lasted from 10:45 p.m. to 11:45 p.m. That second outage affected roughly 147 members.

In addition, there were smaller outages throughout the island.

“Most were due to weather: trees on lines and/or downed lines due to winds for the most part,” said KIUC spokeswoman Beth Tokioka.

The window for high winds hasn’t closed yet, either, according to NWS’s observing program leader Jerome Saucier. He said Monday afternoon there’s a potential for more wind advisories.

“Mainly, it’s lasting through Christmas Day. We’re expecting it to be more southerly too,” Saucier said.

The “unsettled” weather is being triggered by a low-pressure area south of the state, one that’s expected to bring rain and potentially isolated thunderstorms through Thursday.

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Jessica Else, staff writer, can be reached at 245-0452 or at jelse@thegardenisland.com