arioch
Enlightened
Had a week long deluge of rain over the entire island chain of Hawaii, but the most serious effects were felt on Maui. Power went out from multiple downed power poles in the towns of Kihei, Wailea (where I work), and Kula. Flooding everywhere. Kula saw one home swept from its foundation, and many vehicles washed away to parts unknown. Thankfully, there was no loss of life, but lots and lots of water and wind damage.
The worst of it seems to be over, but what was kind of neat was I received calls from 3 friends of mine (all of whom live in Kihei), thanking me for various lights that I had given them as gifts for Christmas and birthdays over the years. All of those gifts were apparently put to very good use over this past week, both for them as well as their neighbors. Kihei power was out for over 30 hours at one point.
For myself, I rather enjoyed driving around on my mobile security patrols in Wailea using my many (many) lights for about 7 hours that the lights were out there. With the exception of the major hotels, which were able to keep lights on with generators, the entire residential community including streetlights and traffic signals was pitch black. These days, there aren't that many places on this island that I get to with that kind of "near total" darkness.
On a side note, I must say that our local police force was incredible, a lot of them standing in the torrential rains for many hours straight directing traffic, going to homes in danger to help the residents. The local utililies as well, particularly MECO (Maui Electric Company) braved some serious danger trying to keep the power on and get the fallen power poles back up, in some cases having to walk on foot across flooding and flooded wilderness to get to locations unaccessible by their boom trucks, some of which got stuck in the mud and water.
This reinforced the whole concept for emergency preparedness, that I have been in practice of for many years. This also reinforced my belief that flashlights make good gifts.
Egg on the face of one of my friends (one of the 3 who called me), who said after I had bought him yet another flashlight for his birthday last year, "Hey ... ANOTHER f l a s h l i g h t ... THANKS VIC ..."
Oh, and I must go now to check out the local stores to see the empty flashlight shelves, nyuk nyuk.
The worst of it seems to be over, but what was kind of neat was I received calls from 3 friends of mine (all of whom live in Kihei), thanking me for various lights that I had given them as gifts for Christmas and birthdays over the years. All of those gifts were apparently put to very good use over this past week, both for them as well as their neighbors. Kihei power was out for over 30 hours at one point.
For myself, I rather enjoyed driving around on my mobile security patrols in Wailea using my many (many) lights for about 7 hours that the lights were out there. With the exception of the major hotels, which were able to keep lights on with generators, the entire residential community including streetlights and traffic signals was pitch black. These days, there aren't that many places on this island that I get to with that kind of "near total" darkness.
On a side note, I must say that our local police force was incredible, a lot of them standing in the torrential rains for many hours straight directing traffic, going to homes in danger to help the residents. The local utililies as well, particularly MECO (Maui Electric Company) braved some serious danger trying to keep the power on and get the fallen power poles back up, in some cases having to walk on foot across flooding and flooded wilderness to get to locations unaccessible by their boom trucks, some of which got stuck in the mud and water.
This reinforced the whole concept for emergency preparedness, that I have been in practice of for many years. This also reinforced my belief that flashlights make good gifts.
Egg on the face of one of my friends (one of the 3 who called me), who said after I had bought him yet another flashlight for his birthday last year, "Hey ... ANOTHER f l a s h l i g h t ... THANKS VIC ..."
Oh, and I must go now to check out the local stores to see the empty flashlight shelves, nyuk nyuk.
