HONOLULU(KHON2) -- The power has been restored to the Downtown, Chinatown area since around 7:15 p.m. But the outage lasted about nine hours crippling hundreds of restaurants and businesses. Most shut down but others did try to tough-it-out as long as they could.
Business owners said the blackout hit them hard financially.
Generators and ice, that was all most businesses like Murphy's Bar & Grill could do to save perishable items after the power went out around 10 a.m. Thursday.
"We'll lose some product today, I’m sure, but we’ve got coolers," Murphy said optimistically. "We can ice things down. I’ve got a generator, portable generator, so I can get my freezers going out back. I got three freezers I can run. But a lot of the smaller guys out there, they don’t have that. They don’t have the capacity nor do they have decent sized walk-ins and they’re gonna get clobbered."
Even so Murphy said the outage still hit him hard.
"A lot of loss. We'll lose several $1000 in product," he explained. "A lot of guys are going to get hurt pretty good by this."
He closed around 12:30 p.m. after the electricity didn’t come back on.
"Half the town, you know, they’re clearing out so no sense stay open," he said.
But some places, like O'Kims Korean Kitchen on Nuuanu Avenue, chose to do whatever they could to stay open.
"We cannot make the rice right now so we’re trying to use gas later on because none of us want to eat cold rice with Korean food," server Moonju Molnar explained.
"We feel bad. We want to offer the best food we can and hot food but now it’s challenging."
She’s grateful for the customers who did come in.
"The customer is being helpful by paying cash and stuff and they know we are having trouble with the power out and they understand it’s not our fault," Molnar said.
By 6:30 p.m. O'Kims decided to call it a day as well.
"I feel the stress frustration of the people, especially our businesses because they’re losing good money," Chinatown resident and chair of the neighborhood board Ernest Caravalho said.
Caravalho said it’s weird to see the streets so empty because Thursday is usually a very busy day for restaurants and businesses in the area.
One of the only spots that seemed to be unaffected by the blackout was the Hawaii Theater. The marquee shined bright all day long.
According to Greg Dunn, President of the Hawaii Theater Center, it's thanks to solar power.
"The theater itself is on a separate grid system where we have solar power on the roof that feeds into the HECO system. So when the HECO grid is down we still have power that we're operating the air conditioning off from and the lights," Dunn explained.
He said they converted it in 2010 to ensure the theater stays cold to prevent mold.
"The theater building itself is over a 100 years old and people always say how chilly it is in here," Dunn said. "It's chilly for a reason because we have to keep the mold growth down by keeping it cool and dry on the inside. Because once mold takes hold, we couldn't afford to take it out."
Having electricity in the theater also benefited the students in their summer performing arts program.
"The students normally perform, or rehearse rather, in our annex rehearsal space on Nuuanu, but the power is out there right now," Dunn said. "So the kids were able to come and use the theater today for rehearsal. So they're on stage performing getting ready for Elf Junior the musical."