HONOLULU (KHON2) -- State Senator Kurt Fevella held a news conference on Monday to "speak on behalf of the silent majority" for Chinatown businesses and residents affected by back-to-back power outages.
Sen. Fevella, (R) Ewa Beach, Iroquois Point, Ewa Villages, called on Governor Josh Green and Hawaiian Electric to provide answers and support for those affected by the outages.
Fevella called on HECO to provide details such as what happened, what's being done to prevent it from happening again, and the plans to help the community recoup their losses.
"I want HECO to have a town hall meeting or some kind of meeting in their area. Work with maybe the Lion's Club in Chinatown or the Merchant's Association or even the neighborhood board. But they got to give more than answers than just the lines was old," explained Fevella.
Following Fevella's news conference, Hawaiian Electric provided the following statement:
We sincerely apologize for the outages that the Downtown and Chinatown community has experienced recently. Providing safe and reliable electricity to our communities is a responsibility that each of us at Hawaiian Electric takes very seriously and the recent outages are not acceptable to us. We are working diligently to determine the cause of the outages and to improve the reliability of service to the Downtown and Chinatown network going forward. We understand the duration of these outages were especially challenging for residents and businesses and will be working with those directly impacted. In fairness to our customers and the integrity of the claims process, we evaluate each claim on a case-by-case basis and in compliance with the rules approved by the Public Utilities Commission. In parallel, we have already initiated plans to work with the downtown/Chinatown community to see how we can best support them at this time.
Darren Pai, Hawaiian Electric Spokesperson
"Please be transparent, be accountable, and think of Chinatown as our family, our ohana."