HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY - `OLAI : Earthquake
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY - “When the earth trembles, it is an earthquake.”
(We know what it is by what it does.)

October 16, 2006: State Senator J. Kalani English (East Maui-Lanai-Molokai), chair of the Senate’s Energy Committee, calls for an investigation as to why Hawaiian Electric and Maui Electric took so long to restore power to the islands after yesterday’s earthquake off the northwest coast of the Big Island of Hawaii. The quake, measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale, occurred at 7:07 a.m. and knocked out power on the Big Island, Maui and Oahu. Power was restored to Maui around 5 p.m., and on Oahu around 9 p.m. that day. No public investigation was ever held.

Most, if not all  tsunami warning sirens along Maui ’s beach communities failed during the earthquake, because they are powered from the Maui Electric Company (MECO) power grid. None of these  sirens have yet been upgraded to solar power.