When the poles broke yesterday, they knocked out power to 5,000 customers and created a massive traffic jam for hours. Workers spent all night repairing the damage, said Fred Kobashikawa, spokesman for Hawaiian Electric Co.

The poles were back in service along the four-lane highway by 5 a.m. today.

"We had scheduled to replace these poles next week, Sept. 24," Kobashikawa said today. "We are going to review our records to see if there are any more like this. Safety to the public is always our highest priority."

Traffic was a mess yesterday.

Drivers were detoured at Princess Kahanu Avenue to Hakimo Road and back to Farrington Highway, and some residents reported taking up to four hours to get home from town.

At 10 p.m. yesterday, police said traffic was still backed up to the Hawaiian Waters Adventures Park in Kapolei.

Police noticed the poles and lines leaning across the highway near Hakimo Road at about 2:20 p.m. Kobashikawa said one of the poles broke and the weight of that fallen pole brought down two others.

Electricity to the area remained on until 3:05 p.m., when HECO shut off power as a precaution. At that time, customers from Nanakuli to Wai'anae Valley Road were without electricity.

By 6:30 p.m., only about 70 customers near the broken poles remained without electricity. All power was restored by 10:30 p.m.

Randy Iaea, who lives in the Garden Grove subdivision, said one of the poles fell near a bus stop where school children board and leave buses. He said that if the incident had occurred a half-hour later, many children would have been in the area.

"We're lucky nobody got hurt," he said.

Iaea added that yesterday's traffic woe "reaffirms the need for a secondary road" on the Leeward Coast.

In the past, police have shut down Farrington Highway to investigate traffic accidents, forcing residents to detour through narrow residential streets.

Iaea said residents noticed eight months ago that one of the poles was leaning toward the highway. He said HECO was notified.