Hawai'i briefs

Advertiser Staff

HONOLULU

4,100 remain without phones

The number of Verizon phone customers without service dropped from 4,800 to 4,100 by the end of the day Saturday, Verizon officials said.

Bill Kula, a Verizon spokesman, said technicians are working 12-hour days, six days a week to repair underground phone lines that shorted out during the recent rain.

Most of the problems are on O'ahu, Kula said, and technicians from the Neighbor Islands are being transferred in to assist.

Verizon employees also are being transferred from other parts of the company to assist the technicians, he said.

By Saturday evening, 3,650 O'ahu phone users were without service.

Fewer than 300 were without service on Maui. The Big Island and Kaua'i each had about 100 phone customers without service, he said.

As the rain saturated the ground, Kula said, water seeped into underground cables and made contact with copper wires inside, causing them to short out.

Workers are exposing some of the cables and allowing the wires to dry. They are replacing others, he said.

Wreath contest winners named

State worker Kay Yoshida took top honors and a $200 prize in the city's annual Christmas wreath contest for her entry "Angels of Gold."

Yoshida's wreath consists of two palm seedling branches painted gold at the base, and flowers and angels made from wire and ribbons.

"The wreath represents a Cinderella story, enchanted by gold, where the angels frolic through the flower bed," said Yoshida, who last year won the judge's choice award.

The winning wreaths are on display in the Lane Gallery at Honolulu Hale.

Other winners:

• Adult division — Kathy Tosh, Larley Nishino, Debbie AhSing, Yasuko Kumon and Kathleen Proctor.
• Theme wreath — Lily Maile Caban, Alfred Queyquep, Arleen Bourcier, Fran Sambueno and Jean Tokita.
• Children and youth — Moanalua Elementary School, Stevenson Middle School, Queen Lili'uokalani Elementary School and Matteo Burno.
  
  
  

LEEWARD O'AHU

Two in hospital after collision

A man and a girl were rushed to The Queen's Medical Center yesterday in serious condition after the collision of a motorcycle and a van in Wai'anae.

The driver and at least one other person from the van fled the scene.

The injured man and girl had been riding the motorcycle.

Emergency personnel were called to 87-124 Kaukamana St. at about 8:30 p.m., said HFD Capt. Emmit Kane.

Sue Rauch, an EMS district chief, said the man, 39, and the girl, 15, were in serious condition with possible head injuries.

Both were taken to Queen's by helicopter.

NEIGHBOR ISLANDS

Scrap metal being moved

A pile of about 3,500 tons of junked cars, old appliances and other scrap metal is being shipped from Maui to O'ahu.

It took 50 workers, 18 trucks and five excavators to load the scrap metal from the Waikapu base yard onto a barge over the weekend, according to Maui Scrap Metal.

The material is being taken to O'ahu, where it will be shredded for shipment and sale.

Maui Trucking manager Lawrence Koki said the 3,500-ton pile represents less than half of the material at the Waikapu site and is the third shipment to leave Maui this year.

Koki said the site is filling up again as people continue to bring in old washing machines, dishwashers and cars.

"It's ongoing, no matter what you do," he said.