Posted on: Sunday, September 7, 2003

Balloon pops power in Big Island areas

Advertiser Staff

A Mylar balloon drifted into a power line in Waimea yesterday and resulted in power failures at various places on the Big Island, HELCO said.

The company said when the balloon hit the 69,000 volt transmission line at 11:38 a.m., the resulting disruption caused two generators to automatically trip offline. About 14,800 customers at various locations lost power.

Service was restored to all customers by 2:42 p.m., HELCO said.