Castle High School and Kailua Intermediate School will be closed tomorrow after sustaining roof damage and other weather-related problems, Department of Education spokesman Greg Knudsen said. Parents should check morning TV and radio broadcasts for announcements of other school closures.

Hawaiian Electric Co. crews continued working tonight to restore power to many parts of O'ahu. About 9,900 customers from Kuliouou to Hawai'i Kai were without power; other outages were concentrated in Kane'ohe, Wahiawa and Waiau.

Traffic on Kamehameha Highway between Wahiawa and Hale'iwa will be open in both directions until 8:30 a.m. tomorrow, when one lane will be closed for power pole repairs. A contraflow lane will be set up.

The North Shore was reopened to traffic about 5 p.m. after being cut off for several hours as fallen trees and/or downed power lines closed Kamehameha Highway and Kaukonahua Road in Central O'ahu and Kamehameha Highway at Kahana Bay.

Police announced that both lanes of Kamehameha Highway at Kahana had been opened at 3:10 p.m. and Kaukonahua Road was opened shortly before 5 p.m. Kamehameha Highway between Wahiawa and Hale'iwa was opened to Hale'iwa-bound traffic about 5 p.m.

The problems started shortly after midnight and were expected to last until this evening.

About 27,000 Hawaiian Electric Co. customers were without power as of 3 p.m., HECO spokesman Jose Dizon said. Outages were concentrated in Kane'ohe, Wahiawa and Waiau. HECO asked customers to report outages to 548-7961; anyone who needs power for life-support medical equipment should call 548-7311, the company said.

Nine public schools were closed because of wind or power problems.

A toppled tree blocked the two Waimanalo-bound lanes of Kalaniana'ole Highway in Kailua. Police routed cars over the median to allow cars to pass. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

Police officers were told to stay on duty for an extra shift to direct traffic at intersections in Kane'ohe town. "We're holding back the midnight watch so they can help with traffic," said Robert Domingo at the central receiving desk at the police department's Kane'ohe substation. "Everything is screwed up. There are no more traffic lights. Trees are down everywhere."

Hawaiian Electric Co. workers criss-crossed O'ahu repairing downed power lines. More than 16,000 customers reported outages in Waimanalo, Kailua, Kane'ohe, and much of the North Shore, said HECO spokesman Jose Dizon. The largest single outage — 4,600 customers — struck parts of Kailua and Marine Corps Base Hawaii just before 7:30 a.m. Power was restored 30 minutes later, Dizon said.

"We have dispatched extra crews," Dizon said. "We are just focusing today on power restoration."

Downed lines forced police to close Kaukonahua Road from Thompson Corner to Wilikina Drive at 3:45 a.m. and it was still closed in both directions at 11 a.m. while repairs were being made.

A Hawaiian Electric Co. crew works to stabilize a utility pole on Hualani Street near Oneawa Street. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

Police also closed Paleka Road from Kamehameha Highway to Kapo'o Street at 2 a.m. because of downed power lines. It remained closed at 11 a.m.

Firefighters were busy, too. Beginning at 1 a.m. and lasting much of the morning, dispatchers at the Honolulu Fire Department issued 50 "blown roof" alarms, sometimes only a minute or two apart. Many of them were in Kailua and Kane'ohe.

They also responded to 15 electrical problems.

None of the calls was serious, said Capt. Kenison Tejada, fire department spokesman.

Because they came out of the south, instead of the normal tradwind pattern, the winds would accelerate as they zoomed over mountain ridges and down into to windward areas.

The National Weather Service, which had warned residents for three days about the winds, this morning issued a high wind warning for O'ahu and Kaua'i and a wind advisory for the rest of the state.

So how windy was it?

Between 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., the weather service recorded several strong gusts, including an 85 mph gust on the Waianae ridgeline above Makua Valley, a 56 mph gust on Mokapu Peninsula and a 54 mph gust at Wheeler Army Air Field.

But the weather service does not have wind meters at the bottoms of ridges, so the heaviest gusts went unrecorded, said lead forecaster Roy Matsuda.

"If they are blowing out on the peninsula at 56 mph, you can be sure Kane'ohe town is much stronger," he said.

Wind and power problems forced the Department of Education to close Waialua Elementary, Hale'iwa Elementary, Kailua Elementary and Intermediate schools, Castle High School, 'Iliahi Elementary, Samuel Kamakau Charter School, Aikahi Elementary and Kainalu Elementary.

Parents of Kailua High School students were told they could take their children home if they felt conditions were unsafe.

Kailua Elementary Principal Lanelle Hibbs did not need a wind meter to tell her she had a serious problem. She closed the school at 8 a.m. after winds started tearing asphalt shingles off a school building's roof.

One shingle hit a parent in the leg as he dropped off his child, she said.

"It was really bad," Hibbs said as a gust sent about two dozen detached shingles dancing across her school's front lawn. "I made the decision that the safety of our children comes first."

Electricity at the school, which has 570 students in grades preschool to 6, also was an on-again, off-again proposition all morning, Hibbs said.

Kim Eugenio left her job downtown to pick up her daughter Valerie, a third-grader at Kailua Elementary. Valerie's teacher, Rebecca Grimm, let all of her students use her cell phone to call their parents, although Kim had already heard of the closure on the radio.

"When I heard the school was closed, I was shocked because it was never closed before," Valerie said. "In the morning when I came for breakfast, all the lights in the cafeteria went out and everybody jumped."

On Kaua'i, gusts of more than 50 miles an hour ripped the roof off a Lihu'e garage, dropped a tree on two cars traveling on Kaumuali'i Highway and caused power outages islandwide.

The heavy winds filled drains with leaves and debris, backing up water and causing flooding in some areas.

The strong gusts started shortly after midnight. By dawn, many businesses closed after recognizing that driving was dangerous, power was off and on and the extreme weather was continuing.

The upper Wailua Homesteads area was isolated for several hours due to trees down on Kuamo'o Road. Many residents, primarily on the island's east side, reported telephone, television cable and internet connections were down. Isolated power outages occurred in many areas, but by late morning the Kaua'i Island Utility Coop reported electric power should have been restored in most communities.

The Kaua'i Medical Group canceled all elective surgery. Hanalei School was closed. Wal-Mart was closed, as were Koke'e Museum and Kaua'i Museum, the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge, several private schools, county refuse transfer stations and more.