"We're having a lot of trouble mainly in the Kona side," said Rhea Nakaya, spokeswoman for Hawaii Electric Light Co. "We have been receiving reports of very heavy rain in the area. It looks like maybe the winds may have died down a little bit, but the rain is very heavy, so we expect it to get worse."

Flooding prompted the closure of Ali'i Drive from the Palani Road area to Hualalai Road intersection at about 5:15 p.m. in the middle of the Kailua, Kona rush hour, and a section of Old Mamalahoa Highway in North Kona was also closed.

Kim's proclamation cited the widespread power outages and the risk of high winds, high surf and flooding.

Nakaya said officials at Helco were particularly concerned about reports of lightning late yesterday afternoon because repair crews cannot work in a lightning storm.

Crews were working this afternoon to restore service to about 3,500 customers in three areas on the Kona side.

About 1,450 customers were without service in Kailua, Kona from the beginning of Ali'i Drive to Royal Poinciana Drive; an outage in Kaloko Mauka affected another 1,500 homes and businesses; and another in the Honaunau area affected about 500 more, she said.

Trees falling on a transmission line also in the Glenwood area also cut service to about 2,600 customers for about an hour this afternoon, she said. She said crews were also working on "pocket outages" in other areas of the island, including some who lost power on Tuesday.