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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, February 2, 2007

Get out woolen PJs and blankets

By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer

WIND DAMAGE CLOSES PARKS

Two Waimanalo parks will be closed until further notice because of heavy wind damage to trees, city parks director Lester Chang said Thursday.

Bellows Field Beach Park and the Waimanalo Bay Recreation Area Park sustained significant damage from high winds, and the potential exists for more branches to fall, he said.

Chang said both parks will be closed on a day-to-day basis until they are deemed safe to use. Parks crews have been working extended hours trying to clear hanging tree branches and other debris to ensure these popular parks are safe, he said.

Bellows, a military property, normally is open to the general public during weekends beginning at noon on Fridays.

The city Department of Parks and Recreation Permit Office will attempt to notify campers who hold permits for this weekend of the temporary closure. Further closings will be decided on a daily basis.

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Here's a weather forecast you'll only get in the tropics: warm and blustery to "brrr."

But after several days of extra-strong kona winds that raked the state with numerous gusts in excess of 60 mph, the National Weather Service is forecasting a calm, sunny weekend with nighttime temperatures dropping into the mid 50s.

Record lows are possible in some locations, the weather service said.

"By the time you get to Sunday, it will be dramatically different," said weather service forecaster Tom Birchard. "Sunday will be clear with light winds."

The buffeting winds backed off Thursday, prompting the weather service to cancel its statewide wind advisory at 12:35 p.m., four hours earlier than expected. Despite that, nature's power was on occasional display: A pilot flying over Moloka'i's north shore at 9:45 a.m. spotted a water spout.

The winds are now expected to shift out of the northwest at first and then from the north by Saturday, clocking in at 20 to 25 mph, Birchard said. On Super Bowl Sunday, they'll practically vanish.

The southwest winds of Monday and Wednesday each moved in ahead of cold fronts and rain. The second of the two fronts was expected to bring rain to O'ahu Thursday night and move slowly down the chain, clearing the Big Island by Friday night.

Overall rainfall should be light, the weather service said.

"It doesn't look like a flood event," Birchard said. "Just enough to make it damp."

Overnight lows during this week's southwest blow were warm. Honolulu recorded several nights when 75 degrees was the low, Birchard said. By Sunday, Honolulu will be about 15 degrees cooler, he said.

Wahiawa, Waialua, Hale'iwa, Kahuku and even Kailua should all see Sunday morning lows in the mid to high 50s, he said.

"For most people, they associate Hawaiian weather with the same thing day in and day out," he said. "We see that in the summer, but in the winter we can have periods that have pretty good extremes for a tropical location."

The dissipating wind was good news for Hawaiian Electric Co., which took the brunt of the wind's damaging power: At one time or another, more than 20,000 customers lost electricity Monday and 30,300 customers lost electricity on Wednesday because of the wind, some more than once.

Most of those customers, about 30,000 of them, suffered problems Wednesday. By Thursday evening, power had been restored to all but 15 customers, said HECO spokeswoman Sharon Higa.

"There were a lot of people, about 125 people in the field, who were responding to those outages, both days," she said.

Several areas, mostly on Windward O'ahu from Kailua to Sunset Beach, lost power several times, she said.

For the last 15 customers on Poamoho Street above Hale'iwa Thursday, the wait for power lasted into the evening because HECO crews had to hike to remote locations during the day so they could inspect their equipment.

The city's firefighters also were breathing a little easier. Since Monday, they responded to 24 electrical problems and 41 blown roofs, said Capt. Kenison Tejada.

Wednesday was by far their busiest day, with 24 calls for blown roofs.

"It was pretty hectic," Tejada said. "We were going from one place to another."

Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com.