"Imagine the HECO workers at the power plants ... imagine what their night was like trying to restore electricity! I'm sure they worked extra hard! Thank you for all your hard work!!!"

"Focusing on alternative sources of energy can help change the situation."

"... We've all been installing power-sucking air conditioners, computers, building all-electric-everything subdivisions, knocking down low-rises and building 300-foot towers in their place, and now we're looking to build an electrically powered mass transit system ... How long, do you think, before they just plain run out of the ability to keep up with demand?"

"I would not doubt many of those griping about this outage have never lived anywhere else in their lives to gauge how things are like elsewhere. During my time in Guam, I had to deal with weeklong outages after major weather systems passed through."

"Luckily I bought a 3,000-watt portable generator some time ago. I was the only one on my block with a backup generator."

"The fact of the matter is that yes, this was an inconvenience, THIS TIME. But what is upsetting is that it now seems TOO EASY to take down the entire grid of this island. There should be redundancy in place, perhaps not just on the west side of the island, but somewhere in the east instead."

"My hat off to the wonderful radio crew of KSSK and the information given. I was glad to be able to receive a channel, and although some people had the nerve to complain about the power outage, the radio hosts allowed everybody to speak their mind, but defended the hardworking HECO crew."

"How would the airport do after a hurricane when we wanted to evacuate tourists? We'll hope the military will step in."

"Yes, driving home last night was NOT fun. Amazing how many people obviously don't know the rules of the road when they come to a non-controlled intersection. Watch out for the Yukons and Hummers plowing through without even slowing down. I couldn't imagine being a pedestrian and it wasn't even raining hard last night when I was coming home (light sprinkles where I was)."

"Crossing wide streets like Wai'alae Avenue (at Hunakai) and also South King Street was tricky! Lights from cell phones and wristwatches were used to flag down "TheBus" and to keep from bumping into people in the dark."

"Living in earthquake prone areas like Northern Cal and Japan has ingrained in me the need to be prepared and to take responsibility for my own well-being in things that I can control (such as having emergency supplies and a plan of action)."

"HECO definitely needs to isolate the grid more. A lightning strike, or whatever, in one area definitely should NOT cause an outage like this, but what's new. This will continue and they will not change anything, so expect this each time a minor storm comes through."

"Solar flashlights for everyone next year in the stockings! LOL!"

"Seems like they have made progress on this electrical issue since the last time this happened. At least the airport got back up and running quickly enough, but still there is a major problem in how the system works if the whole island has to go down because of a fault. They still haven't reported exactly what caused everything to go down."

"I must admit, growing up on O'ahu for the first 20 years of my life, I don't remember major outages like this. But I guess the growing population has resulted in growing demand for power ... and so major outages are a MAJOR inconvenience."

"Let's just be thankful that it's not freezing cold and snowing. Thank you to all the hospital workers who were working through the night at all our hospitals with issues such as loss of initial power, elevators not working, lack of air conditioning, loss of water, etc. They all deserve a big mahalo for caring for our loved ones."

"Lightning today, earthquakes or power spikes tomorrow, either way be prepared to pay more and get less."

"HECO shares the corporate philosophy of ExxonMobil; maybe even worse because HECO has shown little innovation."

"The real problem with this system is the huge liability of having no power for all of O'ahu. People get trapped in elevators, people in hospitals are at risk, etc. Plus there are all the tourists that then tell their friends that Hawai'i sucks and to not come here."

"I went to sleep early for a change; got up in the a.m. and the electricity was back on. Maybe we should have a blackout more often?!?"

"... Considering the fact that we live in the middle of the ocean and are able to generate our own power is pretty awesome ... KUDOS to all the HECO employees who busted their arses to get the power up and running again."

"I went through the ice storm in North Carolina a few years back. Not only were we without power for 10 days, but record lows at that time also. People died doing things to stay warm and alive, it was that desperate. At least we weren't without power for 10 days, the power came back up relatively quickly, and it was warm."

"I can't believe the instant panic mode most people seemed to go into. If there had been a REAL emergency, those people would have multiplied the emergency a thousand-fold and would have literally gridlocked any emergency help efforts."

"I work at the airport and most of the power was still out at 3 a.m. when I finally was able to go home. We had our entire staff running around with flashlights from gate to gate making illuminated walkways to help arriving passengers see their way out. This is worse than a Third World country over here sometimes. It's shameful that people here keep electing and appointing the same incompetents to govern and then complain about them all the time year after year after year after year. It's getting old already ..."