"Better safe than sorry" is what state and county officials said to justify decisions to give government workers the day off yesterday in anticipation of potentially dangerous winds.

State employees on Kaua'i, O'ahu and Maui were told to stay home and public schools everywhere except the Big Island were closed. Honolulu and Maui counties also instructed employees not to report to work yesterday. The orders did not apply to emergency, civil defense, public safety, hospital and other "essential" staff.

Estimates of the cost of placing tens of thousands of government workers on paid administrative leave and how many of them did not work yesterday were not immediately available.

The cost of a single day's leave for the state's 51,800 employees is $8 million, according to Russell Pang, spokesman for Gov. Linda Lingle, but the figure for yesterday's leave would be less since essential workers and the state's 7,650 Big Island employees remained on the job.

The total number of state employees does not include workers employed by the Legislature.

Officials couldn't recall the last time public employees were instructed not to report to work on such a large scale. For Hurricane Flossie in August 2007, only state employees on the Big Island were told to stay home for a two-day period.

Even during Hurricane Iniki in 1992, only Kaua'i workers were affected, officials said.

Maj. Gen. Robert Lee, state adjutant general and head of state Civil Defense, yesterday stood by his recommendation made Thursday afternoon to close public schools and place nonessential state personnel on administrative leave. Although predicted wind gusts of up to 65 mph never materialized, Lee said he would make the same decision again if presented with the same weather information.

"Given the same factors, that would be the prudent thing to do," he said during a news conference at Civil Defense headquarters.

The highest recorded gusts on O'ahu yesterday hit about 49 mph. There were no major reports of damage from the storm.

Lee said he advised Lingle and schools superintendent Patricia Hamamoto to close schools and cancel work for state employees after a 3 p.m. weather update Thursday from the National Weather Service, when forecasters warned officials that gusts could reach 60 to 65 mph in some spots.

"With gusts up to 65 mph, that's just 10 mph below the lowest hurricane level," he said. "At that time, it was forecast the bulk of the storm was going to hit about 5 a.m, right during the period where you'd have the commuting traffic."

He added that he understands why some people were upset about school closures, which left many parents scrambling for childcare. But he said, "If we don't close the schools and take other action, we get criticized the other way."

Although winds didn't hit 65 mph, Lee said "49 mph is high enough in my book."

Addressing critics of the decision to close schools and state offices, Lee said: "I'm sorry that they were inconvenienced, but I can't place a price on someone that's injured when that could have been prevented."

SAFETY CONCERNS

Mayor Mufi Hannemann said he decided to grant city workers administrative leave after being notified that public schools would be closed. Hannemann said he did not want city workers on the road if the storm hit, nor did he want them struggling with childcare issues.

"I didn't want our city workers worrying about their children, even though at that point it was 50-50 (whether the storm would hit)," said Hannemann, speaking by phone from Washington, D.C., where he is attending the winter meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors along with the state's other three county mayors.

"I was prepared to get on a plane and come back if the storm hit."

City spokesman Bill Brennan said the mayor's top priority was the safety of the public and the city's 10,000 workers. "There really is no increase in cost to the city for granting leave. When it is a matter of public safety, the first question for government isn't 'How much is this going to cost?' "

Kaua'i County did not excuse its 1,140 workers because the most severe effects of the weather system were expected in the early morning hours, acting Mayor Gary Heu said in an e-mail to The Advertiser.

"We felt sufficiently comfortable in planning to open our fully staffed offices on Friday morning at 7:45 a.m.," he said. " We were prepared to suspend nonessential county operations should that have been necessary."

At the other end of the island chain, Hawai'i County's 2,500 employees also worked yesterday because weather conditions were not forecast to be as bad as elsewhere in the state, said county spokesman Hunter Bishop.

"The winds could pick up but we're not anticipating it to be anything major," he said yesterday.

Maui officials considered forecasts of severe conditions before placing many of the county's 2,300 workers on administrative leave, county spokeswoman Mahina Martin said in an e-mail.

"As with all public emergency incidents, decisions are made rapidly and in response to emerging conditions É The county does not hesitate when it comes to protecting life and property, and responsible decisions are made with as much information as possible given the situation," she said.

BUSINESSES STAY OPEN

The threat of 65 mph gusts did not prevent private-sector offices, stores and businesses from staying open yesterday. Nor did it prevent pro golfers from playing the second round of the PGA's Sony Open in Hawai'i at the blustery Waialae Country Club. In fact, a big crowd of schoolkids and parents was seen yesterday following local golfers Tadd Fujikawa and Lorens Chan.

Some businesses also reported an increase in customers. At Mama's Island Pizza in Kailua, manager Brenda Libby said moms with children were spending time at the shop on a day when fewer people usually stop by.

Libby said it was a good idea to keep state and city workers at home to make the roads safer since broadcast warnings predicted the worst.

"If I didn't have to work, I would have been at home," she said.

Unlike state and city employees on administrative leave, Sherry Au, who works at Hauula Gift Shop, had trouble finding a sitter for her 9-year-old son until the boy's dad agreed to take him to work.

She disagrees with officials' decisions on the weather.

"I don't think it was a good idea because they said the heavy wind wasn't going to pick up until later on tonight," Au said yesterday.

Dire weather predictions affected business at the gift shop until people realized the winds were not coming, she said. "The state made everybody afraid to go out like there was a hurricane," Au said.

Jason Misaki, O'ahu wildlife program manager for the Department of Land and Natural Resources, said the state's decision to keep most of its employees off the job ensured the safety of staff who are frequently out on back roads where they could get stuck in the mud, hit by falling trees or worse.

"Something could happen out there especially with those É winds that they were talking about," Misaki said.

Misaki said he ended up going to work for a short period anyway because he had appointments that couldn't be rescheduled.