Water spouts off Kakaako. Hail on Maui. Flooding on Oahu. People trapped in elevators. Thunderstorms everywhere.
That was some eventful evening last night, and forecasters say more severe weather is to come.
But the worst part about last night’s storm was the power outage. More than 60,000 customers — Kailua, Manoa, East Honolulu — were out of power for a good portion of the night.
And we had no idea what to do.
According to folks on Twitter — most via smartphones since Internet connections were down — some were stuck in traffic, some stayed at work and others — like me — pondered what to eat.
So instead of sitting in our darkened home, Derek and I grabbed the dogs and decided to chase thunderstorms.
We first went to Kuliouou, where the heavy clouds were too thick to see bolts. So we drove west, ending at Diamond Head lookout, where I snapped these shots. (To the right, the top photo was before, the second was after a large lightning episode.)
It was nothing I had ever seen before, the sky bursting with eye-straining light. Who needed power when you had a pyrotechnic show like this?
What was your Monday night like?
7 Comments
lighting shows are sweet. you ever have the urge to stick a metal rod in the sand at the beach ala Sweet Home Alabama and see if you can get some cool glass figures? I always wanted to try that.
Is that really true…? I should Google that.
no idea if it really works or not. be cool to try, though
Hello Cat, last night lighting was awesome!
Wasn’t it? If I had a bento with me, it would be dinner and a show!
make sure the bento was in a plastic or cardboard container and not a metal foil one, or your seats to the show might end up closer than front row.
Heh, I was at UH Manoa waiting for my grad class at 6pm to start when everything went kaput around 5:15. Then just as we found out class was canceled at 6, the rain got crazy. It was an…experience…trying to get out of Manoa when all the traffic lights were down plus barely being able to see due to the rain.
It actually took about 10 minutes to get from Maile Way end of University Avenue to the freeway on-ramp, where i quickly decided to veer off and take my chances heading along Wilder. Fortunately, about 35 minutes later when I got to my apartment in Downtown my power was on, and remained on.