Schools closed, events were canceled, and nonessential state and county employees stayed home Friday but a winter storm expected to blast the islands with powerful Kona winds did minimal damage.
Gov. Linda Lingle and Maui County Managing Director Sheri Morrison had ordered state and county workers to prepare for what state civil defense officials warned "could be a very dangerous storm." State Schools Superintendent Pat Hamamoto ordered public schools closed on Kauai, Oahu and in Maui County.
But there was no report of heavy damages as the fickle winter storm grazed the islands with gusty winds and heavy but brief showers.
''It's definitely not as bad as we thought it was going to be. That's good news,'' said Robert Ballard, National Weather Service science and operations officer in Honolulu.
Gen. Robert Lee, state adjutant general, stood by the decision he made Thursday to recommend that public schools close and state workers stay home.
''Given the same factors, that would be the prudent thing to do,'' Lee said Friday.
''With gusts up to 65 mph, that's just 10 mph below the lowest hurricane level,'' Lee said at a news conference.
Maui might have recorded the stiffest winds, with the Haleakala summit recording a 60 mph blast at 2 p.m. Friday. Kahului Airport reported winds of 31 to 41 mph at 8 a.m and steady southerly winds of 20 to 30 mph through the day.
Kauai reported winds peaked at 20 to 33 mph at 8 p.m. Thursday, while Honolulu International Airport recorded winds of 16 to 25 mph through most of Friday.
Maui Electric Co. crews responded to pockets of power outages, mostly in Upcountry areas where tree branches made contact with power lines. County crews cleared debris and downed trees from roadways. Ocean lifeguards responded to a report of two windsurfers who managed to return to shore at Waiehu Beach Park and helped tow a 20-foot sailboat back to its mooring at Mala Wharf in Lahaina.
In a separate incident in Lahaina, the owners of the Mischief Maker, a 42-foot sailboat grounded on a sandy bottom offshore of the Canoes restaurant, made assessments of how to get the vessel on shore and repaired after it broke loose form its mooring on Thursday.
The boat owned by Tim and Cheri Phillips was discovered beached Thursday morning, apparently after its mooring chain snapped.
"Yesterday was very emotional," Cheri Phillips said. "Right now our plans are to get her ashore and repair her."
At Lahaina Harbor, a 22-foot power boat took on water, Harbormaster Hal Silva reported. Thirty-plus commercial boat operators voluntarily ceased operations Friday. The Lanai ferry made a couple of runs Friday morning, but later stopped operations. The Molokai ferry did not run Friday, Silva said.
The power boat that took on water was moored about a quarter mile outside the harbor when it got into trouble as swells began to pick up. No one was on board at the time, but the boat's owners have been contacted and a salvage crew is scheduled to take it out of the water today when seas are calmer, Silva said.
The Hawaii Superferry canceled its Honolulu-to-Kahului run Friday because of heavy seas, but it was expected to resume service today, according to spokeswoman Lori Abe. She did not have information on the number of passengers affected by the canceled trips.
Morrison said the decision to shut down most county operations Friday was based on the decisions by the state. She is acting mayor with Mayor Charmaine Tavares attending a U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C.
Maui County followed the lead of the state Department of Education, which announced at 4:20 p.m. Thursday that it was closing schools because of a high wind warning anticipating gusts of 50 to 60 mph. Lingle also ordered nonessential state employees not to report to work Friday after consultations with Lee and National Weather Service officials.
"Once the state made its decision, that certainly encouraged us to follow suit," Morrison said. "As it turned out, the storm was not as predicted by the weather service. . . . I'm very relieved it wasn't bad."
Not all county employees who were supposed to stay home did so. Morrison said some trash collection crews in places on Molokai and Lahaina didn't get word about the county shutdown and went ahead and collected household refuse on their routes.
At around 4:15 p.m., there was a flood advisory and a report of a heavy downpour in Kaupo, where sections of road had been washed out by flooding at the end of December. Late Friday, police responded to a report of a vehicle washed off the road near Kaupo.
Maui Electric spokeswoman Kau'i Awai-Dickson said small pockets of outages were reported primarily in Olinda and Haiku. The power outages began when wind began getting stronger on Thursday. Most of the problems were along Olinda and Piiholo roads, where tree branches were snapping and blowing into the power lines.
Later Friday, a "freak wind" was reported at about 5:30 p.m. that left several power poles leaning over.
Awai-Dickson said two poles and lines were downed along Omaopio Road, shutting down the road just below Kula Highway. She could not predict how long it would take crews to replace the poles and lines Friday night.
Another crew was working on an outage along Crater Road, she said. But there were no widespread outages on the island.
"By far, we've fared pretty well," she said Friday evening. "The winds weren't as strong as expected."
With the front dissipating, the Central Maui Landfill was expected to reopen today for its normal hours of operation, according to a county news release.
Staff with the Department of Parks and Recreation were to report to work today to assess facilities that can be reopened. As of Friday afternoon, county pools and campgrounds remained closed along with Kepaniwai Heritage Gardens in Iao Valley, the Waiehu Golf Course and Kalepolepo Beach Park. On Friday morning, Kanaha Beach Park was closed, along with the Lanai and Kaunakakai gymnasiums.
Parks Director Tamara Horcajo said parks officials would need to make safety assessments and clean up swimming pools, campgrounds, parks and the golf course before they could reopen.
In South Maui, county lifeguards assisted with four ocean rescues, three at Kamaole Beach Park I and one at Kamaole II. No injuries were reported. Surf was estimated at 4 to 5 feet with a large shorebreak, county officials said.
County water and wastewater facilities were reported to be operating normally.
Residential refuse collection for manual pickup routes that were canceled Friday were rescheduled for collection today, county officials said. Residents with automated trash pickups who had service canceled Friday will have their trash picked up Tuesday.
County officials reminded all refuse customers to cover their trash receptacles to prevent rain from filling the can and to secure the cans so they don't become a safety hazard in high winds.
For more information, Upcountry refuse customers should call 572-3958, and Central and West Maui customers should call 270-7452.
* The Associated Press and Staff Writer Melissa Tanji contributed to this story. Brian Perry can be reached at bperry@mauinews.com.
