On Monday, Feb. 2, I took the bus from Makawao to a medical clinic in Kahului. As the procedure was about to start, everything went black.

I had to feel my way out. I caught the bus to return to Makawao. Because the traffic lights weren’t working and traffic was heavy, it took twice as long as normal to get home.

Shortly thereafter, the power came back on. But early this morning, as I was doing business online, the power went off again.

There was no wind or rain. I turned on my transistor radio and listened to a report ironically about Cuba and its problems with on and off again electricity.

It seems we on Maui are in the same boat as the Cubans.

Will our grid ever be upgraded to reliability?

If Hawaiian Electric knows, they aren’t telling.

Kurt Butler
Makawao