Chinatown businesses 'sitting around, waiting' for claims after outages
Oct 29, 2024
CHINATOWN, Hawaii (KHON2) -- It has been over four months since a couple of hours-long power outages hit Downtown Honolulu, but businesses have yet to be reimbursed by Hawaiian Electric for their losses.
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KHON2 spoke to some who are still out thousands of dollars, like J. Dolan's.
It was a delivery day for the popular Chinatown pizzeria when the lights went out on Thursday, June 13 -- which meant they lost $8,000 in sales while employees lost $3,000 in wages, not to mention the product that went bad.
Chinatown businesses road to recovery after power outages
"Probably lost about $3,000 to $4000 in product," J. Dolan's operations manager Kristen Allspaw said. "A couple of months after, we did get a check in the mail for $500 from HECO as an acknowledgment that there had been a problem and that's the last communication we've had."
Chinatown's Neighborhood Board chair said HECO has been present at Board meetings, but there has been no information on how many claims were filed or whether any have been paid.
"They're actually making an effort to make things right," Downtown-Chinatown Neighborhood Board chair Ernest Caravalho said. "But they've got to do better. They have to do better by the people of Oahu. The people of Oahu can not be going on rolling blackouts and you can't be having a blackout out in Ewa, then the next day over in Hawaii, Kai, or another area like in Kaneohe."
HECO said it is finalizing its determination on claims and confirmed it will share the findings with the public by Tuesday, Nov. 5. That determination can not come soon enough for businesses.
"Acknowledge of it happening is one thing, but settling it and making sure that the PUC has their investigation done and HECO can finalize their claims. Now we're all just sitting around and waiting," Allspaw said.
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The Public Utilities Commission said in a statement:
"The PUC requires HECO to determine and report on the root cause of the outages and recommended actions. HECO filed this final report on Sept 4, 2024, titled, “June 2024 Downtown Honolulu Outages - Update” (Use CDMS Search for F- 313417). The PUC has reviewed the report and will monitor HECO’s progress on implementing the recommendations from its Consultant, Power Engineers, Inc., who prepared the final report.
In terms of claims, HECO is under no obligation to wait for the PUC in order to process and pay out claims. HECO’s damage claims process is governed under the Tariff Rule 16.
If a customer filed a damage claim with HECO and disagree with HECO’s determination, they may file an informal complaint with the PUC."
Deborah Kwan, Public Utilities Commission communications officer