On June 13, 2024, we got to work only to find out the power was out. With a huge deadline the following morning, we were frantically refreshing the HECO website constantly throughout the day to check on when the power would be back on, which didn’t come on until that evening.

Luckily, we had a couple of hours in the morning to complete the work and submit it just in time. HECO had a planned power outage on Saturday June 15th, leaving us without power and the inability to catch up on our work.

Then starting on Monday evening, June 17, 2024, there was another power outage, but this time it was due to fires that “damaged the underground cables in several locations” affecting the majority of Downtown Honolulu, China Town and surrounding areas. There were nearly 3,000 customers without electricity leaving residents and businesses in the dark and forcing businesses to close.

HECO staff worked tirelessly day and night to repair these cables, when an unexpected arc flash (electrical currents traveling through the air between two conductors causing an explosion) occurred while four electricians were working inside the manhole. Luckily no one was hurt, but of course this caused a setback with the repairs.

Fortunately, on the morning of June 20, 2024, we discovered a couple of outlets in the office actually had power… it was a miracle! MASON staff jumped at the chance to get power to the computers, asking everyone to bring in whatever extension cords they had, running the cords from the few working outlets to everyone’s computers so staff could either remote in while working from home or work in the office. Obviously, the elevator, air conditioning, and lights in the building did not work/was still out of power so those who worked in the office had to hike up 5 flights of stairs and work in the dark during the hot summer day! The power to our building wasn’t restored until that evening around 6pm.

MASON would have been out of commission for the 3rd day in a row if it weren’t for the staff’s ingenuity and resourcefulness as well as our team spirit to pitch in and make things work in order to stay productive!

From our “extended” family at MASON, we wanted to let you know that even without electricity, we were still able to bring “light” to our projects!