By Curtis Lum Advertiser Staff Writer

Power was knocked out to thousands of residents and businesses for about an hour in the Kewalo, Makiki, McCully and Ala Moana areas this evening just as commuters were driving home and families were cooking dinner.

The outage was reported at about 5:55 p.m., said HECO spokesman Fred Kobashikawa. He said about 13,000 residential customers lost their power and he did not know how many businesses also went without electricity.

At 7:20 p.m., Kobashikawa said power had been restored to most customers, but that some homes in Makiki were still without electricity.

Traffic lights and street lights were knocked out in the affected areas as well, and police officers manned intersections to keep traffic flowing.

Many stores at the Ala Moana Center and in the Kakaako area were left in the dark when the power went out and one broadcast station, KGMB-TV, was knocked off the air for 50 minutes.

Kobashikawa said the cause of the outage was still under investigation, but that HECO officials were focusing their attenwtion on the Archer substation located at the company's Ward Avenue facility.

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-- Doris (nocents@bellsouth.net), November 21, 2000