Obama among those in dark in Hawaii

HONOLULU, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Power was returning to the Hawaiian island of Oahu early Saturday after a blackout left President-elect Barack Obama and thousands of others in the dark.

Among the 87,000 homes and businesses with electricity restored by 4:45 a.m. were at least four hospitals and the Honolulu sewage treatment plant, The Honolulu Advertiser reported.

The beachfront vacation compound where Obama and his family are spending their Christmas vacation lost power at 8:08 p.m. Friday, and the Honolulu Police Department was instructed by Mayor Mufi Hannemann to give the Secret Service all the help it needed, including generators.

Hannemann said he contacted Obama at 9:30 p.m., and that the president-elect said everything was fine and he was going to bed to sleep through the outage, the newspaper said.

The power outage affected the entire island, disrupting airline flights, post-Christmas shoppers at malls and thousands of residents. A Hawaiian Electric Co. employee told the Advertiser a lightning strike caused a surge the system, prompting generators to automatically shut down as a safety measure.

Honolulu city officials told reporters workers will now have to "cold-start" the system, which could take up to 12 hours. But the utility said it expected the lights would be on in most of Oahu by mid-morning Saturday.