Obamas shop on as outage hits Hawaii mall

HONOLULU, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- First lady Michelle Obama and her daughters were whisked through a Honolulu shopping center despite a power outage authorities said was caused by the weather.

The lights went out Monday in parts of the Ala Moana Center at Waikiki twice while the Obamas were inside.

Although Obama and daughters Sasha and Malia had plenty of helpful security personnel around them, scores of other shoppers found themselves being led to the exits of darkened stores by employees with flashlights.

"The first thing you heard was all these kids crying," shopper Ligaya Hartman of Waipio told the Honolulu Star- Advertiser. "There were a lot of unhappy kids."

Utility crews had been working on equipment near the mall that had been damaged by a weekend storm when the power failure occurred.

The Star-Advertiser said Tuesday the Obamas have had their Hawaiian holidays interrupted by power outages before. Their 2008 stay in Oahu's Kailua district included an island-wide blackout that lasted a full day.