HECO said at least five lightning strikes, including one "knock-out blow," caused extreme fluctuations on the power grid, and within ten minutes those fluctuations took seven of Oahu's power generators off-line.

HECO has not been able to pinpoint the exact location of the lightning strikes, but the "knock-out blow" is believed to happened along transmission lines connecting the Kahe power plant with the Waiau plant.

"So, what pieces of equipment it hit and why it caused them to drop is what we're still working on. But what happens is Waiau five and six, Kahe one, Kahe two, Waiau seven, AES the coal unit, and H-power all are gone in ten minutes," said Robbie Alm, HECO Sr. Vice President.

Alm said HECO is bringing in expert engineers to try to figure out exactly what happened at each power plant causing it to shut down.

"This was a very sudden and severe storm. Are there things we can do that would have made the storm not have done what it did? We'll have to see," Alm said.

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