Brief power outage hits three Big Island areas Friday

Nearly 5,000 people near Waikoloa, Waika and Kuakini lost power Friday morning, when a Hawaii Electric Light Co. generator tripped offline unexpectedly, officials said. The outage affected 4,714 customers.

Power went out at 8:47 a.m. and was restored by 8:51 a.m., officials said. HELCO is investigating the cause and apologized for the disruption.