Residents of a Hilo apartment complex have been without power for more than a week after Hurricane Lala, and nobody can tell them when it comes back.

• Waiakea Villas lost power during the storm and still has no restoration date, because the damaged equipment is specialty gear that can't be bought off a shelf.
• Elderly and disabled residents are hit hardest — dark stairwells, medical machines that need an outlet, and insulin that spoiled without refrigeration.
• Management set up a single small generator so people can charge phones, which residents call badly inadequate.
• Residents say the emails they get mostly shift blame to Hawaiian Electric, leaving them with no clear picture.
• Hawaiian Electric says the fault lies with the property's own electrical equipment, and it has offered to help source parts faster.

Outlook: Management has opened a phone hotline for updates but still refuses to promise a restoration date, so the wait likely drags on.