Roughly 600 people in a Makaha Valley high-rise have been without electricity for four days, a serious hardship for elderly and medically fragile residents.

• The outage stems from repairs to the building's own electrical system, not the wider grid.
• A private contractor is doing the work while the utility only disconnects and restores power, and poor coordination between them has dragged the job out.
• Residents threw out spoiled food, slept in the heat with no air conditioning, and some left the building entirely.
• One woman with a heart device moved in with family in Kaneohe so she could keep it charged, saying she would have died otherwise.
• Elepaio Social Services handed out 500 hot meals at the towers and plans more food help, including another distribution next Wednesday at Waianae Boat Harbor.

Outlook: Power should come back as the electrical repairs wrap up, but residents face more food and grocery losses until it does.