West Maui is back online after more than a day in the dark, a relief for residents but another costly hit for small businesses.

• Nearly 10,000 customers lost power for over 30 hours after strong winds from Storm Noel swept through.
• Phone and internet service also went down, so people could not reach family, employees, or find out what was happening.
• For survivors of the 2023 Lahaina fire, the mix of high winds, darkness, a nearby fire, and no communication brought the trauma back.
• Winds were too strong to fly helicopters up to inspect transmission lines, delaying repairs until Monday.
• This is the seventh outage forcing local businesses to close this year, and a single lost day wipes out revenue while rent and bills keep coming.

Outlook: Officials warn this unusually rough storm season is not over, so more outages are likely in the weeks ahead.