Honolulu, HI – The Hawaii Convention Center was fully operational within a day of a strong earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale that rattled the entire Hawaiian Islands chain on October 15th. The Sunday morning quake shook the islands awake and knocked out power to the Waikiki hotel district that is also home to the Hawaii Convention Center; however the center was not damaged.
“Our operations team performed admirably post-earthquake and during the power outage,” said Joe Davis, general manager of the convention center. “There were no injuries and all of the center’s business systems are operational.”
There were no events scheduled at the center Sunday and no future events were impacted.
The nearby hotels also bounced back after scores of tourists spent a muggy, rainy Sunday in their rooms or lined up at area convenience stores to buy snacks, bottled water and other supplies while waiting for the electricity to come back on. A spokeswoman for Hilton Hotels in Hawaii said there were no disruptions of events at the Hilton Hawaiian Village or other company properties.
Air travel was getting back to normal at Hawaii’s airports after the loss of power halted baggage inspections. A handful of flights to the mainland were postponed or canceled on Sunday and airlines urged travelers to double-check their reservations before departure.
Although Gov. Linda Lingel declared a statewide disaster, Hawaii was by and large back to normal by Monday night. “We just had a bit of a shake,” summed up convention center Marketing Services Manager Susan Nakamura.
Reach Joe Davis at (808) 943-3512 or jdavis@hccsmg.com; Susan Nakamura at (808) 943-3551 or snakamura@hccsmg.com
