Have You Seen This? Island power goes boom

WAIPAHU, Hawaii — The villain Loki said in the movie "The Avengers" that he wasn't scared of lightning, but he wasn't fond of what came after.

He may want to rethink that statement after a cloud-to-ground lightning strike caused a power pole near Waipahu District Park on the island of Oahu to go boom — literally — on Friday.

CAUGHT ON CAMERA ⛈️ Lightning strikes a utility pole near Waipahu District Park.

It's unclear if this caused any outages. HECO reports about 40,000 customers without power on Oahu. https://t.co/7neijREpaFpic.twitter.com/7lX0PBM5Ge

— Hawaii News Now (@HawaiiNewsNow) May 16, 2026

And yes, this really was cloud-to-ground lightning, which is a rare thing in Hawaii.

I can recall one time my parents and I were staying on Hawaii island for my grandmother's funeral at the Kamuela Inn during a winter storm, when a bolt of lightning struck nearby.

The resulting bolt crack and thunderclap, according to my dad, sounded like a missile strike (I wish I caught that on video).

Thank goodness, though, that no one was out there when it happened ... that sky looks awfully threatening.

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