Palace flag flies high again!
by Robert Yang | Oct. 5, 2022
One of the best things about elementary school was the field trips! My top three favorite places that I visited as a kid are the Challenger’s Center at Barber’s Point, Wet ’n’ Wild Hawaii and Iolani Palace. I’m sure a lot of Oahu residents commute past the palace regularly but there may be some who’ve never set foot inside. Iolani Palace was a surreal experience for me because it’s as though everything is frozen in time. Although I’ve driven by and walked past the iconic structure countless times, that 4th-grade field trip was the only time I’ve gone inside the palace.
Do you know how many flags are on the palace? Don’t worry! I’ve passed the palace’s ornate exterior thousands of times and couldn’t remember, too. It’s five! It used to be six but that’s a story for another time.
Recently, Hawaiian Electric had the opportunity to assist The Friends of Iolani Palace with repair of the front-center flagpole, which was damaged in late 2019. Most modern flagpoles are metal, but the palace flagpoles are the same ones from 1882 and were constructed using a special wood exported from Europe.
To have a replacement made and shipped to Hawaii would have cost nearly $500,000. Instead, the organization decided to replace just the broken part. But the palace didn’t have the equipment to reach the top of the pole to perform the repair work. From the base of the roof, the poles stand about 30 feet high so the Friends of Iolani Palace reached out to us to help with this unique task.
On Aug. 29 we sent a four-person crew to replace the broken hardware on the front-middle pole. They used our Versalift Phoenix bucket truck to complete the task. This bucket truck is the second largest piece of equipment in our fleet with its lift reaching a height of 180 feet. Since our crews already had the truck in use that day, they replaced equipment on the other poles where needed. The crews also performed maintenance on each of the poles, which included greasing up the hardware.
“I could see it in their eyes. The crew was extremely honored to be able to assist with such an iconic landmark. Many of us work at the Hawaiian Electric Ward facility nearby and we take special pride in seeing the Iolani Palace flags being flown,” said Kirk Kamanu, transmission and distribution superintendent. “That Friday of the same week that we worked on this happened to be Queen Liliuokalani’s 184th birthday. It made all of us here at the company extremely proud that we were able to play an important part in getting the flags flown on her special day.” (Queen Liliuokalani was the Hawaiian Kingdom’s last sovereign monarch.)
Our crew didn’t hesitate to provide support to The Friends of Iolani Palace. I’m proud to work for a company that lends a helping hand to our communities and glad to know our employees are willing to literally go above and beyond. Today, looking at the special palace flag flying high and knowing that, it gives me a great sense of pride.
Robert Yang is a digital communications and social media specialist at Hawaiian Electric Company.
