so many poles fallen could be
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sabotage (where the poles were partially cut through or weakened by chemicals before hand)
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Lack of correct pole plan (the poles are supposed to be ballanced to make sure that they can carry the load.
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Failure to do proper maintenance (the 'let it rot' thing that California has as a major issue)
and a lack of inspection of the infrastructure would be a tell-tail sign of the let it rot point of view that is common in some utilities.
it ought to be easy to find out if the pole layouts were properly ballanced.
also if poles were let to rot, then pole-transfers would not have happened. A pole transfer is a common event in localles that do not have a 'let it rot' point of view of the management.
and a list of all pole transfers performed on Maui ought to be simple to provide.
and the designs for the pole layouts and the ones that are off on a dogleg just to counter ballance the load on the ones that have power lines on them.
an audit of all maintenance should occur and if maintenance did not happen, IE never any pole transfers, then man slaughter charges could be brought against management and shareholders of the utility.