It cost nearly $1.7 million for the state to grant administrative leave to 8,973 executive branch employees on Jan. 16 as a precaution against potentially dangerous winds, according to Russell Pang, spokesman for Gov. Linda Lingle.

Facing forecasted winds of up to 65 mph, the governor ordered "nonessential" state employees on Kaua'i, O'ahu and Maui County to stay home, and public schools everywhere except the Big Island were closed. Honolulu and Maui counties also instructed employees not to report to work.

Roughly 63 percent of the executive branch's 14,296 employees on O'ahu, Maui, Kaua'i, Lana'i and Moloka'i did not work that day. The state's 7,650 Big Island employees remained on the job.

The figures do not include the Department of Education, the University of Hawai'i, the Judiciary, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the Legislature or Hawaii Health Systems Corp., which manage their own payrolls.

All told, the state has 51,800 employees.

Although the highest recorded gusts on O'ahu on Jan. 16 hit about 49 mph and there were no major reports of damage from the storm, state and county officials justified the decision to keep workers at home as an appropriate safety precaution.