LIHU’E — A federal disaster official has been enjoying not only the island’s warmth and hospitality, but is also overjoyed to be dealing with people who have a firm grasp of the basics of disaster preparedness. And, while one goal
LIHU’E — A federal disaster official has been enjoying not only the island’s
warmth and hospitality, but is also overjoyed to be dealing with people who
have a firm grasp of the basics of disaster preparedness.
And, while one
goal of the federal Project Impact initiative he is here to introduce is to
harden buildings to withstand hurricane-force winds, Michael Armstrong was
happy to see that two hurricanes in 10 years haven’t hardened the people of
Kaua’i.
He and program partners “can’t control Mother Nature, but (we) can
change human nature,” said Armstrong, deputy director of the Mitigation
Division of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Because the
island has survived hurricanes in 1982 and 1992 (“We are now whole once more,”
said Mayor Maryanne Kusaka), many Kaua’i residents have intense real-life
experiences in disaster preparedness, riding a storm out and recovering from a
storm’s devastation and impacts.
“It’s refreshing to work with people who
care,” Armstrong said.
It is “like a breath of fresh air” to come to a
community already well into planning for eventual construction of
hurricane-proof safe rooms within or near existing homes, which can be built to
withstand a hurricane’s best shot, he said.
With county leadership and
will, and building on what’s already been done (the County Council has a public
hearing next week on a bill offering tax breaks to people who build safe rooms
in or near their homes for emergency shelter purposes), FEMA officials won’t
have to “waste time” covering basics of disaster preparedness, he told a full
house yesterday at the Historic County Building council chambers.
“Local
leadership can save lives,” Armstrong stressed. “These people believe in these
programs,” he said of state and county officials who were joined by nearly a
dozen businesses and organizations that are partners in the Project Impact
program.
The formal part of the ceremonies was the signing of a memorandum
of agreement by federal, state, county representatives, as well as those
community partners who will help, as the Project Impact slogan states, in
“Building a Disaster-Resistant Community.”
The FEMA program comes with a
$300,000 grant to assist in implementing programs over a five-year period, but
it is much more than a “little grant,” Armstrong said.
Communities not
disaster-resistant can’t even begin to get to important matters like economic
development, education, solid waste, and other important issues, he
continued.
In building what Vice President Al Gore calls “livable and
sustainable communities,” disaster-mitigation efforts are paramount, Armstrong
said.
The dictionary defines “mitigate” as “to make or become milder or
less severe,” as in preparing communities to be in a position that, when the
next hurricane strikes, impact to people and property won’t be as severe as in
1982 and 1992.
County officials found out about FEMA mitigation funds in
the aftermath of Hurricane ‘Iniki in 1992, and the county is using some to
prepare to build a hurricane-resistant structure near the county Department of
Water.
Project Ho’omalu (literally, to offer shade or protection) will be
an economic initiative including a professional kitchen for entrepreneurs and a
place where people can learn about hurricane-resistant building materials and
techniques.
Project Impact, Armstrong said, is more than a Civil Defense
issue. It is a parks and recreation, public works, economic development, social
issue and more, as being prepared — or not — for a natural disaster “impacts
the whole sense of home, of place.”
“Mitigation works,” and studies have
shown that for every dollar spent in mitigation efforts, $2 are saved after a
disaster, he added.
Armstrong said he views Project Impact as “an
investment strategy that will reap benefits” for the 250 communities nationwide
who have signed up to make their homes and businesses better able to survive
natural disasters.
He envisions those communities mentoring Kaua’i, and
Kaua’i mentoring those communities, as information is shared on what works, and
what doesn’t, where disaster preparedness is concerned.
Working with Texas
Tech University, FEMA has developed plans for a safe-room shelter that has been
tested to survive 250-mile-per-hour winds.
Besides The Garden Island
newspaper and various state and county agencies, other entities who had
representatives sign the memorandum of agreement were the Alexaner &
Baldwin Foundation, American Red Cross Kaua’i branch, Big Save, Inc.,
Contractors Association of Kaua’i, Hawai’i Hotel Association Kaua’i chapter,
Ho’ike Kaua’i Community Television, Inc., Kaua’i Economic Opportunity, Inc,
Kaua’i Visitors Bureau, Verizon Hawai’i, Inc. and Wilcox Hospital.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at pcurtis@pulitzer.net or
245-3681 (ext. 224).
Staff photo by Dennis Fujimoto
Maile Baird of
Halau Kanikapahuolohi`au performs a hula ho`okupu as part of the MOA Signing
Agreement as mayor Maryanne Kusaka and Michael Armstrong, Dep. Director of FEMA
Mitigation in Washington, DC.
