Kaua’i County officials impatiently waited late Wednesday night for a tsunami warning that never came. Their huddling in the Civil Defense Emergency Operating Center in the basement of the Historic County Building ended up being simply a good, real-life test
Kaua’i County officials impatiently waited late Wednesday night for a tsunami
warning that never came.
Their huddling in the Civil Defense Emergency
Operating Center in the basement of the Historic County Building ended up being
simply a good, real-life test for the island’s emergency response
system.
An earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale, according to the
U.S. Geological Survey, rocked an area 20 miles below sea level just off the
coast of Papua New Guinea Wednesday night, putting much of the Pacific,
including Hawai’i, under either a tsunami watch or warning.
A tsunami
generated by the quake came ashore in northeast Papua New Guinea, doing damage
to a supermarket and a few other buildings.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning
Center in Honolulu placed Hawai’i under a tsunami watch after the quake, but
said later that no destructive Pacific-wide tsunami threat existed.
On
Kaua’i, civil defense acting director Clifford Ikeda called in essential
personnel at approximately 8 p.m. Wednesday.
Represented throughout the
evening were the offices of the mayor, public information and councils
services, and the Public Works, Police and Fire departments.
Governor Ben
Cayetano’s Kaua’i liaison, Roy Nishida, was also on hand, as were American Red
Cross and Civil Air Patrol representatives.
The EOC emergency call-down
list was activated, and various response agencies were placed on alert.
Additionally, the Kaua’i Chamber of Commerce, Hawai’i Hotel Association and
other business organizations were notified of the situation.
EOC personnel
were prepared to initiate evacuation procedures in the event of a tsunami
warning.
“Fortunately, the event was deemed to be a non-event and we
disbanded at approximately 11:45 p.m. once we got word (the all-clear) from
state Civil Defense,” stated Wallace G. Rezentes, Sr., Mayor Maryanne Kusaka’s
administrative assistant.
Ikeda was pleased with the quick reactions of
those involved.
“The response from the community and government was such
that we were ready,” he said.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be
reached at [pcurtis@pulitzer.net] or
245-3681 (ext. 224).
