LIHU‘E — Don’t expect the special treatment received following Hurricane ‘Iniki if a hurricane hits the island this year. That’s the message Kaua‘i residents were given by county officials at a Hurricane Preparedness Expo held at Home Depot Saturday .
LIHU‘E — Don’t expect the special treatment received following Hurricane ‘Iniki if a hurricane hits the island this year.
That’s the message Kaua‘i residents were given by county officials at a Hurricane Preparedness Expo held at Home Depot Saturday .
Instead, they should stock up on emergency supplies before any disaster strikes, as a way to help support a speedy recovery.
The event was held to inform Kauaians on how to keep their homes and families safe from disaster. Similar events were staged at Home Depot stores across Hawai‘i.
Residents took informational leaflets from tables manned by representatives from the American Red Cross, Home Depot and the Kaua‘i Fire Department.
Clifford Ikeda, chief of plans and operations officer for the Kaua‘i Civil Defense Agency, said in the case of a hurricane striking Kaua‘i, government agencies would be primarily tasked with rebuilding the infrastructure to return the island to normalcy as quickly as possible.
With this focus in mind, government agencies may not be able to help individual disaster victims right away, Ikeda said.
Residents can wait for government help to come in the days after a disaster, but a better option would be for residents to stock their homes with water, bedding, food and emergency tools and supplies before any disaster, and use them while they wait for help later, he said.
“It has been recognized by the president that individual preparedness is an important element,” Ikeda said. “(It is) An important element because government can’t respond in a way to fulfill the individual needs when there is a massive disaster.”
The devastation of Hurricane ‘Iniki in 1992 left thousands of island homes severely damaged or destroyed, resulting in temporary homelessness for many residents until their homes were repaired.
At the time, many residents automatically sought out the government to make their world right again, said Kaua‘i Civil Defense Agency head Mark Marshall.
Government agencies strived to meet the demand, but weren’t successful in all situations, he said.
The push since ‘Iniki has been to encourage residents to be as self-sufficient as possible before and after natural or man-made disasters, Marshall said.
“People should understand they are going to be on their own and to fend for themselves for the first two to three days (after a disaster),” Marshall said.
Ikeda and Marshall said Kaua‘i residents, for the most part, showed resiliency after ‘Iniki, and in many cases, took care of their own needs.
“People will take care of themselves, because that is the way we are made,” Ikeda said. Many residents at the time had worked in the sugar industry and learned about self-sufficiency that helped them through ‘Iniki, Ikeda and Marshall said.
At the expo Bob and Stella Quintanar of Hanama‘ulu waited eagerly in line to pick up literature on how to cope with disasters.
The couple, who moved from Lancaster, Ca. to Kaua‘i last October, said they have never “gone through a hurricane before,” and wanted to be prepared.
“We went through a lot of earthquakes (in California) but never a hurricane,” Bob Quintanar said.
The couple said they were thankful for the information. “We have been waiting for this information since we came here,” Mrs. Quintanar said.
One local woman passed by the informational tables, but barely looked at them.
She said she had gone ‘Iniki and wasn’t interested in getting any information on hurricane preparation. She said the memory of ‘Iniki was painful enough and that she didn’t want to be reminded of that time.
Kaua‘i County has prepared itself for the next hurricane in a myriad of ways, Marshall said, creating an “operational plan,” and each county department has a disaster plan that prescribes implementation of emergency procedures.
There are plans that call for “interfacing” with government and to get commerce going after a disaster, Marshall said.
At a cost of $300,000, Kaua‘i County hired the University of Hawai‘i Science Research Institute at the Manoa campus, which is headed by Dr. Mike Hamnent, to draft a “strategy mitigation plan” that has been approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Marshall said.
The plan, which Marshall helped initiate, is the prerequisite for the release of federal relief funds in the event of a disaster.
No such plan existed at the time ‘Iniki struck Kaua‘i, he said. Partly as a result, the recovery of the island was slowed, Marshall believes.
He also said through the “7 District Fire Station Plan,” residents also can drop by fire stations and get access to services that may have been shut down for lack of power as a result of a man-made or natural disaster.
In a case of dialysis machines shutting down for lack of electricity and people not being able to avail themselves of the treatment, they can file their needs at any fire station, Marshall said.
The requests for help will be processed, requests for services will be coordinated, and the individual can be flown off island for the services, Marshall said.
The emergency plans used by the county are designed not only for hurricanes but for other natural disasters like tsunamis, or man-made disasters and acts of terrorism, Marshall said.
Marshall also said the county has emergency shelters to accommodate 19,000 people for the next hurricane, and more can be accommodated for a tsunami emergency, Marshall said.
“We are way ahead of the game, because since Hurricane ‘Iniki 12 years ago, we have fine-tuned our plans,” Marshall said.
During yesterday’s emergency preparation exposition, people lined up next to a table set up by Home Depot that contained emergency tools, including flashlights and tapes. Customers peppered a Home Depot representative with questions on what do in case of the next hurricane.
Manning other booths were American Red Cross volunteers Lucia Valentin and Jackie Jung, Gerald Shin of the Kaua‘i Civil Defense Agency and Capt. Russell Yee, Inspector Daryl Date and Inspector David Bukoski from the Kaua‘i Fire Department.
Yee said his table display served as a “mental spark” to remind people to protect themselves against the risk of home fires throughout the year.
Manning a Kaua‘i Police Department booth were Lt. Miles Tanabe; Sgt. Dan Fort; Sgt. Dan Miyamoto; officer Damian Loo; Margie Loo, a patrol clerk; Emily Fabro, a firearms clerk; Jodi Ho‘okano, a clerk with the Investigative Services division; and Jessica Fletcher, a patrol clerk.
Sponsors of yesterday’s event included state Civil Defense, the Kaua‘i Civil Defense Agency, the American Red Cross and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and lchang@pulitzer.net
