Children might know the proper response after seeing smoke coming from underneath a door, but what comes afterward? Lt. Larry Groenleer of the Salvation Army, Hanapepe Corps, said families need to know what their family’s disaster plan is. To that
Children might know the proper response after seeing smoke coming from underneath a door, but what comes afterward?
Lt. Larry Groenleer of the Salvation Army, Hanapepe Corps, said families need to know what their family’s disaster plan is.
To that end, Groenleer was distributing copies of the Salvation Army’s Home Safety Emergency Plan to Kukui Grove shoppers who browsed through the Ho‘omakaukau Kaua‘i displays set up around the food court area of the mall Saturday.
Designed with a magnetic strip on the back, the booklet provides a wealth of information regarding contacts, responses to various emergency situations and a variety of other information for families to discuss while formulating a disaster plan.
The Preparing for Disaster as a Family was the third in the Ho‘omakaukau Kaua‘i series, which is a disaster readiness initiative made possible through the American Red Cross and The Gas Company.
Primary responders, essential services, business and community leaders met on July 31 at the Kaua‘i Community College to kick off the series.
The dialogue between the leaders was aimed at making Kaua‘i self-sustainable in a disaster.
On Aug. 20, business representatives met to learn how to plan for continuity within their organizations before, during and following a disaster.
That arena covered topics on how to handle operations, finances and employees in light of disasters.
Finally, families were in the limelight Saturday as representatives from organizations and agencies involved in disaster response were on hand to provide more awareness for both children and adults in ways to plan for and recover from disaster as a family.
The Salvation Army was one of those agencies who joined the American Red Cross which had several booths offering disaster kits.
“Sometimes you need to lay things out so people can see what is involved in a disaster kit,” said Maria Lutz, a volunteer with the Red Cross, who was showing off a table filled with assorted items to care for a family of four.
Punctuated by the ham radio operators, Patsy Hamada was offering a variety of disaster response kits for purchase, the core being a safety tube which contains minimal items for survival that can be attached to the underside of a desk.
Despite its compact footprint, the tube contains a light stick, water packet, items to fasten things together, and other essential survival gear.
This appeared to be inspired by the 9/11 tragedy when people were trapped inside offices with no electricity. That disaster was also the inspiration for Ho‘omakaukau Kaua‘i, and coincides with September being National Disaster Preparedness month. In Hawai‘i, it coincides with the height of hurricane season which runs until Nov. 31.
Wilcox Hospital, The Home Depot, the Kaua‘i Food Bank, the county’s Agency on Elderly Affairs, the Kaua‘i Humane Society, Hawaiian Telcom and others were among the vendors offering information on disaster preparedness and response.
For those who missed the event, Jeannine Medeiros-Pigao of Hawaiian Telcom said they will be offering a plug-in telephone for a special disaster preparedness price through the end of September to allow anyone to have a phone that can operate when electricity is not available.
Medeiros-Pigao said the current phone books, which are also available at their Kukui Grove shop, feature a special disaster section including inundation maps in the event of a tsunami warning.
Ron Wiley, the event emcee, said there were a lot of premiums available for shoppers through the generosity of several community organizations.
