LIHU‘E — Winston Churchill once said all men make mistakes, but only wise men learn from them. The Kaua‘i Police Department showed it has taken on some of that wisdom in reviewing its coverage for the March 10 tsunami warning.
LIHU‘E — Winston Churchill once said all men make mistakes, but only wise men learn from them.
The Kaua‘i Police Department showed it has taken on some of that wisdom in reviewing its coverage for the March 10 tsunami warning.
At the county’s monthly Police Commission meeting Friday morning, Capt. Mike Contrades gave a presentation on KPD’s efforts that night, what it did right, and what it can and will do better.
Although police had plenty of time to react and enough officers responded to do the work, Contrades said they could have done more faster.
“We should have closed the roads earlier and evacuated all low-lying areas, not just the Po‘ipu and Hanalei area,” he told commissioners.
Response to the tsunami included establishing five command posts, closing 27 roads, assisting with evacuations, providing security of the evacuation operation centers and conducting visual checks around the island for damages. A lieutenant or commander was assigned to each of five command posts — located at the Hanalei Station, Kapa‘a Middle School, Lihu‘e headquarters, the Koloa Substation and Waimea High School — and an incident command center oversaw the five districts.
Contrades said the amount of time to respond — the tsunami warning came hours before the tsunami was expected to hit around 3 a.m. — helped the department to conduct evacuations and other efforts. There was also cooperation with other agencies, including the state Department of Education and Kaua‘i Superintendent Bill Arakaki, who opened up schools to accommodate visitors.
The county’s Public Works Department provided cones and barricades in areas where officers would need them and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources helped with the roadblocks. Additionally, communication in the field ran smoothly and there were “just enough” officers to man the command posts.
“Some of the officers even called in asking if they were needed, which was a big help instead of us trying to find them,” Contrades said.
No plan in hand
Unfortunately, the captain said, a lot of time was spent attempting to reach officers. He explained that many have AT&T phones, so when the service went down that evening, department leaders couldn’t get in touch with many of their staff members. The department doesn’t have a prepared phone list, he added.
“That was a little difficult,” Contrades said. “We had to rely on our phones and get phone numbers from each other.”
He went on to say the response for duty and establishing command posts took too long, evacuations should have been more extensive, more staff was needed at the command centers and department officials weren’t sure when to begin closing roads.
“There was some confusion in who makes that call: Was it administration? Was it KPD? And so the call to close the roads took a little long,” Contrades said.
Organizers did not have a disaster response plan on hand, so much of their coverage that night came from memory.
“We saw that there was a lack of understanding for the incident command systems amongst some of our supervisors and we weren’t prepared as far as support if this turned into a long-term issue with logistics such as food and water,” Contrades said.
Police did not use CERT volunteers as they had in the past and post-impact planning should have happened prior to the event, he added.
There were also concerns about miscommunication — a radio station gave an all-clear too early — and putting lives at risk. Approximately 5 minutes before the waves were supposed to strike, the department received a call for service in Kapa‘a. An officer went to the area, but the person who had called for help had left.
“We had a concern about assigning our officers into the tsunami area … right before it was supposed to hit,” Contrades said.
Certain people and agencies tried to get past the roadblocks following closures.
“Once the determination is made that the road is closed, it’s for everybody’s safety and regardless of your status in the community that’s not going to protect you from a wave coming in,” the captain said. “When we shut down the road, it’s done. Nobody is getting through.”
Improvements
under way
The department has already implemented pieces of its improvement plan. Police have reviewed and updated their disaster action plan and identified locations for roadblocks.
They’re working on updating a phone list for personnel, pre-planning staffing to determine who will go where at what point and post, training all command staff in incident command systems, creating digital mapping that will be kept at the emergency operation center, and a disaster recall directive to call personnel back.
They also plan to hold a table-top exercise to rehash the entire tsunami event and “see if we can do it better.”
Commissioners, who were impressed by the department’s efforts, asked about how evacuations work, improving the phone list and roster, as well as the amount of money that went into tsunami coverage. Contrades said he didn’t have those figures.
“KPD did a fantastic job,” said Commission Vice Chair Ernest Kanekoa Jr., who lives in the Po‘ipu area.
Contrades said the overall concept is for everyone’s safety, and that the report was generated for the department and county administration.
“Nobody would be safe from a wave,” he said.
Commissioner Thomas Iannucci said the review was appropriate.
“What we saw in Japan last month, how far those waves can go. … We probably really need to review how far back we need to go,” he said.
Other business
• The commission read a complaint filed against an officer of the police department
Kanekoa said the commission completed its review of the complaint. It alleges that the complainant was contacted by 911 dispatch to pick up an accident vehicle at the request of the owner. While en route, he became stuck in traffic and contends he should have been contacted by dispatch in a timely manner informing him that another tow company was removing the vehicle. The commission upheld the complaint, which has been forwarded to the office of the chief.
• Deputy County Attorney Justin Kollar gave the commission an update on KPD’s award of a contract for its next generation computer-aided dispatch and records management system.
• Chief Darryl Perry reported recent fights between locals and passengers and employees of cruise ships that come to the island on Thursdays.
“They get drunk and one thing leads to another and there’s fights that go on, so we’re addressing that situation,” the chief said. “We’ll be having a meeting with all the people that are involved with (Norwegian Cruise Lines), the businesses down there and also the apartment complexes to see how we can better address the situation.”
• KPD is working toward accreditation and department heads met that with a member of The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc., who assessed the department’s facilities.
“That’s one of our major goals, to become accredited,” Perry said.
• Police Week runs May 15-21. A proclamation will be made by the mayor and council. On the 21st, the department will showcase a display of police and equipment in conjunction with the U.S. Coast Guard at Kukui Grove.
• Lt. Danillo Adadilla of the Investigative Services Bureau will be retiring June 1.
• The next commission meeting will be May 20.
• The chief named Waimea district officers Nelson Gabriel, Arnel Purisima and Troy Sakaguchi as employees of the month for their part in saving a motorist from being burned in a vehicle fire following a head-on collision.
On Feb. 16, the officers responded to the crash, just west of the Mahlea junction. Gabriel, the first on the scene, saw the vehicle’s engine compartment had caught fire. The driver was pinned and could not be extracted.
The officer attempted to put out the fire with an extinguisher he had in his patrol vehicle but it kept reigniting. Purisima and Sakaguchi arrived on scene and used their own extinguishers, along with those from motorists stopped in traffic, to contain the blaze until Kaua‘i firefighters could put it out, an officer read.
“With a fire burning under the hood of a vehicle and the driver pinned inside, you and your fellow officers kept the fire contained with fire extinguishers … prior to the arrival of the fire unit,” Perry told the officers. “Due to your teamwork and courage, the driver received no fire-related injuries. Your efforts are a true reflection of your dedication to keeping the community safe.”
Visit www.kauai.gov for meeting agendas and more information.
• Jessica Musicar, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or by e-mailing jmusicar@thegardenisland.com.
