It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good. Hurricanes Iselle, Julio and Ana that threatened Hawaii Island last year brought with them some valuable lessons on how best to prepare this year.
It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good. Hurricanes Iselle, Julio and Ana that threatened Hawaii Island last year brought with them some valuable lessons on how best to prepare this year.
Of the three, only Iselle made landfall. As the strongest tropical storm to land here in recorded history, Iselle, hitting the island in early August, caused $79.2 million in damages statewide and killed one person on Kauai from flooding.
Right on Iselle’s heels was Julio, a storm that veered away before making landfall. Two months later came Ana, another storm threatening the weather-weary island but also veering away without causing significant damage.
Hurricane season in Hawaii is June through November.
A Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (formerly State Civil Defense) spokesman said the busy year reaffirmed that the counties are the lead in responding to disasters because they are more familiar with their jurisdiction’s resource and capability shortfalls. The season also reaffirmed the importance of pre-hurricane season joint training, collaboration and exercise, spokesman Lt. Col. Charles Anthony said.
“The 2014 events, Tropical Storm Iselle, Hurricanes Julio and Ana and the Puna lava event, took the state and counties, primarily Hawaii County, through the full disaster process: initial storm tracking, pre-storm arrival decisions, emergency declarations, media and siren warnings, school closings, shelters, impact, initial damage assessments, debris removal, power restoration, joint damage assessments with FEMA, Presidential Declarations, disaster assistance recovery centers, and FEMA claims and reimbursements for Public Assistance,” Anthony said in an email response. “Hawaii County’s preparation and response to both Iselle and the Puna lava event include a number of best practices that will help us in the future.”
Hawaii County Civil Defense emerged from the storms seeing the need for earlier communication and more coordination, said Administrator Darryl Oliveira.
That need was driven home in some of the county’s most rural areas, such as Kapoho, which are out of reach of public radio and other means of mass communication. Oliveira said his agency has been working to identify and update contact information for community associations and other groups to help spread the word door-to-door when a storm looms.
The agency will be spreading that word earlier than before, he said. Giving associations and nonprofits a heads-up when storms cross into the Central North Pacific Basin, located between 140 degrees west longitude and the International Dateline, will allow them more time to help residents prepare.
“We see this as a significant step forward,” Oliveira said.
Civil Defense is also adding a community coordinator and outreach position for disaster recovery, he said. This will help ensure the county’s many other agencies and nonprofit organizations are all on the same page.
The county’s lava emergency that occupied Civil Defense for much of the late summer and fall has finally abated enough to give the agency time to study what worked and didn’t work during last year’s storms, he said. The silver lining in the hurricane clouds was the ability to create updated disaster recovery plans that will work for just about any natural disaster.
“Using the hurricane as the springboard, we’ve defined ways to work with any disaster going forward,” Oliveira said. “There are a lot of things going on. A lot of plans are coming out of Iselle.”
The top lesson for relief organizations — better coordination among agencies, said Barney Sheffield, disaster manager for the American Red Cross in Hawaii County.
“We learned a lot. We’ve got a lot better interaction between agencies,” Sheffield said. “Before, it wasn’t as much a coordinated effort. We had difficulties with overlapping resources. … There’s a lot more coordination going on now.”
One innovation for the various nonprofits who work together to assist government agencies is a software program that will help sort out who is doing which task, so there’s no duplication of efforts, he said.
“We have a lot of great volunteers,” Sheffield said.
Meanwhile, residents can be better prepared to help themselves, he said. Stock up on storm supplies, especially flashlights, battery powered candles and batteries. Be prepared to cooperate with neighbors. Get to know your neighbors before an emergency, and especially inform them if you have a medical condition that may require their assistance later, he said.
Prepare your pets as well, added Starr Yamada, humane officer in Keaau for the Hawaii Island Humane Society. Many pets brought to emergency shelters last year had never been put in a crate before, and they had a hard time adjusting to the new experience, especially added to the confusion of being in a different location with other unfamiliar animals around.
The county opened 10 pet-friendly shelters to accommodate people who were hesitant to evacuate because they didn’t want to leave their pets behind. But some people weren’t aware they were supposed to bring a crate for their pet as well as food and water. The shelters had a limited number of spare crates available, but those proved difficult for some crate-shy pets to get into.
The problem was complicated by Honolulu television stations, which told people they could bring dogs to shelters as long as they were on a leash. That may be true for Oahu, but not true for the Big Island, she said. She said pet owners should train their pets in advance of an emergency.
“We put out a flier telling people how to train their animals,” to be put in a crate, Yamada said.
Electric utilities are already preparing, bolstered by the knowledge of what can happen when a major storm strikes close to home.
Hawaii Electric Light Co. is trimming trees in advance of the 2015 season. Iselle’s winds took down a number of albizia trees, especially in the Puna district. Some neighborhoods went without electricity for almost three weeks as crews worked to repair the damage.
“We learned so much from Tropical Storm Iselle and the two storms that followed,” said HELCO President Jay Ignacio. “We know what we do well and where we need to improve. … The lessons learned from the storms helped us take our preparation, response and restoration efforts to the next level.”
Among the lessons learned from the previous storms: Partnerships are vital. Preparation is critical. People are at the heart of everything the utility does. Communication is essential. Social media is effective.
Ignacio praised the utility’s hard workers who brave the elements to repair downed lines. He said the entire endeavor was a joint response with many partners at other utilities, government agencies, contractors, local businesses and community organizations.
Albizia trees turned out to be a greater threat than anticipated. HELCO has so far this year spent $2.1 million trimming the trees in Puna and along the Hamakua Coast, compared to $5.4 million islandwide on tree trimming last year.
Communication through the media, through the HELCO Facebook and Twitter accounts and through its website has helped keep the public informed.
Puna Geothermal Venture has made some changes based on its storm experience as well.
Michael L Kaleikini, PGV’s senior director for Hawaiian Affairs, said the utility has worked closely with Civil Defense, and has incorporated new procedures in its operations manual.
PGV was fined by the state Department of Health for allowing an emergency steam release of 39 pounds of hydrogen sulfide after it lost power as Iselle loomed.
“After we had Iselle, we worked very closely with Civil Defense,” Kaleikini said. “We made some changes to our emergency response plan specifically for tropical weather systems.”