• See our Tsunami Lessons blog for a remembrance of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
KIPO’s December 28th “Town Square” public affairs program (the MP3 file isn’t yet available on-line but will be linked when it is) was devoted to the “unreported” news of 2006. CHORE was invited to participate and discuss the under-reporting of emergency communications issues since the October 15th earthquakes.
The Honolulu Advertiser has yet to run a story on the preliminary report of the Comprehensive Communications Review Committee. The Star-Bulletin’s story on that report was published a week ago yesterday, so there can be no doubt the Advertiser is under-reporting this public safety issue.
The broadcast media also have ignored it mostly until now, but KHON-TV2 followed up on the KIPO program with a report last evening that focused on communications and the electric power failure, which according to the State's Adjutant General was the biggest problem:
"It was a little slow getting the information out -- made tougher by the loss of power," said Maj. General Robert Lee. "On Oct. 15, all of the counties and all of the first responders had the correct information within minutes. It's just with the loss of power we couldn't get it all out."
Yes….And….But….
Life certainly does become more complicated when the power’s out, but that’s no excuse when public safety’s involved, is it? First responders must have ways to communicate in a power blackout. Surely they thought about that in advance…..didn’t they?
Well, obviously they didn’t. Otherwise, plan X, Y or Z would have been put into action, and we citizens wouldn’t have been left in a communications vacuum about the earthquake and its potential to generate a tsunami, which was a legitimate concern that day.
And that is why we citizens want a public meeting with State Civil Defense authorities to ask what they learned from the October 15th communication failure and what they’ll do differently in the next emergency. That, too, is a legitimate concern. After all, the experts were caught without a workable communications plan on Earthquake Sunday.
As we said in KHON’s report:
“If a tsunami can move from the Big Island to Oahu and other islands within 15 to 20 minutes, we can take no comfort if messages are starting to be received 30 minutes or later.” If first responders do in fact know within minutes the true nature of an emergency, so, too, should we citizens.
General Lee, if you’re reading this, your directive for a State Civil Defense staffer to contact us about a public meeting is not being carried out. Please begin the New Year strongly and demonstrate your agency’s responsiveness to the public by taking the necessary steps to hold that meeting in January.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Friday, December 22, 2006
Quake Panel Quickens Pace, Releases Report With Recommendations for Better Response
[December 23 post: Two years ago on Christmas Day, Hawaii time, the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami killed hundreds of thousands. CHORE visitors are invited to spend a few minutes with today's post at our sister blog, Tsunami Lessons, on how the international news media networks could be used to improve tsunami warnings to distant and isolated populations.]
Maybe CHORE’s little rant a few days ago hit home.
Or maybe the Comprehensive Communications Review Committee’s spokesman was throwing a feint at the Star-Bulletin last week when he said the target to release the panel’s recommendations for improving emergency communications was “end of this year.”
Whatever, the report was distributed to committee members yesterday, and the Bulletin has a story on its recommendations today, notwithstanding the “CONFIDENTIAL – For Committee Use Only” notation at the end. (CHORE had a copy last night but decided the dailies could be first on this story for a change.)
We’ll reserve comment on most of the report’s recommendations until we’ve had more time to study them, but it’s fair to note that perhaps an inordinate amount of the attention so far falls on the broadcast industry’s rather dramatic breakdown after the October 15th quakes.
"People Factor" Still Critical
Granted, there’s much to be done to stiffen the industry’s capabilities (the report says 80 percent of the state’s radio and TV stations were off the air after the quakes), but just as important will be adjustments to how government agencies and their personnel respond to emergencies.
CHORE and others have been critical of the decisions that were made – or weren’t made – that kept citizens of this state uninformed for too long about real and imagined threats to their personal safety.
That’s why we’ve been clamoring for weeks for a commitment by State Civil Defense to meet with the public and explain what it learned from the quake experience and what it will do differently in our next emergency.
Notwithstanding assurances by State Civil Defense's senior leaders (here and here) that a staffer would contact CHORE about setting up that meeting, it hasn’t happened.
That said, it’s encouraging to read in the report’s Conclusion that “…the emergency situation that occurred served as an urgent wake-up call to government agencies, the news media, telecommunications providers and electric company that the current emergency communications system can be improved.”
On that, we all agree.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Slip Slidin’ Away: Review Panel Is Taking its Time Delivering Response Recommendations
Erika Engle’s “The Buzz” column in today’s Honolulu Star-Bulletin follows up on CHORE’s 12/14 post and has more insight about the workings of the Comprehensive Communications Review Committee.
From our perspective, the biggest insight is how little urgency the committee seems to have about improving the state’s emergency communications capabilities, which could be required at any moment to respond to our next natural disaster.
Governor Lingle formed this committee on October 17th, two days after the 6.7 Big Island earthquake and hours-long power blackout on Oahu. Her formal message said the committee members “...will begin meeting immediately and submit their findings and recommendations to me within 60 days.”
Beginning the count on October 18th, the 60th day was yesterday – December 16th. But as Engle reports, Lenny Klompus, the Governor’s senior communications advisor, sees it differently: “Sixty working days…. In our mind, that takes us to the end of this year.“
Will 60 Days Morph into 91?
With due respect, the issue being discussed here is improving the public and private response capability to ensure public safety, so shouldn’t 60 days mean exactly that?
The CCRC’s “business days” model makes even the “end of this year” goal suspect. Not counting weekends and holidays, the 60th “working day” from October 17th falls on January 16th – exactly one month later than what the Governor’s initial statement would have led us to believe and 91 days after she formed the committee.
Somewhere along the line, the urgency we all felt following the earthquakes has evaporated. Here are the Governor’s comments in her October 17th press conference about the committee she had formed and the timing of its report:
“…(in) every event we have an after-action analysis, come up with recommendations. I think in this case we’ll be extremely public with what we learn to let people know exactly where we did well, where we could have done better, so they have a high level of confidence that in fact we have reviewed the things that they themselves saw we could do better. So I think that getting the information out to people is going to be very, very important, not just that we do an internal report and try to do better, but that we tell the people, this is what happened from our perspective, and these are the areas that need improvement, and these are the steps that we’re going to take to make it better next time.” (emphasis added)
When reporters asked when the government’s after-action reports would be available, the Governor continued:
“The only one that I’ll tell you will be quicker than (early next year) will be the communications review. They’re looking at a 60-day turnaround to come out with some specific recommendations, both for the government and for the private sector on how to make things work better next time.”
Public Involvement Long Overdue
Lenny Klompus told CHORE last week the committee's draft recommendations will be distributed to its members this coming week. CHORE sees no reason to withhold draft reports from the news media and others so the public finally can know details of the committee's findings.
"It was an amazing collection of brain trust," Engle quotes Klompus in her column about the committee's meetings. "If you think about all the people in the room, you can just imagine the dialogue."
Unfortunately, imagining the dialogue is all the public's been able to do, as citizens have been shut out of the process to date, making the committee something less than "comprehensive."
Once the public sees the report, the State needs a mechanism for average citizens to weigh in with their own questions, comments and recommendations. We are the ultimate consumers of emergency communications and therefore deserve to be heard.
As the Governor implied on October 17th, the state's response to the earthquakes shook citizens' confidence in the emergency response process. Releasing the report this week and opening it up to public input would honor the spirit of her remarks two months ago today.
From our perspective, the biggest insight is how little urgency the committee seems to have about improving the state’s emergency communications capabilities, which could be required at any moment to respond to our next natural disaster.
Governor Lingle formed this committee on October 17th, two days after the 6.7 Big Island earthquake and hours-long power blackout on Oahu. Her formal message said the committee members “...will begin meeting immediately and submit their findings and recommendations to me within 60 days.”
Beginning the count on October 18th, the 60th day was yesterday – December 16th. But as Engle reports, Lenny Klompus, the Governor’s senior communications advisor, sees it differently: “Sixty working days…. In our mind, that takes us to the end of this year.“
Will 60 Days Morph into 91?
With due respect, the issue being discussed here is improving the public and private response capability to ensure public safety, so shouldn’t 60 days mean exactly that?
The CCRC’s “business days” model makes even the “end of this year” goal suspect. Not counting weekends and holidays, the 60th “working day” from October 17th falls on January 16th – exactly one month later than what the Governor’s initial statement would have led us to believe and 91 days after she formed the committee.
Somewhere along the line, the urgency we all felt following the earthquakes has evaporated. Here are the Governor’s comments in her October 17th press conference about the committee she had formed and the timing of its report:
“…(in) every event we have an after-action analysis, come up with recommendations. I think in this case we’ll be extremely public with what we learn to let people know exactly where we did well, where we could have done better, so they have a high level of confidence that in fact we have reviewed the things that they themselves saw we could do better. So I think that getting the information out to people is going to be very, very important, not just that we do an internal report and try to do better, but that we tell the people, this is what happened from our perspective, and these are the areas that need improvement, and these are the steps that we’re going to take to make it better next time.” (emphasis added)
When reporters asked when the government’s after-action reports would be available, the Governor continued:
“The only one that I’ll tell you will be quicker than (early next year) will be the communications review. They’re looking at a 60-day turnaround to come out with some specific recommendations, both for the government and for the private sector on how to make things work better next time.”
Public Involvement Long Overdue
Lenny Klompus told CHORE last week the committee's draft recommendations will be distributed to its members this coming week. CHORE sees no reason to withhold draft reports from the news media and others so the public finally can know details of the committee's findings.
"It was an amazing collection of brain trust," Engle quotes Klompus in her column about the committee's meetings. "If you think about all the people in the room, you can just imagine the dialogue."
Unfortunately, imagining the dialogue is all the public's been able to do, as citizens have been shut out of the process to date, making the committee something less than "comprehensive."
Once the public sees the report, the State needs a mechanism for average citizens to weigh in with their own questions, comments and recommendations. We are the ultimate consumers of emergency communications and therefore deserve to be heard.
As the Governor implied on October 17th, the state's response to the earthquakes shook citizens' confidence in the emergency response process. Releasing the report this week and opening it up to public input would honor the spirit of her remarks two months ago today.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
30-Minute Call with State Adjutant General Covers Issues; Briefing Date Still in Doubt
The man who commands State Civil Defense called CHORE late yesterday afternoon at the suggestion of Lenny Klompus, the Governor’s senior communications aide with whom we spoke earlier this week.
General Robert Lee hadn’t read this blog and therefore wasn’t familiar with the opinions expressed here for the past two months. We discussed several of them and followed up with an email calling his attention to seven posts -- October 18, 25, 27 and 29; November 23 and 28, and December 14 – that summarize the major issues CHORE has had with State Civil Defense’s emergency communications response and the review committee.
As reported here two days ago, the recommendations of the Comprehensive Communications Review Committee will be released to its members next week. General Lee said he’d be sure CHORE is included in the distribution.
Public Briefing Still in Limbo
We were disappointed at Lee’s implication that a public meeting of the kind advocated here for weeks might not occur before the ongoing earthquake disaster declaration period is terminated at some unknown time next year.
In response to that statement, our email to him concluded: “I can’t stress how important I believe it is for State Civil Defense to meet with the public as soon as possible — and certainly before your ongoing mission to help the earthquake’s victims is completed. Frequency of interaction is important in building trust after an emergency, and without question, the public’s trust in its emergency responders was shaken on October 15th.”
Notwithstanding his apparent current inclination to conduct a public briefing later rather than sooner, General Lee did say a Civil Defense staffer would call to discuss the timing – something Vice Director Ed Teixeira said would happen.
In the meantime, we'll look forward to seeing what the Comprehensive Communications Review Committee, which included no non-media, non-governmental public members, has recommended to improve public safety communications.
General Robert Lee hadn’t read this blog and therefore wasn’t familiar with the opinions expressed here for the past two months. We discussed several of them and followed up with an email calling his attention to seven posts -- October 18, 25, 27 and 29; November 23 and 28, and December 14 – that summarize the major issues CHORE has had with State Civil Defense’s emergency communications response and the review committee.
As reported here two days ago, the recommendations of the Comprehensive Communications Review Committee will be released to its members next week. General Lee said he’d be sure CHORE is included in the distribution.
Public Briefing Still in Limbo
We were disappointed at Lee’s implication that a public meeting of the kind advocated here for weeks might not occur before the ongoing earthquake disaster declaration period is terminated at some unknown time next year.
In response to that statement, our email to him concluded: “I can’t stress how important I believe it is for State Civil Defense to meet with the public as soon as possible — and certainly before your ongoing mission to help the earthquake’s victims is completed. Frequency of interaction is important in building trust after an emergency, and without question, the public’s trust in its emergency responders was shaken on October 15th.”
Notwithstanding his apparent current inclination to conduct a public briefing later rather than sooner, General Lee did say a Civil Defense staffer would call to discuss the timing – something Vice Director Ed Teixeira said would happen.
In the meantime, we'll look forward to seeing what the Comprehensive Communications Review Committee, which included no non-media, non-governmental public members, has recommended to improve public safety communications.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Communications Review Committee’s Report Due Out Next Week, According to its Chair
Governor Linda Lingle created the Comprehensive Communications Review Committee 58 days ago to assess how communications to the public can be improved during emergencies. She acted following the two significant earthquakes on October 15th that shook up the entire state and revealed flaws in emergency communications protocols.
Her October 17th message said the panel would submit findings and recommendations to her within 60 days. That would be two days from now, but Chair Lenny Klompus told CHORE today the report’s release will slip into next week:
“We’re in a draft mode right now, putting all the information from the meetings into a document that would be a blueprint and an action-oriented plan” to improve communications, he said. The committee has met at least twice and held separate sessions for media decision-makers and on-the-ground reporters.
Since the focus of these meetings seems to have been on improving media performance during emergencies, we pressed the point that State Civil Defense seemingly has many issues to resolve about its own performance. The public meeting alluded to by Vice Director Ed Teixeira in his November correspondence would be a start.
Klompus said he was scheduled to meet today with State Adjutant General Robert Lee and would discuss the point. (12/15 Update: General Lee did call today and discussed several of the issues covered in CHORE's blog for nearly 30 minutes. See 12/16 post for a summary of the conversation.)
Accessibility + Accountability = Credibility
It’s been exactly 60 days since the earthquakes and subsequent communications failures, and State Civil Defense still has not demonstrated much inclination to report directly to the public what it learned and what it’s doing to improve communications to ensure public safety.
This may be too general, but it seems likely personnel who administer civil defense offices are not as sensitive to the importance of accessibility and accountability as their civilian counterparts are.
It would be inconceivable for a private company to be as unresponsive to public inquiry after a major public safety incident as State Civil Defense has been.
A confidence-building session early in the New Year is in order, and perhaps communications professional Lenny Klompus can make it happen.
Minor Aftershocks:
Honolulu Weekly has taken note of this blog and our other one, Tsunami Lessons, in its December 13-19 edition. It's too bad the Weekly used a picture of some squinty older guy in the space reserved for this blog's author.....
Her October 17th message said the panel would submit findings and recommendations to her within 60 days. That would be two days from now, but Chair Lenny Klompus told CHORE today the report’s release will slip into next week:
“We’re in a draft mode right now, putting all the information from the meetings into a document that would be a blueprint and an action-oriented plan” to improve communications, he said. The committee has met at least twice and held separate sessions for media decision-makers and on-the-ground reporters.
Since the focus of these meetings seems to have been on improving media performance during emergencies, we pressed the point that State Civil Defense seemingly has many issues to resolve about its own performance. The public meeting alluded to by Vice Director Ed Teixeira in his November correspondence would be a start.
Klompus said he was scheduled to meet today with State Adjutant General Robert Lee and would discuss the point. (12/15 Update: General Lee did call today and discussed several of the issues covered in CHORE's blog for nearly 30 minutes. See 12/16 post for a summary of the conversation.)
Accessibility + Accountability = Credibility
It’s been exactly 60 days since the earthquakes and subsequent communications failures, and State Civil Defense still has not demonstrated much inclination to report directly to the public what it learned and what it’s doing to improve communications to ensure public safety.
This may be too general, but it seems likely personnel who administer civil defense offices are not as sensitive to the importance of accessibility and accountability as their civilian counterparts are.
It would be inconceivable for a private company to be as unresponsive to public inquiry after a major public safety incident as State Civil Defense has been.
A confidence-building session early in the New Year is in order, and perhaps communications professional Lenny Klompus can make it happen.
Minor Aftershocks:
Honolulu Weekly has taken note of this blog and our other one, Tsunami Lessons, in its December 13-19 edition. It's too bad the Weekly used a picture of some squinty older guy in the space reserved for this blog's author.....
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Shopping for Information; Anything Will Do...
• Click here for what CHORE's all about.
Another week passes with no detectable government responsiveness to Hawaii citizens about its communications failures on Earthquake Sunday.
The Governor’s task force – the Comprehensive Communications Review Committee – may still be reviewing away, but there’s been no media coverage since that one Honolulu Advertiser story ran a month ago. Looks like CHORE will have to play reporter and make some calls.
And we’re still waiting to hear back from State Civil Defense on its intention to hold a public briefing on what went wrong on October 15th and what’s being done to correct the problems. Here’s CHORE’s inquiry to CD Vice Director Ed Teixeira a couple days ago:
I’m following up on your letter of early November in which you said I’d be hearing from Ray Lovell regarding the scheduling of a meeting for the public to discuss emergency communications. I’ve yet to hear from Ray, so perhaps you can give me an idea whether we’re likely to hear anything before the end of the year.
With the holidays nearly on us, let’s hope we know more by the Twelfth Day of Christmas.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Emergencies Rate Passing Mention in Address; Detailed Explanation to Public Still Unscheduled
CHORE had some fun with its Christmas gift wish list, but failures of the islands’ emergency communications system in the past two months deserve serious treatment once again.
Still unscheduled is the public briefing State Civil Defense said it would conduct to answer the public’s concerns about those failures and describe upgrades.
In her Inaugural Address yesterday, the Governor alluded in one sentence to this requirement:
“Maintaining our overall physical security requires us to continue our progress of minimizing criminal activity in our neighborhoods while constantly improving our ability to respond to natural disasters and other emergencies.”
The sentence has a “dropped-in” quality to it, and the address mentioned nothing more about a government’s primary responsibility to preserve its citizens’ safety.
CHORE will once again contact State Civil Defense to follow up on its vice director’s assertion that a staffer “will be contacting you for additional information and for a possible date we can meet with the public.”
Also unscheduled (and virtually unexamined by the media, as only one story on its activities has been published to date) is a report to the public by the Governor's Comprehensive Communications Review Committee, which has been meeting since October 17th to examine the communications failures.
What Is It with Hawaii?
We go from a truly alarming incident that's Topic #1 for the entire population to silence within weeks, as if the original emergency never happened. The media don't follow up, and officials show no sense of responsibility to report on lessons learned and what they've done to improve responsiveness.
We're going all out to observe an incident that occurred 65 years ago but show no particular interest in preparing for the one that could happen tomorrow -- or today.
Still unscheduled is the public briefing State Civil Defense said it would conduct to answer the public’s concerns about those failures and describe upgrades.
In her Inaugural Address yesterday, the Governor alluded in one sentence to this requirement:
“Maintaining our overall physical security requires us to continue our progress of minimizing criminal activity in our neighborhoods while constantly improving our ability to respond to natural disasters and other emergencies.”
The sentence has a “dropped-in” quality to it, and the address mentioned nothing more about a government’s primary responsibility to preserve its citizens’ safety.
CHORE will once again contact State Civil Defense to follow up on its vice director’s assertion that a staffer “will be contacting you for additional information and for a possible date we can meet with the public.”
Also unscheduled (and virtually unexamined by the media, as only one story on its activities has been published to date) is a report to the public by the Governor's Comprehensive Communications Review Committee, which has been meeting since October 17th to examine the communications failures.
What Is It with Hawaii?
We go from a truly alarming incident that's Topic #1 for the entire population to silence within weeks, as if the original emergency never happened. The media don't follow up, and officials show no sense of responsibility to report on lessons learned and what they've done to improve responsiveness.
We're going all out to observe an incident that occurred 65 years ago but show no particular interest in preparing for the one that could happen tomorrow -- or today.
Friday, December 01, 2006
Christmas Gift List Has Crisis Orientation Following Real, Imagined Emergencies
We’ll soon see Christmas wish lists compiled by columnists and other journalists for the public figures they’ve covered all year.
CHORE has compiled our own short gift list in the aftermath of the recent earthquakes, power blackouts, tsunamis, rumors of tsunamis, hoaxes and other emergency communications-related events.
Santa should try to deliver some these goodies before Christmas Eve. The next earthquake, tsunami, blackout or hoax could happen any time.
Hawaii’s Crisis Gift List
For the public – a library of emergency-related books, including: “Earthquakes Are Not Predictable”, “Hoaxes and Other Irresponsible Behavior” and "You Can't Surf a Tsunami"; a battery-powered radio for each household.
Every radio and TV station – a generator enabling it to stay on the air during power blackouts; an emergency response training course for all personnel; more “live” and fewer canned programs to improve responsiveness, and a special gift for KSSK – a leather-bound edition of “A Crisis Is Never Entertainment”.
State Civil Defense – a stopwatch for measuring the Emergency Alert System’s response time in minutes, not hours; 149 new emergency sirens to cover the “gap areas”; a calendar to schedule the promised public briefing on improvements made since the October 15th earthquakes.
Pacific Tsunami Warning Center – a new standard operating procedure that bypasses other agencies to issue warnings directly to the public via the broadcast industry (see Tsunami Lessons blog for nearly two years of posts).
Hawaiian Electric Company – a complete set of “earthquake dampers” for its generators; a list of local radio stations' unpublished telephone numbers to call during blackouts.
The Comprehensive Communications Review Committee – a list of the media to invite to its meetings so Hawaii residents can know how public safety is being improved.
The news media – a double dose of curiosity about what the Comprehensive Communications Review Committee is doing (only one report’s been published on the committee's activities since it began meeting on October 17th).
And two more year-end remembrances....
Mother Nature – a gift basket with thanks for a calm hurricane season.
El Nino – an invitation to stick around for another year.
CHORE has compiled our own short gift list in the aftermath of the recent earthquakes, power blackouts, tsunamis, rumors of tsunamis, hoaxes and other emergency communications-related events.
Santa should try to deliver some these goodies before Christmas Eve. The next earthquake, tsunami, blackout or hoax could happen any time.
Hawaii’s Crisis Gift List
For the public – a library of emergency-related books, including: “Earthquakes Are Not Predictable”, “Hoaxes and Other Irresponsible Behavior” and "You Can't Surf a Tsunami"; a battery-powered radio for each household.
Every radio and TV station – a generator enabling it to stay on the air during power blackouts; an emergency response training course for all personnel; more “live” and fewer canned programs to improve responsiveness, and a special gift for KSSK – a leather-bound edition of “A Crisis Is Never Entertainment”.
State Civil Defense – a stopwatch for measuring the Emergency Alert System’s response time in minutes, not hours; 149 new emergency sirens to cover the “gap areas”; a calendar to schedule the promised public briefing on improvements made since the October 15th earthquakes.
Pacific Tsunami Warning Center – a new standard operating procedure that bypasses other agencies to issue warnings directly to the public via the broadcast industry (see Tsunami Lessons blog for nearly two years of posts).
Hawaiian Electric Company – a complete set of “earthquake dampers” for its generators; a list of local radio stations' unpublished telephone numbers to call during blackouts.
The Comprehensive Communications Review Committee – a list of the media to invite to its meetings so Hawaii residents can know how public safety is being improved.
The news media – a double dose of curiosity about what the Comprehensive Communications Review Committee is doing (only one report’s been published on the committee's activities since it began meeting on October 17th).
And two more year-end remembrances....
Mother Nature – a gift basket with thanks for a calm hurricane season.
El Nino – an invitation to stick around for another year.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Editorial (Inadvertently) IDs Tsunami Issue: Consultation Is Required To Pull Alert Trigger
Both the Advertiser and Star-Bulletin editorialized today on the earthquake rumor, and a key point in the Advertiser’s editorial deserves follow-up.
After noting that a tsunami generated on the Big Island could reach Oahu within 20 or 30 minutes, the editorial says:
“…had the (Pacific Tsunami Warning) center determined that there was a tsunami threat, it would have made the decision in conjunction with state Civil Defense (emphasis added) to issue a warning. In addition, sirens, civil air patrols would have been activated and sent along the coastlines to warn people on beaches, where some sirens cannot be heard….”
How much “conjunctioning” can be accomplished in 20 minutes -- especially if the event happens when key decision-makers aren't immediately at hand? Will the CAP really be airborne in time to fly out to remote beaches?
Once the warning center believes a destructive tsunami is on its way, why should it be required to coordinate with any agency? And what would Civil Defense’s role be when it takes an urgent tsunami call from the PTWC? Would it ever decide not to activate the tsunami warning system?
Inter-Agency Talking Costs Lives
Of course not. This penchant for the PTWC to work through other agencies is a huge problem. As our sister blog Tsunami Lessons has written repeatedly, thousands of people died around the Indian Ocean in December 2004 because of an insistence to work through and coordinate with other government organizations.
It must be stated this bluntly: the PTWC’s tsunami warning standard operating procedure has cost lives and will do so again if not reformed.
Tsunami Lessons’ very first post on January 2, 2005 quoted a Honolulu Advertiser story on what went wrong after the PTWC suspected a tsunami: “…in the age of wireless communications, the Internet and 24-hour news, a catastrophic wall of water was able to cross an ocean and devastate a dozen nations’ coastlines without notice.”
The next day, Tsunami Lessons included quotes from an NPR story on how scientists reacted to the realization that a killer tsunami was racing toward unsuspecting populations:
"Other U.S. scientists who monitor earthquakes say when they realized how big the quake really was there was no clear way to get the information to authorities who might have been able to warn people in time.” And, “There was knowledge that a tsunami was being generated and that information was available, but the problem we ran into was that there were not appropriate agencies in places like India and in Somalia on the East and the Horn of Africa region. There was no system set up by which we could take that information and translate it into actions that the public could react to.”
The reason there was no notice the public could react to was that the PTWC insists on working through other agencies – just as the editorial today suggests. The PTWC and NOAA mindset is weak on direct action that would put critical information in the hands of the ultimate consumer as quickly as possible. In fact, as Tsunami Lessons reported exclusively on March 26, 2005, “The National Weather Service won’t allow the PTWC to call the media.” The quote was by PTWC Director Charles McCreery during this writer’s visit to the Ewa Beach center.
Cut Out the Middleman
Nearly two years later, the PTWC and State Civil Defense seem to be using the same model: The PTWC first contacts Civil Defense for consultations and then a warning is sounded.
That model eventually will cost people their lives in Hawaii. It’s time for these agencies to shed their bureaucratic shackles and devise a fast-reaction, no-wait protocol to alert people in danger.
Never again should people die while tsunami experts wring their hands about an alleged inability to warn them of their peril.
Some people bought that excuse after the Indian Ocean tsunami. That won’t be the case if a Big Island quake triggers a Hawaiian Islands tsunami and warnings are too late because agencies were “in conjunction” with one another.
After noting that a tsunami generated on the Big Island could reach Oahu within 20 or 30 minutes, the editorial says:
“…had the (Pacific Tsunami Warning) center determined that there was a tsunami threat, it would have made the decision in conjunction with state Civil Defense (emphasis added) to issue a warning. In addition, sirens, civil air patrols would have been activated and sent along the coastlines to warn people on beaches, where some sirens cannot be heard….”
How much “conjunctioning” can be accomplished in 20 minutes -- especially if the event happens when key decision-makers aren't immediately at hand? Will the CAP really be airborne in time to fly out to remote beaches?
Once the warning center believes a destructive tsunami is on its way, why should it be required to coordinate with any agency? And what would Civil Defense’s role be when it takes an urgent tsunami call from the PTWC? Would it ever decide not to activate the tsunami warning system?
Inter-Agency Talking Costs Lives
Of course not. This penchant for the PTWC to work through other agencies is a huge problem. As our sister blog Tsunami Lessons has written repeatedly, thousands of people died around the Indian Ocean in December 2004 because of an insistence to work through and coordinate with other government organizations.
It must be stated this bluntly: the PTWC’s tsunami warning standard operating procedure has cost lives and will do so again if not reformed.
Tsunami Lessons’ very first post on January 2, 2005 quoted a Honolulu Advertiser story on what went wrong after the PTWC suspected a tsunami: “…in the age of wireless communications, the Internet and 24-hour news, a catastrophic wall of water was able to cross an ocean and devastate a dozen nations’ coastlines without notice.”
The next day, Tsunami Lessons included quotes from an NPR story on how scientists reacted to the realization that a killer tsunami was racing toward unsuspecting populations:
"Other U.S. scientists who monitor earthquakes say when they realized how big the quake really was there was no clear way to get the information to authorities who might have been able to warn people in time.” And, “There was knowledge that a tsunami was being generated and that information was available, but the problem we ran into was that there were not appropriate agencies in places like India and in Somalia on the East and the Horn of Africa region. There was no system set up by which we could take that information and translate it into actions that the public could react to.”
The reason there was no notice the public could react to was that the PTWC insists on working through other agencies – just as the editorial today suggests. The PTWC and NOAA mindset is weak on direct action that would put critical information in the hands of the ultimate consumer as quickly as possible. In fact, as Tsunami Lessons reported exclusively on March 26, 2005, “The National Weather Service won’t allow the PTWC to call the media.” The quote was by PTWC Director Charles McCreery during this writer’s visit to the Ewa Beach center.
Cut Out the Middleman
Nearly two years later, the PTWC and State Civil Defense seem to be using the same model: The PTWC first contacts Civil Defense for consultations and then a warning is sounded.
That model eventually will cost people their lives in Hawaii. It’s time for these agencies to shed their bureaucratic shackles and devise a fast-reaction, no-wait protocol to alert people in danger.
Never again should people die while tsunami experts wring their hands about an alleged inability to warn them of their peril.
Some people bought that excuse after the Indian Ocean tsunami. That won’t be the case if a Big Island quake triggers a Hawaiian Islands tsunami and warnings are too late because agencies were “in conjunction” with one another.
What’s More Important – Chasing Hoax's Origins Or Perfecting Information Flow to the Public?
Civil Defense officials apparently spent much of their time yesterday investigating the origins of Sunday's earthquake hoax.
Before they get too far down the track with this effort, we have to ask: Will knowing the origins prevent another hoax? CHORE believes it’s more important to know why the hoax couldn’t be knocked down before it spread unchecked.
We learned in yesterday’s news reports that Civil Defense initiated “crawls” on some television programming Sunday evening (but not all programming and not on all stations) to address the hoax.
TV crawls can reach some of the public, but they have obvious limitations; they’re here one moment and gone the next, perhaps not to return for half an hour or more. And then there’s the problem of having to be in front of a TV set to see a crawl. If you’re heading off to fill your car’s gas tank because you think a tsunami's coming, no television crawl will reach you.
Maximizing the Message
So far, we’ve heard nothing about whether Civil Defense launched a radio effort to counteract the hoax. The dozens of radio stations on Oahu represent a tremendous communications resource for Civil Defense. Focusing on a handful of them would reach a good chunk of the listening audience at any given time.
Once those listeners have heard the message, they can use their own communication networks to tell others what’s happening. Cell phones spread rumors, and they can knock them down, too.
Because the radio option has gone unreported, CHORE wonders whether Civil Defense officials actually did activate it, and we welcome any information they wish to offer to clarify the point.
We also hope they'll spend less time sleuthing the hoax and instead figure out how to respond as effectively as possible to the next emergency – real or imagined.
Before they get too far down the track with this effort, we have to ask: Will knowing the origins prevent another hoax? CHORE believes it’s more important to know why the hoax couldn’t be knocked down before it spread unchecked.
We learned in yesterday’s news reports that Civil Defense initiated “crawls” on some television programming Sunday evening (but not all programming and not on all stations) to address the hoax.
TV crawls can reach some of the public, but they have obvious limitations; they’re here one moment and gone the next, perhaps not to return for half an hour or more. And then there’s the problem of having to be in front of a TV set to see a crawl. If you’re heading off to fill your car’s gas tank because you think a tsunami's coming, no television crawl will reach you.
Maximizing the Message
So far, we’ve heard nothing about whether Civil Defense launched a radio effort to counteract the hoax. The dozens of radio stations on Oahu represent a tremendous communications resource for Civil Defense. Focusing on a handful of them would reach a good chunk of the listening audience at any given time.
Once those listeners have heard the message, they can use their own communication networks to tell others what’s happening. Cell phones spread rumors, and they can knock them down, too.
Because the radio option has gone unreported, CHORE wonders whether Civil Defense officials actually did activate it, and we welcome any information they wish to offer to clarify the point.
We also hope they'll spend less time sleuthing the hoax and instead figure out how to respond as effectively as possible to the next emergency – real or imagined.
Monday, November 27, 2006
Public Gullibility for Earthquake, Tsunami Hoax Shows Extent of Education Challenge Ahead
One would think most if not all Hawaii residents would know by now that earthquakes are basically unpredictable and would have recognized yesterday’s “prediction” of a 9.0 quake for the hoax it was.
Didn't happen. Hundreds or maybe thousands of island residents reacted to the rumor with panic gas buying and by calling the police, civil defense, newspapers, TV stations and even the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, where a staffer said he was “unable to get any work done” because of the calls, according to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. (Note to the PTWC: Please ignore the crank calls and tend to your important work.)
Civil Defense officials now have “public education” on their to-do list, in addition to all the other fixes that earthquake-related events have suggested over the past six weeks.
The challenge is huge. First there’s the near-term requirement to squelch rumors in the early stages with messages to the public over radio and television outlets. The newspapers mention "crawls" over television programming but nothing about radio announcements; a series of "crawls" on television hardly seems adequate.
Reaching the Masses
When that promised public meeting eventually is held to discuss all these emergency communications issues, it will be worth asking Civil Defense whether it used radio stations yesterday. Did officials go on radio air repeatedly to knock down the rumor? Was there even staff available at the designated emergency broadcast station (KSSK) on Sunday night to take their calls?
Long-term education probably begins in grade school. Tilly Smith, a 10-year-old English schoolgirl, saved about 100 people from near-certain death at a Thai resort on December 26, 2004 by putting her geography lessons to work when she saw the water recede. Her awareness saved them from the tsunami.
It would be good to know much instruction Hawaii school kids receive on earthquakes and tsunamis. If they do cover these subjects, their parents should help them with their homework.
Didn't happen. Hundreds or maybe thousands of island residents reacted to the rumor with panic gas buying and by calling the police, civil defense, newspapers, TV stations and even the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, where a staffer said he was “unable to get any work done” because of the calls, according to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. (Note to the PTWC: Please ignore the crank calls and tend to your important work.)
Civil Defense officials now have “public education” on their to-do list, in addition to all the other fixes that earthquake-related events have suggested over the past six weeks.
The challenge is huge. First there’s the near-term requirement to squelch rumors in the early stages with messages to the public over radio and television outlets. The newspapers mention "crawls" over television programming but nothing about radio announcements; a series of "crawls" on television hardly seems adequate.
Reaching the Masses
When that promised public meeting eventually is held to discuss all these emergency communications issues, it will be worth asking Civil Defense whether it used radio stations yesterday. Did officials go on radio air repeatedly to knock down the rumor? Was there even staff available at the designated emergency broadcast station (KSSK) on Sunday night to take their calls?
Long-term education probably begins in grade school. Tilly Smith, a 10-year-old English schoolgirl, saved about 100 people from near-certain death at a Thai resort on December 26, 2004 by putting her geography lessons to work when she saw the water recede. Her awareness saved them from the tsunami.
It would be good to know much instruction Hawaii school kids receive on earthquakes and tsunamis. If they do cover these subjects, their parents should help them with their homework.
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Citizens’ Complaints, Suggestions Prompt New Post-Earthquake Protocols at Civil Defense
November 26 Update: Today's Star-Bulletin carries an Associated Press story that's essentially a rewrite of yesterday's Advertiser report. CHORE participants should take note of -- as well as some satisfaction in -- the third paragraph: "Officials took the step after critics said the state should have done a better job informing residents after last month's 6.7 magnitude earthquake...."
Hawaii residents now know that if they push a rope hard enough and long enough, even a rope will move.
The new post-earthquake protocols described in today’s Honolulu Advertiser are a direct response to your concerns and complaints about the information void that dragged on for hours after the October 15th earthquakes.
State Civil Defense says Thursday was the first time the Emergency Alert System was used to announce that no tsunami had been generated by an earthquake.
On October 15th, residents living near the shore had no such help in knowing whether a tsunami was heading their way following the two strong earthquakes that rattled the island chain.
Officials later admitted they made a conscious decision – and an obvious mistake, in CHORE’s opinion – to not issue a no-tsunami message because they thought the public would panic. The new protocols seem to acknowledge that the public deserves more credit than that.
Big Island Leads the Way
The story also notes that Big Island officials “…use local radio stations as their primary method of communicating with the public in emergencies…” Mayor Harry Kim – who earned his spurs as the island’s Civil Defense chief – reportedly was talking to Big Island radio stations inside of 10 minutes after the quake.
Good for him and them! It’s unfortunate that their common-sense solution to getting the word out – using radio’s unmatched ubiquity and flexibility – seems to be the exception, not only in Hawaii but about around the Pacific Rim.
CHORE’S sister blog – Tsunami Lessons – was founded one week after the Christmas 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami on the premise that a tsunami warning transmitted immediately via the major networks and ultimately to consumers watching television and listening to radio could have saved untold numbers of lives. (Readers are invited to plow through several dozen posts at Tsunami Lessons, starting with the first one.)
Big Island officials are validating that premise on a micro scale, and we urge officials at NOAA and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center to pay attention.
However, glitches still exist in even that efficient communications channel. Several radio stations that serve Kona residents were knocked off the air by a power blackout on Thursday. Backup generation has been ordered by at least one station.
Trust Your Own Eyes
Today’s Advertiser story prompts CHORE to rethink its Thanksgiving Day post and the time KGMB-TV ran its first EAS voice and visual alert after the earthquake.
We knew an alert interrupted the NFL game at 10 a.m. and therefore included that time in our first post. But domestic chores had interfered with nonstop football viewing, so we called the station to confirm that 10 o'clock was the first such announcement.
After a short delay to allegedly check with the control room, a staffer said the notice was first aired at 9:35, and that’s what we posted in a revision. In light of Civil Defense’s statement that it first generated an EAS alert at 9:57, it would seem KGMB fudged its time and that 10 a.m. was indeed its first EAS message.
Instead of a 15-minute delay after the 9:20 quake in generating an EAS alert, State Civil Defense now confirms a 37-minute delay, which accentuates the whole thrust of Thursday’s CHORE post. If tsunamis can begin striking other islands 15 minutes after a major Big Island quake, even a quarter hour is unacceptable; 37 minutes is inexcusable.
Why Does Progress Take So Long?
Civil Defense’s spokesman says in today’s story that the 37-minute lag on Thursday was because (quoting the story) “…Civil Defense officials had not yet formalized procedures on issuing a post-earthquake tsunami all-clear message on the Emergency Alert System….”
The Thanksgiving Day earthquake was 39 days after our big October 15th wakeup call. Should it really take more than five weeks to fix a major problem in the State’s emergency response procedures? As of Thursday, it still wasn’t fixed. What’s the status now, and what’s holding up progress – too many middle people, too much bureaucracy, too many meetings of the Comprehensive Communications Review Committee?
Yet another earthquake (magnitude 4.3) shook the Big Island this morning. Public safety requires significant enhancements in emergency communications procedures now, not later, and not because of a New Year's resolution. Citizens can't wait that long.
Hawaii residents now know that if they push a rope hard enough and long enough, even a rope will move.
The new post-earthquake protocols described in today’s Honolulu Advertiser are a direct response to your concerns and complaints about the information void that dragged on for hours after the October 15th earthquakes.
State Civil Defense says Thursday was the first time the Emergency Alert System was used to announce that no tsunami had been generated by an earthquake.
On October 15th, residents living near the shore had no such help in knowing whether a tsunami was heading their way following the two strong earthquakes that rattled the island chain.
Officials later admitted they made a conscious decision – and an obvious mistake, in CHORE’s opinion – to not issue a no-tsunami message because they thought the public would panic. The new protocols seem to acknowledge that the public deserves more credit than that.
Big Island Leads the Way
The story also notes that Big Island officials “…use local radio stations as their primary method of communicating with the public in emergencies…” Mayor Harry Kim – who earned his spurs as the island’s Civil Defense chief – reportedly was talking to Big Island radio stations inside of 10 minutes after the quake.
Good for him and them! It’s unfortunate that their common-sense solution to getting the word out – using radio’s unmatched ubiquity and flexibility – seems to be the exception, not only in Hawaii but about around the Pacific Rim.
CHORE’S sister blog – Tsunami Lessons – was founded one week after the Christmas 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami on the premise that a tsunami warning transmitted immediately via the major networks and ultimately to consumers watching television and listening to radio could have saved untold numbers of lives. (Readers are invited to plow through several dozen posts at Tsunami Lessons, starting with the first one.)
Big Island officials are validating that premise on a micro scale, and we urge officials at NOAA and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center to pay attention.
However, glitches still exist in even that efficient communications channel. Several radio stations that serve Kona residents were knocked off the air by a power blackout on Thursday. Backup generation has been ordered by at least one station.
Trust Your Own Eyes
Today’s Advertiser story prompts CHORE to rethink its Thanksgiving Day post and the time KGMB-TV ran its first EAS voice and visual alert after the earthquake.
We knew an alert interrupted the NFL game at 10 a.m. and therefore included that time in our first post. But domestic chores had interfered with nonstop football viewing, so we called the station to confirm that 10 o'clock was the first such announcement.
After a short delay to allegedly check with the control room, a staffer said the notice was first aired at 9:35, and that’s what we posted in a revision. In light of Civil Defense’s statement that it first generated an EAS alert at 9:57, it would seem KGMB fudged its time and that 10 a.m. was indeed its first EAS message.
Instead of a 15-minute delay after the 9:20 quake in generating an EAS alert, State Civil Defense now confirms a 37-minute delay, which accentuates the whole thrust of Thursday’s CHORE post. If tsunamis can begin striking other islands 15 minutes after a major Big Island quake, even a quarter hour is unacceptable; 37 minutes is inexcusable.
Why Does Progress Take So Long?
Civil Defense’s spokesman says in today’s story that the 37-minute lag on Thursday was because (quoting the story) “…Civil Defense officials had not yet formalized procedures on issuing a post-earthquake tsunami all-clear message on the Emergency Alert System….”
The Thanksgiving Day earthquake was 39 days after our big October 15th wakeup call. Should it really take more than five weeks to fix a major problem in the State’s emergency response procedures? As of Thursday, it still wasn’t fixed. What’s the status now, and what’s holding up progress – too many middle people, too much bureaucracy, too many meetings of the Comprehensive Communications Review Committee?
Yet another earthquake (magnitude 4.3) shook the Big Island this morning. Public safety requires significant enhancements in emergency communications procedures now, not later, and not because of a New Year's resolution. Citizens can't wait that long.
Friday, November 24, 2006
A Proposal for a Tsunami Emergency Alert Procedure: “Feel the Quake, Activate!”
Scientists and Civil Defense professionals must roll their eyes when CHORE and other amateurs come up with suggestions to improve response procedures.
But maybe simple solutions work. The present goal is to generate informational alerts to the public as quickly as possible following earthquakes to tell us whether a tsunami has or hasn’t been generated. The public needs to know either way.
As we see it at CHORE, both scenarios require an urgent response by Civil Defense. In post-October 15th Hawai`i, the public is looking for reassurance that officialdom can and will communicate with us when the chips are down.
Yesterday’s response was far superior to what happened in October, when earthquakes triggered an island-wide power outage on Oahu. But still, as noted in yesterday’s post, 15 minutes passed after the Thanksgiving Day earthquake before an Emergency Alert System announcement was made in a screen crawl and by voice on KGMB-TV around 9:35.
Could the EAS announcement have happened earlier? Maybe it could. KITV apparently cut in with its own information once the no-tsunami call had been made by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. KITV’s first news on the quake probably was broadcast before 9:35. KHON reportedly also went with its own announcement rather than the EAS screen crawl around 9:50.
Reacting As Quickly As Possible
But here’s the key question: Are the collective efforts of the PTWC, State Civil Defense and the EAS capable of issuing automated announcements over TV and radio sooner than 15 minutes after a quake? If the PTWC knows within three to five minutes what’s up, why can’t an EAS message be triggered then and there?
A 15-minute delay won’t be good enough in a tsunami situation. Certainly, individual citizens must take responsibility for their own safety; officials constantly preach that if we feel a major temblor, we must immediately leave areas that could be inundated.
Isn’t the same advice applicable to first responders? If they feel a significant quake, shouldn’t the system immediately prepare to generate an EAS message?
CHORE thinks it should and therefore suggests this simple mantra:
“If you feel the quake, activate.”
If a shaker is strong enough to be felt throughout the island chain, officials must activate the EAS on the assumption that people will immediately want to know what’s happening. It would seem they could do that once PTWC has made an evaluation of the earthquake’s strength and tsunami potential.
We’ve had two “dry runs” since October 15th to put into practice lessons learned on Earthquake Sunday. Response time is improving, but it’s far too soon for anyone responsible for emergency communications to be satisfied.
But maybe simple solutions work. The present goal is to generate informational alerts to the public as quickly as possible following earthquakes to tell us whether a tsunami has or hasn’t been generated. The public needs to know either way.
As we see it at CHORE, both scenarios require an urgent response by Civil Defense. In post-October 15th Hawai`i, the public is looking for reassurance that officialdom can and will communicate with us when the chips are down.
Yesterday’s response was far superior to what happened in October, when earthquakes triggered an island-wide power outage on Oahu. But still, as noted in yesterday’s post, 15 minutes passed after the Thanksgiving Day earthquake before an Emergency Alert System announcement was made in a screen crawl and by voice on KGMB-TV around 9:35.
Could the EAS announcement have happened earlier? Maybe it could. KITV apparently cut in with its own information once the no-tsunami call had been made by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. KITV’s first news on the quake probably was broadcast before 9:35. KHON reportedly also went with its own announcement rather than the EAS screen crawl around 9:50.
Reacting As Quickly As Possible
But here’s the key question: Are the collective efforts of the PTWC, State Civil Defense and the EAS capable of issuing automated announcements over TV and radio sooner than 15 minutes after a quake? If the PTWC knows within three to five minutes what’s up, why can’t an EAS message be triggered then and there?
A 15-minute delay won’t be good enough in a tsunami situation. Certainly, individual citizens must take responsibility for their own safety; officials constantly preach that if we feel a major temblor, we must immediately leave areas that could be inundated.
Isn’t the same advice applicable to first responders? If they feel a significant quake, shouldn’t the system immediately prepare to generate an EAS message?
CHORE thinks it should and therefore suggests this simple mantra:
“If you feel the quake, activate.”
If a shaker is strong enough to be felt throughout the island chain, officials must activate the EAS on the assumption that people will immediately want to know what’s happening. It would seem they could do that once PTWC has made an evaluation of the earthquake’s strength and tsunami potential.
We’ve had two “dry runs” since October 15th to put into practice lessons learned on Earthquake Sunday. Response time is improving, but it’s far too soon for anyone responsible for emergency communications to be satisfied.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
15 Minutes Pass Before ‘No-Tsunami Crawl' Appears on TV after Thanksgiving Earthquake
This morning’s earthquake hit the Big Island in approximately the same place as the two big October 15th quakes. The USGS has pegged it at 5.0, a “moderate” jolt that occurred about an hour ago at 9:20 a.m.
According to the Honolulu Advertiser’s first online report posted at 9:42, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a message three minutes after the quake, giving it a 4.5 magnitude. Here’s a later Advertiser report.
Either at that time or shortly thereafter, the Center passed the word that no tsunami was expected. Although exact times aren’t immediately known, it’s safe to assume that the no-tsunami message went out around 9:30 or even sooner.
According to KGMB-TV, its audio of the station's coverage of an NFL game was interrupted at 9:35 and a “crawl” moved across the top of the screen about the earthquake and telling the audience that no tsunami was expected. (10/25 Update: KGMB's assertion that it broadcast the EAS message at 9:35 was later shown to be erroneous in this post.)
Continuing the questions posted here at CHORE two days ago, it’s legitimate to ask why it still took 15 minutes after the quake for Emergency Alert System authorities to issue a no-tsunami message to the public -- or at least to the public watching channel 9?
On October 15th, the Warning Center knew within five minutes that no tsunami had been generated. If a tsunami had been triggered today, could authorities have issued a warning quicker than 15 minutes? Would emergency sirens been sounded before then?
The 15-Minute Window
We’ve always been told that a tsunami generated around the Big Island would sweep across the island chain at jetliner speed and arrive within 15 to 30 minutes depending on the island.
With that being the critical piece of information, why can’t any kind of tsunami message – a warning or a no-tsunami alert – be disseminated over TV and radio inside of 15 minutes after a significant earthquake on or near the Big Island?
Add the Thanksgiving Earthquake to the other topics to be discussed at State Civil Defense’s public meeting, which has not yet been scheduled.
According to the Honolulu Advertiser’s first online report posted at 9:42, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a message three minutes after the quake, giving it a 4.5 magnitude. Here’s a later Advertiser report.
Either at that time or shortly thereafter, the Center passed the word that no tsunami was expected. Although exact times aren’t immediately known, it’s safe to assume that the no-tsunami message went out around 9:30 or even sooner.
According to KGMB-TV, its audio of the station's coverage of an NFL game was interrupted at 9:35 and a “crawl” moved across the top of the screen about the earthquake and telling the audience that no tsunami was expected. (10/25 Update: KGMB's assertion that it broadcast the EAS message at 9:35 was later shown to be erroneous in this post.)
Continuing the questions posted here at CHORE two days ago, it’s legitimate to ask why it still took 15 minutes after the quake for Emergency Alert System authorities to issue a no-tsunami message to the public -- or at least to the public watching channel 9?
On October 15th, the Warning Center knew within five minutes that no tsunami had been generated. If a tsunami had been triggered today, could authorities have issued a warning quicker than 15 minutes? Would emergency sirens been sounded before then?
The 15-Minute Window
We’ve always been told that a tsunami generated around the Big Island would sweep across the island chain at jetliner speed and arrive within 15 to 30 minutes depending on the island.
With that being the critical piece of information, why can’t any kind of tsunami message – a warning or a no-tsunami alert – be disseminated over TV and radio inside of 15 minutes after a significant earthquake on or near the Big Island?
Add the Thanksgiving Earthquake to the other topics to be discussed at State Civil Defense’s public meeting, which has not yet been scheduled.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Turkey, Shopping Soon To Dominate; Will it Leave Time for Emergency Response Fixes?
CHORE won’t be surprised if the whole emergency response issue is set aside for the next six weeks. Thanksgiving, shopping, parties, presents, eggnog – it’s all too much.
Besides, the earthquakes were weeks ago, and the 2006 hurricane season was as calm as they get in the Central Pacific. Complacency Check: What date in 1982 did Hurricane Iwa strike the Hawaiian Islands? Find the answer at the bottom of today's post.
The Comprehensive Communications Review Committee began meeting five weeks ago today. Is it still meeting? Who knows? You can’t tell from the media coverage, because there’s virtually none. Only one story has run on the committee’s review of the October 15th communications failures and discussions to make things better.
The only mention of the public meeting CHORE has urged State Civil Defense to hold was in a letter from the agency’s vice director posted here a week ago. We’re still waiting for the staff member to call about scheduling a meeting.
So as we slide into the holidays, the best we can do now is keep alive some of the issues and questions that remain unanswered:
• Why did the Emergency Alert System fail to kick in soon after the earthquakes? Has it been fixed?
• Do officials now acknowledge that the decision to not issue a “no tsunami” message caused undue fear in the population? Are new guidelines in place that will encourage a “non-event” message to the public?
• How much time passed after the first quake hit before Civil Defense officials were on the air? What changes have been implemented to speed the response?
• What’s been done to encourage broadcast stations to strengthen their ability to stay on the air in a power blackout? Are they reacting? Is Civil Defense satisfied?
• Does Civil Defense have new procedures that will facilitate communication with the stations in any kind of emergency?
• Where are the “gap areas” that State Civil Defense says exist in the emergency siren system? According to a media report, 148 sirens are needed to fill them. Why wouldn’t officials disclose the gap locations in that report, and have they changed their minds? Don’t people living in the gaps deserve to know they’re not protected by the siren system?
• What are the guidelines for issuing tsunami warnings and advisories? Are new protocols being written to address tsunamis that are too small for a full-scale siren alert but large enough to cause harbor damage? What is Civil Defense doing to improve the information flow to harbor masters? Is Civil Defense talking to outside agencies to benefit from their experience?
We could go on, but there’s shopping to do and a tree to trim. In the meantime, CHORE hopes the media will take a break from covering the standard fare and look into some of these issues – or is news conference news the only news that’s covered in this town?
And maybe State Civil Defense can interrupt the holiday routine to at least reveal the latest planning for the public meeting it promised.
Complacency Check answer: November 23.
Besides, the earthquakes were weeks ago, and the 2006 hurricane season was as calm as they get in the Central Pacific. Complacency Check: What date in 1982 did Hurricane Iwa strike the Hawaiian Islands? Find the answer at the bottom of today's post.
The Comprehensive Communications Review Committee began meeting five weeks ago today. Is it still meeting? Who knows? You can’t tell from the media coverage, because there’s virtually none. Only one story has run on the committee’s review of the October 15th communications failures and discussions to make things better.
The only mention of the public meeting CHORE has urged State Civil Defense to hold was in a letter from the agency’s vice director posted here a week ago. We’re still waiting for the staff member to call about scheduling a meeting.
So as we slide into the holidays, the best we can do now is keep alive some of the issues and questions that remain unanswered:
• Why did the Emergency Alert System fail to kick in soon after the earthquakes? Has it been fixed?
• Do officials now acknowledge that the decision to not issue a “no tsunami” message caused undue fear in the population? Are new guidelines in place that will encourage a “non-event” message to the public?
• How much time passed after the first quake hit before Civil Defense officials were on the air? What changes have been implemented to speed the response?
• What’s been done to encourage broadcast stations to strengthen their ability to stay on the air in a power blackout? Are they reacting? Is Civil Defense satisfied?
• Does Civil Defense have new procedures that will facilitate communication with the stations in any kind of emergency?
• Where are the “gap areas” that State Civil Defense says exist in the emergency siren system? According to a media report, 148 sirens are needed to fill them. Why wouldn’t officials disclose the gap locations in that report, and have they changed their minds? Don’t people living in the gaps deserve to know they’re not protected by the siren system?
• What are the guidelines for issuing tsunami warnings and advisories? Are new protocols being written to address tsunamis that are too small for a full-scale siren alert but large enough to cause harbor damage? What is Civil Defense doing to improve the information flow to harbor masters? Is Civil Defense talking to outside agencies to benefit from their experience?
We could go on, but there’s shopping to do and a tree to trim. In the meantime, CHORE hopes the media will take a break from covering the standard fare and look into some of these issues – or is news conference news the only news that’s covered in this town?
And maybe State Civil Defense can interrupt the holiday routine to at least reveal the latest planning for the public meeting it promised.
Complacency Check answer: November 23.
Friday, November 17, 2006
“I don't know if it is our fault or their fault, but we need to get tied into the warning system...”
This quote about the November 15th tsunami is from the Crescent City, CA harbormaster after boats and piers in its bay suffered $700,000 in damage.
Crescent City is a cautionary tale for Hawaii because of the similarities between how the two locations prepared for the tsunami’s arrival.
(November 18th Update: Read more in the San Francisco Chronicle about the failure of California's warning system that left officials in Crescent City clueless to the tsunami's potential danger. Tsunami Lessons, our sister blog, asks why a tsunami warning is like the Telephone game.)
In both places, officials knew when the tsunami would arrive but predicted its effects would be minor. Officials in both places decided not to activate the siren warning system. Both places cancelled a tsunami alert before the anticipated arrival time.
The water level rose and fell rapidly in boat harbors around Hawaii, with only minor damage, and in Crescent City, where events turned dramatic hours after the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, AK cancelled its alert.
Officials there now acknowledge they could have done more to warn harbors along the Pacific Coast that wave action lasting for hours could be severe enough to cause damage. Like Hawaii officials, they said they’re worried about the “cry wolf” syndrome. “It’s something we wrestle with all the time,” one said.
Mixing Art and Science
Hawaii officials didn't activate emergency sirens, which in hindsight seems to have been a good call. Instead, they used the Emergency Alert System to break into radio and TV programming around 6 a.m. Wednesday with a warning to stay out of the water due to anticipated dangerous currents.
CHORE doesn't know if that warning also anticipated the large swells in harbors on Kauai, Oahu’s North Shore and Maui that caused minor damage. Officials on the mainland now wish they had done more to alert coastal communities. Maybe Hawaii officials feel the same; it's something we look forward to learning. (The public briefing State Civil Defense says it will hold on its response to the October 15th earthquakes might well address the tsunami event.)
What now seems certain is that there’s a huge gray area covering when and what kind of alert officials should issue, what additional “sub-warnings” are appropriate and how long they should continue.
Each earthquake and tsunami tells us there’s more “art” to this emergency response science than we had imagined.
Crescent City is a cautionary tale for Hawaii because of the similarities between how the two locations prepared for the tsunami’s arrival.
(November 18th Update: Read more in the San Francisco Chronicle about the failure of California's warning system that left officials in Crescent City clueless to the tsunami's potential danger. Tsunami Lessons, our sister blog, asks why a tsunami warning is like the Telephone game.)
In both places, officials knew when the tsunami would arrive but predicted its effects would be minor. Officials in both places decided not to activate the siren warning system. Both places cancelled a tsunami alert before the anticipated arrival time.
The water level rose and fell rapidly in boat harbors around Hawaii, with only minor damage, and in Crescent City, where events turned dramatic hours after the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, AK cancelled its alert.
Officials there now acknowledge they could have done more to warn harbors along the Pacific Coast that wave action lasting for hours could be severe enough to cause damage. Like Hawaii officials, they said they’re worried about the “cry wolf” syndrome. “It’s something we wrestle with all the time,” one said.
Mixing Art and Science
Hawaii officials didn't activate emergency sirens, which in hindsight seems to have been a good call. Instead, they used the Emergency Alert System to break into radio and TV programming around 6 a.m. Wednesday with a warning to stay out of the water due to anticipated dangerous currents.
CHORE doesn't know if that warning also anticipated the large swells in harbors on Kauai, Oahu’s North Shore and Maui that caused minor damage. Officials on the mainland now wish they had done more to alert coastal communities. Maybe Hawaii officials feel the same; it's something we look forward to learning. (The public briefing State Civil Defense says it will hold on its response to the October 15th earthquakes might well address the tsunami event.)
What now seems certain is that there’s a huge gray area covering when and what kind of alert officials should issue, what additional “sub-warnings” are appropriate and how long they should continue.
Each earthquake and tsunami tells us there’s more “art” to this emergency response science than we had imagined.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Tsunami Event Passes with Few Consequences, Confirms Belief that Some People Are Stupid
The initial assessments of yesterday’s mini-tsunami event compliment the first responders for their measured efforts to alert the public. The absence of any significant damage and injuries validated their decision to not activate the siren system.
Aside from some minor scrapes among a few swimmers who ignored warnings to stay out of the water, this tsunami had no serious consequences. The biggest take-away may be that despite all that’s been done to educate the public about what not to do when a tsunami approaches, some people will do it anyway.
Officials may have to acknowledge that they can’t change those people.
Some Civil Defense staffers expressed concern in media reports that if they sound an alarm for what turns out to be a non-event, the “cry wolf” syndrome will desensitize the public to future earthquakes and tsunamis.
CHORE strongly encourages these officials to set aside that concern and concentrate on the needs of sensible people – the vast majority of us who occupy the middle of the bell curve. The loonies who want to “ride a tsunami” are probably beyond hope, and the rest of us will appreciate your efforts.
Continue educating the public, keep fine-tuning your alert system and rehearsing the broadcast industry on emergency procedures. When the “big one” does arrive and sweeps tsunami-riding surfers away, it won't be because you didn't do your jobs.
Aside from some minor scrapes among a few swimmers who ignored warnings to stay out of the water, this tsunami had no serious consequences. The biggest take-away may be that despite all that’s been done to educate the public about what not to do when a tsunami approaches, some people will do it anyway.
Officials may have to acknowledge that they can’t change those people.
Some Civil Defense staffers expressed concern in media reports that if they sound an alarm for what turns out to be a non-event, the “cry wolf” syndrome will desensitize the public to future earthquakes and tsunamis.
CHORE strongly encourages these officials to set aside that concern and concentrate on the needs of sensible people – the vast majority of us who occupy the middle of the bell curve. The loonies who want to “ride a tsunami” are probably beyond hope, and the rest of us will appreciate your efforts.
Continue educating the public, keep fine-tuning your alert system and rehearsing the broadcast industry on emergency procedures. When the “big one” does arrive and sweeps tsunami-riding surfers away, it won't be because you didn't do your jobs.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
State Civil Defense Commits to Public Briefing On October Earthquakes' Emergency Response
November 15th Update at 6:06 a.m.: This morning's tsunami watch triggered an Emergency Alert System break-in on radio stations between 5:50 and 6:05 a.m. It's an improvement when the EAS is at work within the hour of a watch, but it's not unreasonable to hope fine tuning will produce an even quicker activation.
Breaking a new development in the earthquake response story may be no great shakes in light of the media’s general disinterest in the story so far, but we’ll make the point anyway:
With this post, CHORE appears to be the first to confirm the State Civil Defense’s intention to conduct a public briefing on its response to the October 15th earthquakes and discuss lessons learned and planned improvements to emergency communications.
Vice Director of Civil Defense Ed Teixeira’s response to CHORE’s November 6th letter arrived today. It contains the welcome news that a public meeting is in the works and will be held once more pressing matters are addressed.
This is a good move by State authorities, and we'll continue to hope the meeting also will include recommendations for improved emergency communications now being developed by the Comprehensive Communications Review Committee.
Here’s Ed Teixeira’s letter:
Dear Mr. Carlson:
Thank you for your letter of November 6, 2006. I know from our previous letters and conversations that you are deeply interested in protecting the public when disasters occur, and I welcome your observations and suggestions.
We, at State Civil Defense, intend to conduct an after-action review on our response to the October 15, 2006, earthquake, including lessons learned. However, responding to people who were impacted by the earthquake is our most immediate priority. We are presently staffing several Disaster Recovery Centers on the island of Hawaii and a joint Field Office in coordination with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
We are never fully satisfied with our response to any disaster or emergency; we know there are always ways to improve and have already addressed improvements to the emergency alert system. We appreciate your interest and will take you up on your offer to help.
Mr. Ray Lovell, State Civil Defense Public Information Officer, will be contacting you for additional information and for a possible date we can meet with the public.
Sincerely,
/signature/
EDWARD T. TEIXEIRA
Vice Director of Civil Defense
c: MG Robert G. F. Lee
Director of Civil Defense
We look forward to participating and welcome comments, questions and recommendations by CHORE’s readers on providing information you need to feel secure in a crisis. Add your comments here or send an email; we'll post a list of questions in this space.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Elaborate Fix to Communications Problems Misses Basic Issue: Planning and Response
An editorial in today’s Honolulu Advertiser on improving emergency communications begins with this generalization:
“Communication is power, but there can be little communication when the power’s out.”
In truth, there MUST be communication when the power’s out. That’s the whole point of emergency communications – to provide information in the worst of circumstances.
Most of us would agree that an island-wide power outage is a bad circumstance. Oahu’s had numerous major outages over the past 25 years, so contingency planning surely took major blackouts into account. How, then, do we explain what happened on October 15th?
Planning and Execution
Citizens still are in the dark about the planning that’s being done to ensure our safety. The work of the Comprehensive Communications Review Committee has received only minimal media coverage, so the public essentially is uninformed at this point. But this much is certain:
The problem on October 15th wasn’t the failure of the cellular telephone network. First responders obviously don’t rely on cell phones in an emergency. The breakdown of the cellular network was what the editorial called it – a frustration. And as Hawaiian Telcom keeps telling us, its network stayed up throughout the blackout.
The failure wasn’t because it was impossible to communicate with the public. Some radio stations stayed on the air using generators, so the power outage did not deny access to information for citizens with battery radios.
No, it’s reasonable to conclude the failure resulted from inadequate planning for a blackout contingency, poor execution of a good (or bad) plan or a combination of both.
Nice vs. Necessary
Creating a media room and direct connections to Civil Defense is a nice idea, but it sidesteps the obvious need for immediacy in relaying information to the public. Citizens ask: If the weather service can break into broadcasts with flash flood warnings, why can’t Civil Defense do the same?
The Emergency Alert System presumably exists for just that sort of immediate communications throughout the state. Efforts to improve the EAS obviously will be part of the committee’s recommendations.
Fixing the problems truly will take a comprehensive makeover of the communications chain between first responders and the public, to include the broadcast industry. Radio stations not only require emergency backup power sources but staffs with training and an “emergency” mindset that downplays entertainment during a crisis.
KISS
CHORE was created on the premise that crisis planning should not be the exclusive domain of the professionals. We’ve proposed that final recommendations of the review committee be released at a public meeting at which citizens would have an opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback to the experts.
While conclusions and recommendations are still being processed, maybe the old advice dispensed regularly in military circles is appropriate now: KISS -- Keep It Simple, Stupid.
Nobody working to improve emergency communications is “stupid,” and that includes we citizens.
“Communication is power, but there can be little communication when the power’s out.”
In truth, there MUST be communication when the power’s out. That’s the whole point of emergency communications – to provide information in the worst of circumstances.
Most of us would agree that an island-wide power outage is a bad circumstance. Oahu’s had numerous major outages over the past 25 years, so contingency planning surely took major blackouts into account. How, then, do we explain what happened on October 15th?
Planning and Execution
Citizens still are in the dark about the planning that’s being done to ensure our safety. The work of the Comprehensive Communications Review Committee has received only minimal media coverage, so the public essentially is uninformed at this point. But this much is certain:
The problem on October 15th wasn’t the failure of the cellular telephone network. First responders obviously don’t rely on cell phones in an emergency. The breakdown of the cellular network was what the editorial called it – a frustration. And as Hawaiian Telcom keeps telling us, its network stayed up throughout the blackout.
The failure wasn’t because it was impossible to communicate with the public. Some radio stations stayed on the air using generators, so the power outage did not deny access to information for citizens with battery radios.
No, it’s reasonable to conclude the failure resulted from inadequate planning for a blackout contingency, poor execution of a good (or bad) plan or a combination of both.
Nice vs. Necessary
Creating a media room and direct connections to Civil Defense is a nice idea, but it sidesteps the obvious need for immediacy in relaying information to the public. Citizens ask: If the weather service can break into broadcasts with flash flood warnings, why can’t Civil Defense do the same?
The Emergency Alert System presumably exists for just that sort of immediate communications throughout the state. Efforts to improve the EAS obviously will be part of the committee’s recommendations.
Fixing the problems truly will take a comprehensive makeover of the communications chain between first responders and the public, to include the broadcast industry. Radio stations not only require emergency backup power sources but staffs with training and an “emergency” mindset that downplays entertainment during a crisis.
KISS
CHORE was created on the premise that crisis planning should not be the exclusive domain of the professionals. We’ve proposed that final recommendations of the review committee be released at a public meeting at which citizens would have an opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback to the experts.
While conclusions and recommendations are still being processed, maybe the old advice dispensed regularly in military circles is appropriate now: KISS -- Keep It Simple, Stupid.
Nobody working to improve emergency communications is “stupid,” and that includes we citizens.
Friday, November 10, 2006
Media Break Silence on Review Panel's Work; Will Findings Be Released in a Public Briefing?
Seventeen days after the first meeting of the State-appointed Comprehensive Communications Review Committee, the public finally can read about its progress.
Several committee recommendations to improve communications to the public during and after emergencies are summarized in a Honolulu Advertiser story today. The final report of the committee, which is composed of State officials and media representatives, is still more than a month away.
There isn’t much to go on in the Advertiser story, but there’s enough to raise a question or two – which of course is what this blog does. (Doug White raises some additional questions here.)
Was it a “Power” or “Protocol” Problem?
The major focus of the committee’s work as reported today was the power outage on Oahu that lasted for hours. The committee’s chair is quoted: “Power was the biggest issue. There was no backup.”
The island-wide blackout certainly was a huge issue, but was it the biggest? The designated emergency broadcast station and others actually remained on the air using backup generators, so citizens did have a source of information on portable radio AM and FM dials.
What seems like a bigger issue was the absence of protocols for officials to address the issue at hand – two significant earthquakes that might have generated a tsunami and did produce a chain of events resulting in the blackout.
State Civil Defense decided on October 15th to not issue a “no tsunami” message. Other messages that might have reassured the public on the status of the emergency were not relayed to the on-air radio stations, apparently due to the inability to call in on a secure line. And the Emergency Alert System took nearly four hours to activate.
“Constant” Means “Constant”
The committee reportedly is recommending solutions to these problems, including issuing a “no tsunami” message when warranted to allay public fears. Another recommendation (quoting the newspaper story) is to offer “regular updates at least every 30 minutes in the event of an emergency so that the public gets a constant flow of information.”
News every 30 minutes doesn’t sound like a “constant flow of information.” Some emergencies will be severe enough to require a virtually uninterrupted stream of messages from Civil Defense officials.
Let’s hope the final report will include new procedures for officials that will achieve that end and resolve other quake-revealed problems. The committee’s recommendation to upgrade the Emergency Alert System so it can cut into radio and TV broadcasts seems wise.
Pairing the Report with a Briefing
CHORE has urged State Civil Defense to brief the public on what it learned on October 15th and what it will do differently in future emergencies. Here’s a proposal that makes too much sense to resist:
State Civil Defense and the Comprehensive Communications Review Committee would do well to issue the panel’s report and answer questions at a public briefing at the earliest opportunity.
The media would cover such an event, as they did Hawaiian Electric’s public briefing on October 23rd. Civil Defense officials could demonstrate their responsiveness to the public by participating, something they’ve yet to confirm they’re willing to do. And the committee would receive instant feedback from the public on its recommendations.
Now that some journalists have shown an interest in the committee’s work, maybe they'll get behind a proposal to involve citizens in improving systems meant to ensure public safety.
And to all fellow veterans, enjoy your day.
Several committee recommendations to improve communications to the public during and after emergencies are summarized in a Honolulu Advertiser story today. The final report of the committee, which is composed of State officials and media representatives, is still more than a month away.
There isn’t much to go on in the Advertiser story, but there’s enough to raise a question or two – which of course is what this blog does. (Doug White raises some additional questions here.)
Was it a “Power” or “Protocol” Problem?
The major focus of the committee’s work as reported today was the power outage on Oahu that lasted for hours. The committee’s chair is quoted: “Power was the biggest issue. There was no backup.”
The island-wide blackout certainly was a huge issue, but was it the biggest? The designated emergency broadcast station and others actually remained on the air using backup generators, so citizens did have a source of information on portable radio AM and FM dials.
What seems like a bigger issue was the absence of protocols for officials to address the issue at hand – two significant earthquakes that might have generated a tsunami and did produce a chain of events resulting in the blackout.
State Civil Defense decided on October 15th to not issue a “no tsunami” message. Other messages that might have reassured the public on the status of the emergency were not relayed to the on-air radio stations, apparently due to the inability to call in on a secure line. And the Emergency Alert System took nearly four hours to activate.
“Constant” Means “Constant”
The committee reportedly is recommending solutions to these problems, including issuing a “no tsunami” message when warranted to allay public fears. Another recommendation (quoting the newspaper story) is to offer “regular updates at least every 30 minutes in the event of an emergency so that the public gets a constant flow of information.”
News every 30 minutes doesn’t sound like a “constant flow of information.” Some emergencies will be severe enough to require a virtually uninterrupted stream of messages from Civil Defense officials.
Let’s hope the final report will include new procedures for officials that will achieve that end and resolve other quake-revealed problems. The committee’s recommendation to upgrade the Emergency Alert System so it can cut into radio and TV broadcasts seems wise.
Pairing the Report with a Briefing
CHORE has urged State Civil Defense to brief the public on what it learned on October 15th and what it will do differently in future emergencies. Here’s a proposal that makes too much sense to resist:
State Civil Defense and the Comprehensive Communications Review Committee would do well to issue the panel’s report and answer questions at a public briefing at the earliest opportunity.
The media would cover such an event, as they did Hawaiian Electric’s public briefing on October 23rd. Civil Defense officials could demonstrate their responsiveness to the public by participating, something they’ve yet to confirm they’re willing to do. And the committee would receive instant feedback from the public on its recommendations.
Now that some journalists have shown an interest in the committee’s work, maybe they'll get behind a proposal to involve citizens in improving systems meant to ensure public safety.
And to all fellow veterans, enjoy your day.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Proposed Civil Defense Briefing Would Help Public Evaluate Communications Readiness
• November 9th Update: This is the 16th consecutive day without media coverage of the state's Comprehensive Communications Review Committee, which began meeting on October 24th.
• See CHORE’S first post to read our Mission and Objective statements.
CHORE believes transparency about Civil Defense preparedness is appropriate in light of the post-earthquake communications glitches we all experienced. We're therefore posting a letter sent two days ago to State Civil Defense urging the agency to conduct a public briefing on lessons learned and proposed changes that will enhance community awareness and safety in future emergencies.
Mr. Edward T. Teixeira
Vice Director of Civil Defense
Hawaii State Civil Defense
3949 Diamond Head Road
Honolulu HI 96816-4495
Dear Ed:
My ongoing interest in emergency communications prompted me to start a web log called “Citizens Helping Officials Respond to Emergencies” (CHORE) after the October 15th earthquakes. The blog has been a convenient location to record observations, ask questions and make recommendations that have occurred to other commentators and me.
One of the recommendations is for State Civil Defense to hold a public briefing on your agency’s response to the earthquakes and any lessons learned that might result in improvements. Hawaiian Electric Company conducted such a briefing two weeks ago that appeared to be well received by the public.
Many people have said they feel government and the broadcast industry can do a better job in communicating critical information to the public during and after a crisis. I’m confident the public would welcome a detailed briefing by the Civil Defense agencies to help restore our sense of security, which was badly shaken by the events of October 15th. We’ve had an uneventful hurricane season this year, but we all know how daunting the communications challenges would be if a major storm were to strike Oahu.
I look forward to hearing from you, Ed, and hope to join you in a dialogue with the community on improving emergency communications to help keep our citizens informed.
Aloha,
Doug Carlson
• See CHORE’S first post to read our Mission and Objective statements.
CHORE believes transparency about Civil Defense preparedness is appropriate in light of the post-earthquake communications glitches we all experienced. We're therefore posting a letter sent two days ago to State Civil Defense urging the agency to conduct a public briefing on lessons learned and proposed changes that will enhance community awareness and safety in future emergencies.
Mr. Edward T. Teixeira
Vice Director of Civil Defense
Hawaii State Civil Defense
3949 Diamond Head Road
Honolulu HI 96816-4495
Dear Ed:
My ongoing interest in emergency communications prompted me to start a web log called “Citizens Helping Officials Respond to Emergencies” (CHORE) after the October 15th earthquakes. The blog has been a convenient location to record observations, ask questions and make recommendations that have occurred to other commentators and me.
One of the recommendations is for State Civil Defense to hold a public briefing on your agency’s response to the earthquakes and any lessons learned that might result in improvements. Hawaiian Electric Company conducted such a briefing two weeks ago that appeared to be well received by the public.
Many people have said they feel government and the broadcast industry can do a better job in communicating critical information to the public during and after a crisis. I’m confident the public would welcome a detailed briefing by the Civil Defense agencies to help restore our sense of security, which was badly shaken by the events of October 15th. We’ve had an uneventful hurricane season this year, but we all know how daunting the communications challenges would be if a major storm were to strike Oahu.
I look forward to hearing from you, Ed, and hope to join you in a dialogue with the community on improving emergency communications to help keep our citizens informed.
Aloha,
Doug Carlson
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Sense of Insecurity Needs To Be Addressed by Islands’ Communicators, Including the Media
November 7th update: This is the 14th consecutive day of no media coverage of the Comprehensive Communications Review Committee, which began meeting two weeks ago today to examine the communications failures after the October 15th earthquakes.
November 6th update: CHORE anticipates that with the end of the Hawaii Security Summit, held last week on the Big Island, State Civil Defense officials will focus their activities on improving emergency communications procedures. CHORE will revive its request that they brief the public on their progress and the lessons learned on October 15th. Also, we can hope the news media will favor us with reports on the Comprehensive Communications Review Committee's work.
November 3rd update: CHORE's letter in today's edition of Pacific Business News was sent as an email to local journalists on October 19th before Hawaiian Electric Company's public briefing on the island-wide power outage. Therefore, the letter's reference to HECO's lack of information on "load shedding" to stabilize the power grid -- while accurate on the 19th -- is now dated.
November 6th update: CHORE anticipates that with the end of the Hawaii Security Summit, held last week on the Big Island, State Civil Defense officials will focus their activities on improving emergency communications procedures. CHORE will revive its request that they brief the public on their progress and the lessons learned on October 15th. Also, we can hope the news media will favor us with reports on the Comprehensive Communications Review Committee's work.
November 3rd update: CHORE's letter in today's edition of Pacific Business News was sent as an email to local journalists on October 19th before Hawaiian Electric Company's public briefing on the island-wide power outage. Therefore, the letter's reference to HECO's lack of information on "load shedding" to stabilize the power grid -- while accurate on the 19th -- is now dated.
October 15th was a difficult day for Hawai`i residents. Earthquakes shook our homes and damaged some of them, and the daylong Oahu power outage tested our readiness and patience.
Do the events of that day make us feel more secure or less secure?
I think a poll of Oahu residents would reveal a heightened sense of insecurity in our community. We feel that way because the communications chain we thought we could rely on was broken on Earthquake Sunday.
The breakdown is still with us. In the three weeks since the quakes, additional links in the information chain seem less reliable than we had imagined.
Among them are the daily print and broadcast media outlets, which have shown little inclination to cover the efforts now underway to improve emergency communications in our community.
The breakdown began when the violent shaking stopped. At that moment, thousands of households wanted to know what had happened and turned to our favorite radio stations.
We found silence up and down the dial. Nearly a dozen stations that supposedly broadcast in the public interest were off the air and stayed that way for hours during Oahu’s island-wide power outage.
The designated emergency station continued broadcasting with generator power, but it took nearly an hour before it stopped a pre-recorded public affairs program and began reporting on the earthquake and outage.
No News Was Not Good News
Residents living near the ocean wondered about a tsunami threat, but State Civil Defense officials made a conscious decision to not issue a “no-tsunami” message and were silent about the potential. Their decision added to the fear factor.
The Emergency Alert System was not activated for nearly three hours, and it took a similar period for the electric utility to begin updating customers on the status of the power grid.
These failures to communicate were troubling, but the State’s formation of the Comprehensive Communications Review Committee offered hope that information on improvements would soon be available.
Although the committee began meeting nine days after the earthquakes, to this day not a single news report has been printed or broadcast about the committee’s work.
The continued media indifference about the communications lapses and remedial action only increases our sense of insecurity. Citizens have a right to know what went wrong and what’s being done to correct those problems.
Civil Defense Briefing a Starting Point
State Civil Defense officials could begin the confidence building by briefing the public on lessons they’ve learned and what they’ve done to improve communications during emergencies.
We deserve to know the changes they’ve made in their tsunami warning protocols – to include announcing that no tsunami has been generated.
We deserve to know details about the “gap areas” in the emergency siren system that Civil Defense officials have said require an additional 148 sirens to fill. We should be told what’s being done to provide emergency backup power to the 100 sirens that now depend on the electric grid.
We deserve to hear from broadcasters about their intentions to remain on the air in power outages.
And we deserve journalism that responds to the community’s concerns and reports to us on efforts to improve communications during the many and varied emergencies that strike our vulnerable islands.
All this is required to help restore our lost sense of security.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Earthquake-Related Issues on Back Burner as Terrorism Dominates Hawai`i Security Summit
With just about all of State Civil Defense attending the Hawaii Security Summit on the Big Island this week, citizens will have to wait for answers to pressing questions about Earthquake Sunday and the adequacy of the communications response. Such as:
• Will State Civil Defense hold a public briefing -- as Hawaiian Electric Company already has -- to describe how it intends to improve communications to the public during and after the next emergency?
• What's happening to strengthen the local broadcast industry's ability to stay on the air during power blackouts?
• Which communities are in the "gap areas" that, according to a newspaper report on Sunday, are not covered by the emergency siren system? (Officials so far have declined to name them.) And will it really take seven years to fix that problem?
Let's hope our officials are prepared to be open with citizens on these relatively pedestrian nuts-and-bolts matters after they've thoroughly discuss the terrorism threat to Hawai`i, such as it is.
• Will State Civil Defense hold a public briefing -- as Hawaiian Electric Company already has -- to describe how it intends to improve communications to the public during and after the next emergency?
• What's happening to strengthen the local broadcast industry's ability to stay on the air during power blackouts?
• Which communities are in the "gap areas" that, according to a newspaper report on Sunday, are not covered by the emergency siren system? (Officials so far have declined to name them.) And will it really take seven years to fix that problem?
Let's hope our officials are prepared to be open with citizens on these relatively pedestrian nuts-and-bolts matters after they've thoroughly discuss the terrorism threat to Hawai`i, such as it is.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Tsunami Sirens Inadequate To Warn Isles, but Officials Won’t Say Who Lives in Silent Peril
Today’s Honolulu Star-Bulletin breaks the news that Hawai`i’s beachside tsunami siren system may be next to useless depending on where you live.
If your community’s siren runs off the electrical power grid, it won’t work in a power blackout like the October 15 shutdown on Oahu even if a tsunami is detected.
And if you live in a community uncovered by a siren – officials say 148 more are needed to cover “gap areas” – you won’t get a tsunami alert either.
That’s remarkable enough, but buried deep in the story is this:
"Officials would not disclose the individual communities not covered by the system, saying only that 47 sirens are needed on Oahu, 38 on Maui, 52 on the Big Island and 11 on Kauai. But they said coastal areas have priority for upgrades."
Officials know which communities of perhaps thousands of families are inadequately protected by the alarm system, and they won’t identify them?
Serving the Public Good
How does refusing to tell citizens where these gaps exist serve the public good? Families living in a gap area certainly deserve to know about it and that whatever sense of security they have the sirens will alert them in an emergency is false.
Without delay, officials must publicize maps of the islands showing gaps in the siren system. They also should identify the individual sirens that can't operate independently of the electrical grid.
The story goes on to say it will take “more than seven years and nearly $19 million to upgrade the system….” Really? Seven more years to provide true emergency alert protection for our communities?
Maybe that’s true if this is “business as usual,” but one has to wonder whether it would take more than a single year if the public were outraged enough to demand immediate action.
Blame the Victim
There’s a certain “blame the victim” mentality running through this story. Only three paragraphs into it, scientists say public ignorance is a bigger issue than the 148 missing sirens and the 100 more that require the power grid to work.
A tsunami adviser notes, “If (members of the public) are calling four hours later and asking if there’s a chance of a tsunami, that shows that they haven’t been properly educated.”
That’s a legitimate issue, but is it bigger than the Siren Gap some officials now acknowledge? Public education will never be 100-percent complete, because some people can’t or refuse to learn.
But the reason so many citizens were calling radio stations for information was that the post-quake public information system was inadequate. A fully informed public would not have had to ask about a possible tsunami.
Let’s not forget that Civil Defense officials made a conscious decision to NOT alert the public to the absence of a tsunami, as CHORE recounted in this space three days after the quakes.
The hand-wringing in this story about an uninformed public points the finger directly back at those who are responsible for educating our citizens. If the job is as poorly done as this story indicates, the question CHORE asked on October 21 is still relevant: “How much emergency planning is really happening?”
Aftershocks
• The Star-Bulletin story reveals the existence of another committee investigating the communications “glitches” after the earthquakes. (An honest start would be to call them what they were – “failures.”) The Science Advisory Working Group allegedly intends to submit recommendations to the state by January. This is the first we’ve heard about this body, and the story has no details about its composition.
• Today is the fifth day since the first meeting of the Governor’s Comprehensive Communications Review Committee, and the first media report of its discussions and possible decisions has yet to appear.
• We’ve all been here before – wondering about Hawai`i’s ability to meet and surmount natural disasters. Hurricane Katrina was a wake-up call for our citizens; if emergency planning and response could be so inadequate for mainland states, Hawai`i’s isolation is cause for true concern.
The writer’s Katrina Lessons blog on September 12, 2005 noted the many media stories on this theme and asked, “How well is Hawai`i prepared for its next disaster?” The several stories linked from that particular post are worth reading as we collectively ask and ask again.
• Full Disclosure: I've been asked if I have a dog in this fight -- a client, perhaps, who might benefit from my blog. The answer is no; there is no client. Like you, I'm concerned about protecting my family, including two grandchildren who live not far inland. I want them, their parents, my wife and our friends to be safe during emergencies, and for that to be the case, our emergency planners and communicators have to step up. It's as simple and nonpartisan as that.
If your community’s siren runs off the electrical power grid, it won’t work in a power blackout like the October 15 shutdown on Oahu even if a tsunami is detected.
And if you live in a community uncovered by a siren – officials say 148 more are needed to cover “gap areas” – you won’t get a tsunami alert either.
That’s remarkable enough, but buried deep in the story is this:
"Officials would not disclose the individual communities not covered by the system, saying only that 47 sirens are needed on Oahu, 38 on Maui, 52 on the Big Island and 11 on Kauai. But they said coastal areas have priority for upgrades."
Officials know which communities of perhaps thousands of families are inadequately protected by the alarm system, and they won’t identify them?
Serving the Public Good
How does refusing to tell citizens where these gaps exist serve the public good? Families living in a gap area certainly deserve to know about it and that whatever sense of security they have the sirens will alert them in an emergency is false.
Without delay, officials must publicize maps of the islands showing gaps in the siren system. They also should identify the individual sirens that can't operate independently of the electrical grid.
The story goes on to say it will take “more than seven years and nearly $19 million to upgrade the system….” Really? Seven more years to provide true emergency alert protection for our communities?
Maybe that’s true if this is “business as usual,” but one has to wonder whether it would take more than a single year if the public were outraged enough to demand immediate action.
Blame the Victim
There’s a certain “blame the victim” mentality running through this story. Only three paragraphs into it, scientists say public ignorance is a bigger issue than the 148 missing sirens and the 100 more that require the power grid to work.
A tsunami adviser notes, “If (members of the public) are calling four hours later and asking if there’s a chance of a tsunami, that shows that they haven’t been properly educated.”
That’s a legitimate issue, but is it bigger than the Siren Gap some officials now acknowledge? Public education will never be 100-percent complete, because some people can’t or refuse to learn.
But the reason so many citizens were calling radio stations for information was that the post-quake public information system was inadequate. A fully informed public would not have had to ask about a possible tsunami.
Let’s not forget that Civil Defense officials made a conscious decision to NOT alert the public to the absence of a tsunami, as CHORE recounted in this space three days after the quakes.
The hand-wringing in this story about an uninformed public points the finger directly back at those who are responsible for educating our citizens. If the job is as poorly done as this story indicates, the question CHORE asked on October 21 is still relevant: “How much emergency planning is really happening?”
Aftershocks
• The Star-Bulletin story reveals the existence of another committee investigating the communications “glitches” after the earthquakes. (An honest start would be to call them what they were – “failures.”) The Science Advisory Working Group allegedly intends to submit recommendations to the state by January. This is the first we’ve heard about this body, and the story has no details about its composition.
• Today is the fifth day since the first meeting of the Governor’s Comprehensive Communications Review Committee, and the first media report of its discussions and possible decisions has yet to appear.
• We’ve all been here before – wondering about Hawai`i’s ability to meet and surmount natural disasters. Hurricane Katrina was a wake-up call for our citizens; if emergency planning and response could be so inadequate for mainland states, Hawai`i’s isolation is cause for true concern.
The writer’s Katrina Lessons blog on September 12, 2005 noted the many media stories on this theme and asked, “How well is Hawai`i prepared for its next disaster?” The several stories linked from that particular post are worth reading as we collectively ask and ask again.
• Full Disclosure: I've been asked if I have a dog in this fight -- a client, perhaps, who might benefit from my blog. The answer is no; there is no client. Like you, I'm concerned about protecting my family, including two grandchildren who live not far inland. I want them, their parents, my wife and our friends to be safe during emergencies, and for that to be the case, our emergency planners and communicators have to step up. It's as simple and nonpartisan as that.
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Still No Journalism in Sight re Communications
The "lack of journalistic enterprise" observed here yesterday seems more ingrained than we imagined could be the case. Today's papers again have no reports on the earthquake review committee’s meetings this week to improve emergency communications. Our emails to the papers' key gatekeepers urging coverage -- even a passing mention -- have had no effect.
Continuing that trend, we've received no response to our inquiry to a senior State Civil Defense official about whether CD will brief the public on its Earthquake Sunday activities and communications reforms. But, hey........
The trades are gentle,
the sky is blue,
the surf is up
and nothing’s new.
So goes life in Hawai`i Nei.
Continuing that trend, we've received no response to our inquiry to a senior State Civil Defense official about whether CD will brief the public on its Earthquake Sunday activities and communications reforms. But, hey........
The trades are gentle,
the sky is blue,
the surf is up
and nothing’s new.
So goes life in Hawai`i Nei.
Friday, October 27, 2006
Communications Panel Meets Twice, but News Media Carry No Stories about What Happened
Here’s an early prediction on which Hawai`i news story will be ranked #1 by the local news media at year’s end: The October 15 earthquakes and subsequent power outage will top the list.
Then again, we haven’t heard the last of Michelle Wie this year. The Big Earthquake vs. the Big Wiesy -- that’s a tough choice in this town. Still, we’ll go with the earthquake.
But the real story isn’t the shaker itself. The real story is how the quake exposed gaping holes in our community’s emergency communications system and plans.
Civil Defense communications sputtered, the broadcast industry fell apart and the electric company couldn’t find a way to tell customers why the power was out and would stay that way for hours.
So with that backdrop, the Governor’s “Comprehensive Communications Review Committee” began meeting this week to gather information on what went wrong and how to do better next time.
The Big News Blackout
Representatives of the news media and government agencies met on Tuesday and Thursday in the Governor’s Capitol conference room. News directors, editors, reporters have been on the inside dissecting one of the big news stories of the year.
What have they discussed? What deficiencies are targeted for correction? What protocols are being rewritten? What can we expect in the next major emergency?
We don’t know any of that because the number of news stories published and aired about the committee meetings so far has been exactly zero. Not one.
Not Newsworthy?
Are Hawai`i citizens to believe these meetings are not newsworthy? Do these executives not recognize news when they see it? Once inside, do they become members of the “insiders club” and feel no obligation to report?
We see only two possibilities for this news blackout:
Either the media reps don’t recognize the news value of these meetings, or they’ve been told not to report what’s happening behind closed doors.
[Note: See comment below in Afternoon Update from a Honolulu TV reporter that eliminates the second of those two possibilities.]
Either way, that’s bad. Having been shut out from participating on this committee, the public now apparently doesn’t deserve to know what officials are doing to improve emergency preparedness and execution.
CHORE hopes Hawai`i citizens find this as baffling as we do. If so, call or write the media and ask what’s going on. You might want to ask the same of the Governor’s office.
Public safety and what’s being done to preserve it shouldn’t be treated like a state secret.
Aftershocks
Doug White’s blog today offers this view about why the media aren’t covering the meetings:
In general, editors prefer to edit the news, not make the news. This particular issue, however, obviously throws a spanner into that machine since it would require exactly that sort of meta-reporting. Furthermore, there is a risk of the media being unable to objectively report the story once they become an intimate part of it (recall the “embedded” war correspondents). A strange form of willing co-optation could be at play, although I’m sure the members of the Committee would rather describe it in more paternalistic terms.
White has a point about the media not wanting to be part of the story in most cases, but I’m not buying it in this one. This is Emergency Communications to Protect Public Safety we’re talking about. The newspapers’ letters pages are full of the public’s upset over the government’s performance.
These meetings are newsworthy, and if the media have to assign a non-participating reporter to cover what’s said, so be it.
What would George Chaplin and Bud Smyser do?
Afternoon Update
A Honolulu television reporter responded to CHORE as follows: The reporter's newsroom personnel "did not see news value in covering the meeting per se." This reporter says "it's a battle to get government news on in this consultant-driven world" because the younger producers and staff "believe the more visually oriented story is preferable and doesn't bore the audience."
We sympathize with this reporter; it's an all-too-familiar story. But do these staffers truly believe it's boring to report on how they and their families can be better informed and protected before, during and after the next hurricane?
The reporter also says the State "welcomed and encouraged" coverage of the Comprehensive Communications Review Committee. CHORE therefore concludes that the impediment to news coverage of the committee's meetings isn't the State, and we eliminate it as a contributor to the news blackout. The problem seems to be the lack of journalistic enterprise within the Honolulu media.
We have to believe this wouldn't be happening if George and Bud and KGMB's Bob Sevey were still around and running their respective news operations.
Then again, we haven’t heard the last of Michelle Wie this year. The Big Earthquake vs. the Big Wiesy -- that’s a tough choice in this town. Still, we’ll go with the earthquake.
But the real story isn’t the shaker itself. The real story is how the quake exposed gaping holes in our community’s emergency communications system and plans.
Civil Defense communications sputtered, the broadcast industry fell apart and the electric company couldn’t find a way to tell customers why the power was out and would stay that way for hours.
So with that backdrop, the Governor’s “Comprehensive Communications Review Committee” began meeting this week to gather information on what went wrong and how to do better next time.
The Big News Blackout
Representatives of the news media and government agencies met on Tuesday and Thursday in the Governor’s Capitol conference room. News directors, editors, reporters have been on the inside dissecting one of the big news stories of the year.
What have they discussed? What deficiencies are targeted for correction? What protocols are being rewritten? What can we expect in the next major emergency?
We don’t know any of that because the number of news stories published and aired about the committee meetings so far has been exactly zero. Not one.
Not Newsworthy?
Are Hawai`i citizens to believe these meetings are not newsworthy? Do these executives not recognize news when they see it? Once inside, do they become members of the “insiders club” and feel no obligation to report?
We see only two possibilities for this news blackout:
Either the media reps don’t recognize the news value of these meetings, or they’ve been told not to report what’s happening behind closed doors.
[Note: See comment below in Afternoon Update from a Honolulu TV reporter that eliminates the second of those two possibilities.]
Either way, that’s bad. Having been shut out from participating on this committee, the public now apparently doesn’t deserve to know what officials are doing to improve emergency preparedness and execution.
CHORE hopes Hawai`i citizens find this as baffling as we do. If so, call or write the media and ask what’s going on. You might want to ask the same of the Governor’s office.
Public safety and what’s being done to preserve it shouldn’t be treated like a state secret.
Aftershocks
Doug White’s blog today offers this view about why the media aren’t covering the meetings:
In general, editors prefer to edit the news, not make the news. This particular issue, however, obviously throws a spanner into that machine since it would require exactly that sort of meta-reporting. Furthermore, there is a risk of the media being unable to objectively report the story once they become an intimate part of it (recall the “embedded” war correspondents). A strange form of willing co-optation could be at play, although I’m sure the members of the Committee would rather describe it in more paternalistic terms.
White has a point about the media not wanting to be part of the story in most cases, but I’m not buying it in this one. This is Emergency Communications to Protect Public Safety we’re talking about. The newspapers’ letters pages are full of the public’s upset over the government’s performance.
These meetings are newsworthy, and if the media have to assign a non-participating reporter to cover what’s said, so be it.
What would George Chaplin and Bud Smyser do?
Afternoon Update
A Honolulu television reporter responded to CHORE as follows: The reporter's newsroom personnel "did not see news value in covering the meeting per se." This reporter says "it's a battle to get government news on in this consultant-driven world" because the younger producers and staff "believe the more visually oriented story is preferable and doesn't bore the audience."
We sympathize with this reporter; it's an all-too-familiar story. But do these staffers truly believe it's boring to report on how they and their families can be better informed and protected before, during and after the next hurricane?
The reporter also says the State "welcomed and encouraged" coverage of the Comprehensive Communications Review Committee. CHORE therefore concludes that the impediment to news coverage of the committee's meetings isn't the State, and we eliminate it as a contributor to the news blackout. The problem seems to be the lack of journalistic enterprise within the Honolulu media.
We have to believe this wouldn't be happening if George and Bud and KGMB's Bob Sevey were still around and running their respective news operations.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
“Comprehensive” Review Committee Meeting Behind Closed Doors; No Media Coverage?
From the top, here’s the commitment CHORE made in our first post on October 17: This is not a make-wrong site. We have no political motivation, no grudges, no hidden agenda. We’re not out to “get” anyone or any agency.
The issues raised here are meant to stimulate discussion leading to improved communications during and after emergencies in our community. The information flow after the October 15 earthquakes fell far short of what’s needed to safeguard lives and property. That’s CHORE’s opinion, and it seems to be shared by many others.
Surprise: The Committee’s Already Meeting
With that as preamble, we find it surprising the State’s so-called Comprehensive Communications Review Committee already has had one meeting this week. What’s surprising is that the meeting went unnoticed by the local media.
Another meeting is underway as this post is being written, according to the following invitation received by a Honolulu media outlet to attend today’s session:
"On behalf of Governor Linda Lingle and Lenny Klompus, chair, Governor's Comprehensive Communications Review, we would like to extend an invitation for two journalists from your news outlet to participate in a meeting on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. in the Governor's Conference Room (State Capitol, 5th floor).
"The purpose of this meeting is to hear from journalists who were working to provide important information to the public in the hours immediately following the Oct. 15 earthquake. This includes challenges new outlets may have faced in obtaining and disseminating accurate information, as well as operating with minimal power and communications capabilities.
"We suggest you send one reporter who was "in the field" and one reporter/editor who was in the newsroom.
"This session will build on a meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 24 with the owners/general managers/publishers of Hawai`i's major news outlets, wireless service providers and Civil Defense agencies."
Senior media personnel apparently attended Tuesday’s meeting, yet we’ve found no reporting about it. Was no news made in the meeting? That’s hard to imagine in light of the issues presumably being discussed. Do ground rules prohibit coverage? Again, that seems incomprehensible.
You have to wonder why something as important as this committee’s after-earthquake assessment is being conducted behind closed doors, with no discernable reporting to the public about what’s happening inside.
Striving for Credibility
Whatever’s going on in this series of committee meetings, one would think its organizers would want to avoid any question about the credibility of its findings.
CHORE wrote on October 18 that the public surely needs to be represented on this committee. It’s not enough for discussions to be tightly held among government officials and media representatives, all of whom are in business to serve the public. The public should be there.
CHORE’s other suggestion – that the committee be chaired by an independent community-based person without connection to the State Administration – hasn’t gotten anywhere either. Will the committee’s final report be as frank about State Civil Defense’s performance under the panel's current leadership as it might be with an independent chair?
Again, this has nothing personally to do with the individual who’s filling the role. But if credibility were important, appointing someone with no ties to the Administration would have seemed like an obvious choice.
The issues raised here are meant to stimulate discussion leading to improved communications during and after emergencies in our community. The information flow after the October 15 earthquakes fell far short of what’s needed to safeguard lives and property. That’s CHORE’s opinion, and it seems to be shared by many others.
Surprise: The Committee’s Already Meeting
With that as preamble, we find it surprising the State’s so-called Comprehensive Communications Review Committee already has had one meeting this week. What’s surprising is that the meeting went unnoticed by the local media.
Another meeting is underway as this post is being written, according to the following invitation received by a Honolulu media outlet to attend today’s session:
"On behalf of Governor Linda Lingle and Lenny Klompus, chair, Governor's Comprehensive Communications Review, we would like to extend an invitation for two journalists from your news outlet to participate in a meeting on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. in the Governor's Conference Room (State Capitol, 5th floor).
"The purpose of this meeting is to hear from journalists who were working to provide important information to the public in the hours immediately following the Oct. 15 earthquake. This includes challenges new outlets may have faced in obtaining and disseminating accurate information, as well as operating with minimal power and communications capabilities.
"We suggest you send one reporter who was "in the field" and one reporter/editor who was in the newsroom.
"This session will build on a meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 24 with the owners/general managers/publishers of Hawai`i's major news outlets, wireless service providers and Civil Defense agencies."
Senior media personnel apparently attended Tuesday’s meeting, yet we’ve found no reporting about it. Was no news made in the meeting? That’s hard to imagine in light of the issues presumably being discussed. Do ground rules prohibit coverage? Again, that seems incomprehensible.
You have to wonder why something as important as this committee’s after-earthquake assessment is being conducted behind closed doors, with no discernable reporting to the public about what’s happening inside.
Striving for Credibility
Whatever’s going on in this series of committee meetings, one would think its organizers would want to avoid any question about the credibility of its findings.
CHORE wrote on October 18 that the public surely needs to be represented on this committee. It’s not enough for discussions to be tightly held among government officials and media representatives, all of whom are in business to serve the public. The public should be there.
CHORE’s other suggestion – that the committee be chaired by an independent community-based person without connection to the State Administration – hasn’t gotten anywhere either. Will the committee’s final report be as frank about State Civil Defense’s performance under the panel's current leadership as it might be with an independent chair?
Again, this has nothing personally to do with the individual who’s filling the role. But if credibility were important, appointing someone with no ties to the Administration would have seemed like an obvious choice.
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