Common Sense Says Our People Won't Panic

Go here for CHORE's first post on what we hope to achieve.

The operable words in CHORE are "Citizens Helping", because the more we read and hear from our crisis management officials, the more citizens need to chime in with their own common-sense views and help Hawaii's Civil Defense community do a better job in the next crisis.

We said in our first post to this blog yesterday that this site isn't about laying blame. And it's not. But....(and that's always a tricky word)....but....some common sense is needed in large doses.

Civil Defense officials continue to defend their low-key, non-alert performance on Sunday, and in so doing, they are treating Hawaii citizens like children. "Oh, if we had gone on the air to say there was NO tsunami, the message might have been misunderstood." (That's a paraphrase, not a quote; so is the next one.) "Oh, if we had turned on the emergency sirens to encourage people to get to a radio, there would have been panic and havoc in the streets."

Oh, please.

Are Civil Defense officials telling us that if and when a tsunami alert must be sounded, they expect "panic" and "havoc" among our population? Because if that's what they're saying, they're wrong.

And if that's what they truly believe, they don't really know much about the citizens of Hawaii, and maybe another line of work would suit them better.

Hawaii can't tolerate a mindset that assumes the population will go bonkers if we're given information we need to make good decisions and stay safe. C'mon......!

At least the Governor is saying the right things and seems determined to improve the information flow to our population in a crisis. (But...see later post today for another look at the committee she's forming to investigate the communications glitches.)

Aftershocks: What's in the Plan?

If you're interested in how the Emergency Alert System works, check out the Hawaii State Civil Defense web site. You can click on the link in the left-hand column to access the EAS Plan.

Unless my quick read and the "Find" function have failed me, the words "power" and "outage" do not exist in that plan, either in combination or standing alone.

No emergency plan is perfect. As a rule, they require rewriting -- especially after an emergency. So there's no shame in recognizing that an Emergency Alert System plan without provisions to operate during a massive power outage needs a major rewrite.

So Civil Defense officials: Now is not the time to play defense. Admit you could and should have done a better job, made better snap decisions, communicated more.

Give the public some credit for being able to handle troubling news. Don't assume we'll panic if you tell us the truth! And when you DO have a troubling message to deliver, be sure it's delivered so early, so often and so sensibly that we can't possibly misunderstand what you're saying and what you'd like us to do.

People, speak up. I invite your comments to this site. Don't be intimidated by the procedure outlined in the instructions when you click on "Comments" below. Post anonymously if you want, but please let your common sense views flow.

They are needed in our post-earthquake and -- yes -- our current pre-hurricane environment.

Because there will be a hurricane with much worse consequences than the inconvenience most of us endured on Sunday.