Will State Civil Defense Brief the Public on Quake Communications and Improvements?

The public’s upset over inadequate post-earthquake communications is slacking off in the newspapers’ letters columns, and the rest of the media seem to be moving on, too.

Before the issue cools off much more, CHORE today urges State Civil Defense officials to hold a public briefing to explain the sequence of events on how it attempted to communicate to residents on October 15 and what changes it’s making in its communications plans.

That may be asking a lot at this time. CD officials undoubtedly are occupied by numerous quake-related requirements. They’re also preparing to host the Asia-Pacific Homeland Security Summit & Exposition 2006, October 31-November 2 on the Big Island.

This writer attended last year’s conference and posted the following to the Katrina Lessons blog after the Summit ended out of a concern that Hawai`i’s emergencies are more likely to be caused by natural events than by man:

“The Asia-Pacific Homeland Security Summit and Exposition came and went last week in Honolulu with not as much attention paid to natural disasters as some might have hoped (emphasis added). That’s not a criticism, just a fact. The Summit gave participants a good look at the processes crisis planners use to prepare for the next (first?) terrorist act in Hawaii, and the implication was that their response to natural disasters is thereby enhanced."

The Summit’s agenda is heavy again on national security, terrorism and geo-political issues, but we can hope the response to the recent earthquakes will merit considerable attention, too.

What a Civil Defense Briefing Could Cover

CHORE already has posted in the past week about what we think the public wants to know regarding the Civil Defense communcations effort. Here’s a review:

• What will State Civil Defense do differently to communicate with the public within minutes of the next major emergency? Far as we’ve determined, the Emergency Alert System wasn’t activated until nearly three hours after the shaking. What’s the new thinking?
• What plans does State Civil Defense have to advise the public about the nature of a tsunami threat, even if it’s non-existent? Officials have said CD protocols don’t call for a “no tsunami” message. Citizens disagree; not knowing whether loved ones were endangered by a possible tsunami created tremendous anxiety.
• What will State Civil Defense do to “encourage” Hawai`i’s broadcast industry to toughen up? Ten or more outlets were knocked off the air because of the Oahu-wide power outage, and some didn’t return until the next day. Officials say they can’t force broadcasters to make changes, but they certainly can express concern about the stations' hardware and staffing preparedness.
• Will State Civil Defense seek to add public members to the State’s “Comprehensive Communications Review Committee?” Only Civil Defense and other government officials and media reps were appointed initially to this committee, but as CHORE noted here on October 18, the whole point of emergency communications is to serve the public. It seems only logical for the public to be represented on the committee.

CHORE has asked a senior State Civil Defense administrator if a briefing is planned, and we’ll let you know his response. And tell us what you think should be on the briefing's agenda.

Aftershocks

Hawaiian Electric has suggested by telephone and email that CHORE’s report on HECO’s public briefing this week may have missed the company’s intentions to inform the community about what it’s doing to improve emergency communications.

We’re told the company did not intend to be evasive on the subject at Monday’s briefing and that with some prior planning, it could have anticipated questions about changes in its emergency communications planning in light of difficulties HECO experienced on October 15. For example, HECO has updated its list of unpublished telephone numbers at broadcast stations to avoid the problems it had with getting through after the quake.

CHORE agrees that forethought can help avoid all manner of communications problems. Let’s hope HECO will talk with broadcasters to encourage an “emergency” mindset at the stations that would result in communicating more effectively to the public during the next emergency.

That would be preferable to the “entertainment” mode we heard on Earthquake Sunday.