Thousands without power for days, Waianae Coast residents cut off from the rest of the island, parents scrambling to find babysitters as scores of schools are closed.
What does it take to make the Star-Bulletin's list of the Top 10 Stories of ’07? Maybe what the list tells us is that disruption to the lives of average citizens like December's Kona storm just doesn't register with journalists. Or maybe the inconveniences inflicted on residents have become so routine they don't seem newsworthy.
We're a bit hyper here at CHORE about emergencies, but we have to believe the average person doesn't give a fig about the resignation of the Governor's chief of staff, #8 on the list, or successful missile tests on Kauai, #10. Compare that to having the only highway access to Waianae communities blocked yet again by a wind storm.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Chaos Defined Response to San Francisco Zoo Tragedy; Despite Planning, Execution Is Key
Unless events give a reason to do otherwise, CHORE’s taking a break from these occasional posts for some traveling. As we sign off for 2007, we recommend the recent San Francisco Zoo fiasco as an excellent example of how presumably competent officials can botch an emergency response.
A San Francisco Chronicle story today details the missteps minute by minute, including the declaration of a “Code One” by Zoo security personnel that prevented police and fire department personnel from entering the Zoo to attend to the victims of the tiger mauling!
Read the story and you can’t help wonder whether zoo officials ever rehearsed their emergency plan, which a second Chronicle story examines and concludes had little relevance to what actually went down on Christmas Day.
And that’s the essence of CHORE’s posts over the past 15 months – the necessity to plan for both expected and improbable events and then rehearse every conceivable scenario.
CHORE hopes all your conceivable and inconceivable scenarios in 2008 are good ones.
A San Francisco Chronicle story today details the missteps minute by minute, including the declaration of a “Code One” by Zoo security personnel that prevented police and fire department personnel from entering the Zoo to attend to the victims of the tiger mauling!
Read the story and you can’t help wonder whether zoo officials ever rehearsed their emergency plan, which a second Chronicle story examines and concludes had little relevance to what actually went down on Christmas Day.
And that’s the essence of CHORE’s posts over the past 15 months – the necessity to plan for both expected and improbable events and then rehearse every conceivable scenario.
CHORE hopes all your conceivable and inconceivable scenarios in 2008 are good ones.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Tsunami Anniversary Show Has Nothing New; NOVA Recycles Program Already Shown Twice
PBS’s third anniversary remembrance didn’t advance our understanding whatsoever of what might have been done to save some of those hundreds of thousands of lives that were lost in December 2004.
“The Wave That Shook the World” documentary shown in the NOVA time slot Christmas night was aired twice previously, the first time just three months after the event. All the views expressed in the show therefore are nearly three years old.
CHORE’s sister blog – Tsunami Lessons – has banged away consistently since the massive earthquake and tsunami about the complete absence of a plan to use the international news media to quickly disseminate tsunami warnings to remote populations.
The concept is so logical and so low-tech that it has attracted no support from NOAA and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. And that’s a shame – but not nearly as shameful as the lack of foresight and preparation within NOAA that left the Center unprepared to issue a life-saving warning on Christmas Day 2004.
“The Wave That Shook the World” documentary shown in the NOVA time slot Christmas night was aired twice previously, the first time just three months after the event. All the views expressed in the show therefore are nearly three years old.
CHORE’s sister blog – Tsunami Lessons – has banged away consistently since the massive earthquake and tsunami about the complete absence of a plan to use the international news media to quickly disseminate tsunami warnings to remote populations.
The concept is so logical and so low-tech that it has attracted no support from NOAA and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. And that’s a shame – but not nearly as shameful as the lack of foresight and preparation within NOAA that left the Center unprepared to issue a life-saving warning on Christmas Day 2004.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Year-End Review Suggests Some Seemed To Be Open To Criticism, While Others Were Above It
A bright (and quiet) Hawaiian Christmas Day offers reflection time on the state of emergency response in 2007:
• We haven’t had a “big one” this year – a hurricane, tsunami or earthquake (like the October 2006 quake that launched CHORE) to test officials’ and agencies’ ability to respond adequately. Without one – and we’re not wishing for one – we have to take it on faith that civil defense officials have improved their procedures since Earthquake Sunday (see below).
• The “minor one” we did have in early December – a Kona storm with gale-force winds – proved daunting for both Hawaiian Electric Company and the several first-response communicators who were slow in putting what they knew on the airwaves.
• Oahu’s electric utility likely will be under pressure in 2008 to do something relatively dramatic to strengthen its grid on the Waianae Coast. One more episode of fallen polls blocking the only highway access to the coast might be the proverbial back-breaking straw for residents there.
• The falling utility line problem proved more than an inconvenience in November when a man died after a line set fire to his van. HECO will undoubtedly address this issue with inspections and maintenance in ’08 – either voluntarily or under PUC oversight.
• Oahu’s primary emergency broadcaster did a better job following the December storm by switching to “crisis mode” much quicker than it did on Earthquake Sunday. (Maybe our criticisms of its flawed response to the quake-triggered island-wide blackout paid off. Broadcast executives won’t agree, but we’ll think so anyway.)
Campus Communications
• The late October threat against students at the University of Hawaii’s Manoa campus produced a woefully inadequate response by UH officials. Text messaging is one method to communicate with students and faculty, but using that mode exclusively was a flawed response. Low-tech modes are needed, too -- banging on doors, public address announcements, the campus radio station…whatever it takes.
• Our initial reaction was endorsed by a somewhat surprising survey reported by NPR: college students were shown to be less than enthusiastic embracers of text messaging. That alone – in addition to common sense – should prompt UH officials to produce a new crisis communications plan.
• CHORE’s recommended Standard Operating Procedure: Any threat to the security of the campus community warranting an alert to students and faculty will be disseminated by all available means – text messaging, emails, loudspeakers in buildings and in the campus’s exterior spaces, and broadcasts over KTUH and the commercial stations. A UH student's commentary in the Star-Bulletin argued that students and faculty require information to make decisions about their own personal safety.
• The UH faculty Senate ultimately passed a resolution calling for improved campus communications. We hope to see evidence of same in 2008.
Non-Comprehensive Review
• Finally, this year-end review of emergency response in Hawaii would be incomplete without touching on what launched CHORE in the first place – the breakdown in the flow of information to the public following the October 15, 2006 earthquakes and Oahu power blackout. Although a committee was created two days later to review that response and recommend enhancements, its name was wrong from the start: Without public involvement, the committee couldn’t be called “comprehensive.”
• And the public never did get a seat at the table during the committee’s many meetings over the next year. Worse, CHORE took it on the chops when State Adjutant General Robert Lee decided our criticisms were unjustified. “Frankly, I don’t understand the purpose of the negative, misdirected attention that Carlson has focused on State Civil Defense,” he wrote in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Continuing, he blamed the electric company for the failure of his agency to provide timely emergency information to the public: “This was an information delay, not a failure, and it was thoroughly reported in the news media.”
• Our response (‘Communications Failure’ Becomes ‘Information Delay’ in Orwellian World of State Civil Defense) noted that “we citizens (are) condemned to future communications problems if first responders can’t even acknowledge yesterday’s failures.”
What’s in Store in ’08?
The contretemps with State Civil Defense were a distraction from the real issue: Will the next major emergency result in an exceptionally timely and informative response by those responsible for informing the public? Have first responders adjusted their procedures?
CHORE used the first anniversary of Earthquake Sunday to summarize what went wrong and our hopes for the future, and the "non-comprehensive" committee published its final recommendations for communications enhancements. But with National Guard deployments to the Middle East a higher priority for the Adjutant General and his staff, we may have to wait until the next emergency to know whether all the meetings and all the talking have produced better results.
• We haven’t had a “big one” this year – a hurricane, tsunami or earthquake (like the October 2006 quake that launched CHORE) to test officials’ and agencies’ ability to respond adequately. Without one – and we’re not wishing for one – we have to take it on faith that civil defense officials have improved their procedures since Earthquake Sunday (see below).
• The “minor one” we did have in early December – a Kona storm with gale-force winds – proved daunting for both Hawaiian Electric Company and the several first-response communicators who were slow in putting what they knew on the airwaves.
• Oahu’s electric utility likely will be under pressure in 2008 to do something relatively dramatic to strengthen its grid on the Waianae Coast. One more episode of fallen polls blocking the only highway access to the coast might be the proverbial back-breaking straw for residents there.
• The falling utility line problem proved more than an inconvenience in November when a man died after a line set fire to his van. HECO will undoubtedly address this issue with inspections and maintenance in ’08 – either voluntarily or under PUC oversight.
• Oahu’s primary emergency broadcaster did a better job following the December storm by switching to “crisis mode” much quicker than it did on Earthquake Sunday. (Maybe our criticisms of its flawed response to the quake-triggered island-wide blackout paid off. Broadcast executives won’t agree, but we’ll think so anyway.)
Campus Communications
• The late October threat against students at the University of Hawaii’s Manoa campus produced a woefully inadequate response by UH officials. Text messaging is one method to communicate with students and faculty, but using that mode exclusively was a flawed response. Low-tech modes are needed, too -- banging on doors, public address announcements, the campus radio station…whatever it takes.
• Our initial reaction was endorsed by a somewhat surprising survey reported by NPR: college students were shown to be less than enthusiastic embracers of text messaging. That alone – in addition to common sense – should prompt UH officials to produce a new crisis communications plan.
• CHORE’s recommended Standard Operating Procedure: Any threat to the security of the campus community warranting an alert to students and faculty will be disseminated by all available means – text messaging, emails, loudspeakers in buildings and in the campus’s exterior spaces, and broadcasts over KTUH and the commercial stations. A UH student's commentary in the Star-Bulletin argued that students and faculty require information to make decisions about their own personal safety.
• The UH faculty Senate ultimately passed a resolution calling for improved campus communications. We hope to see evidence of same in 2008.
Non-Comprehensive Review
• Finally, this year-end review of emergency response in Hawaii would be incomplete without touching on what launched CHORE in the first place – the breakdown in the flow of information to the public following the October 15, 2006 earthquakes and Oahu power blackout. Although a committee was created two days later to review that response and recommend enhancements, its name was wrong from the start: Without public involvement, the committee couldn’t be called “comprehensive.”
• And the public never did get a seat at the table during the committee’s many meetings over the next year. Worse, CHORE took it on the chops when State Adjutant General Robert Lee decided our criticisms were unjustified. “Frankly, I don’t understand the purpose of the negative, misdirected attention that Carlson has focused on State Civil Defense,” he wrote in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Continuing, he blamed the electric company for the failure of his agency to provide timely emergency information to the public: “This was an information delay, not a failure, and it was thoroughly reported in the news media.”
• Our response (‘Communications Failure’ Becomes ‘Information Delay’ in Orwellian World of State Civil Defense) noted that “we citizens (are) condemned to future communications problems if first responders can’t even acknowledge yesterday’s failures.”
What’s in Store in ’08?
The contretemps with State Civil Defense were a distraction from the real issue: Will the next major emergency result in an exceptionally timely and informative response by those responsible for informing the public? Have first responders adjusted their procedures?
CHORE used the first anniversary of Earthquake Sunday to summarize what went wrong and our hopes for the future, and the "non-comprehensive" committee published its final recommendations for communications enhancements. But with National Guard deployments to the Middle East a higher priority for the Adjutant General and his staff, we may have to wait until the next emergency to know whether all the meetings and all the talking have produced better results.
Friday, December 14, 2007
A “Good Start” Implies More Steps in the Future
CHORE agrees with Honolulu Advertiser columnist Lee Cataluna that Hawaiian Electric’s recent half-page newspaper “apology ad” to Waianae Coast residents was a “good start.”
Since “Helping” is part of CHORE’s charter, we offer this helpful advice: Don’t stop there. We suggested earlier this week that bold steps are needed for HECO to restore its reputation in the area.
Full-on community meetings along the coast would demonstrate the company’s resolve to step up to the criticism and the challenge of improving power reliability in leeward Oahu.
Face-to-face meetings with residents will be infinitely more effective than signed statements published on paper.
Since “Helping” is part of CHORE’s charter, we offer this helpful advice: Don’t stop there. We suggested earlier this week that bold steps are needed for HECO to restore its reputation in the area.
Full-on community meetings along the coast would demonstrate the company’s resolve to step up to the criticism and the challenge of improving power reliability in leeward Oahu.
Face-to-face meetings with residents will be infinitely more effective than signed statements published on paper.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Editorials Question Infrastructure’s Adequacy; HECO Can Strengthen Position with Outreach
CHORE first raised questions after last week’s storm about the adequacy of Oahu’s infrastructure, and now both Honolulu newspapers have chimed in editorially, most prominently in today’s Honolulu Advertiser but also in the Star-Bulletin yesterday.
The Advertiser editorial -- “Waianae deserves infrastructure improvements” – noted as we did four days ago that last week’s storm wasn’t even a hurricane and asked its own questions:
Hawaiian Electric Company did the right thing after Earthquake Sunday when it briefed the public at the State Capitol on why its system crashed on Oahu. A similar outreach to the public – especially to its customers along the Waianae Coast – seems indicated now.
Beyond being good customer relations, receiving testimony from residents presumably would help the company’s case if it ever chooses the expensive solution of undergrounding utility lines along the coast to reduce or eliminate the “utility pole problem” there.
The Advertiser editorial -- “Waianae deserves infrastructure improvements” – noted as we did four days ago that last week’s storm wasn’t even a hurricane and asked its own questions:
“What will happen to isolated areas such as Waianae in the event of a real disaster, like a hurricane? Will HECO's poles collapse again? Will ambulances and other emergency vehicles be able to reach their destinations quickly? Will lack of power hamper residents' ability to get food and water? All of these issues are key to public safety, particularly during a major disaster.”
Hawaiian Electric Company did the right thing after Earthquake Sunday when it briefed the public at the State Capitol on why its system crashed on Oahu. A similar outreach to the public – especially to its customers along the Waianae Coast – seems indicated now.
Beyond being good customer relations, receiving testimony from residents presumably would help the company’s case if it ever chooses the expensive solution of undergrounding utility lines along the coast to reduce or eliminate the “utility pole problem” there.
Saturday, December 08, 2007
Friday, December 07, 2007
As Power Comes Back, Residents Ask about Radio Coverage, Poles and Undergrounding
It will take more than a few days for yesterday’s questions to be answered about this week’s kona storm. Residents inconvenienced by the loss of power, road blockages and more are adding questions of their own to the list.
A letter in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin is headlined, “Is it finally time to put lines underground?”
(The writer implies, as CHORE asserted yesterday, that a relatively minor storm caused this week’s disruption. It’s alarming to think what a category 3 or 4 hurricane could do to this island.)
Hawaiian Electric Company likely will answer “no” to the question. HECO’s position has always been that undergrounding power lines is much more expensive than hanging them overhead. In general, the company buries lines only when required by law and ordinance.
While underground lines may be relatively immune to wind damage, HECO has noted their vulnerability to water damage and the higher degree of difficulty to repair them.
Finding the Right Fix
That said, residents across Oahu – and especially those living on the leeward coast cut off by fallen power poles and lines -- are raising a legitimate issue. As reported yesterday, some of the poles brought down in the storm were replacements for poles that fell in a March 2006 storm.
Steel or composite utility poles might be candidates to replace the wood poles that seem so vulnerable, especially at the traffic choke points along the Waianae Coast and north shore. We have no expertise in this field; readers can use websites such as this one to read about the alleged advantages of composite poles.
Emergency Radio Adequacy
Since CHORE is mostly concerned about emergency communications, comments by a Pupukea resident on Oahu’s north shore caught our attention:
Radio coverage is indeed spotty on the north shore, but this resident’s quote is “…there is no emergency radio station to go to for information….” and “…it’s not on the radio….”
North shore residents presumably have battery-powered radios available and know that KSSK-AM and FM are the designated emergency stations. KSSK-AM did a good job reporting on the storm’s immediate aftermath (the FM station went off the air). Our inference is that he’s referring to the scarcity of information on the radio following the storm as the hours dragged on overnight and throughout yesterday.
Prolonging the Coverage
As we said after Earthquake Sunday in October 2006, emergency broadcast stations have an obligation to continue their “emergency mindset” as long as significant numbers of residents are still feeling the effects. Big-city radio often elects to “throw out the format” during and after a crisis, meaning music programming is set aside in favor of news coverage, or the mix of news with regular programming is increased.
Thousands of residents were still without power 24-36 hours after the storm pounded Oahu, but programming on the emergency stations was pretty much back to routine aside from drive time. Clear Channel executives undoubtedly will protest, but they certainly have to agree that the product is never perfect.
The Pupukea resident’s quotes in the Star-Bulletin make that clear enough. When he says “…it’s not on the radio…,” that’s exactly the point. The task ahead for radio executives and civil defense officials is to continue refining emergency communications until residents have no reason to complain about the lack of information.
A letter in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin is headlined, “Is it finally time to put lines underground?”
“Is it time yet? One dead from a power line dropped on a car. Thousands unable to go to work due to downed lines and poles. Food spoiled. The cost of police handling traffic when lines or poles are down. The costs to individuals, employers, employees, city and state caused by the lack of an effort by Hawaiian Electric to focus on undergrounding grow each time we have even minor storms.”
(The writer implies, as CHORE asserted yesterday, that a relatively minor storm caused this week’s disruption. It’s alarming to think what a category 3 or 4 hurricane could do to this island.)
Hawaiian Electric Company likely will answer “no” to the question. HECO’s position has always been that undergrounding power lines is much more expensive than hanging them overhead. In general, the company buries lines only when required by law and ordinance.
While underground lines may be relatively immune to wind damage, HECO has noted their vulnerability to water damage and the higher degree of difficulty to repair them.
Finding the Right Fix
That said, residents across Oahu – and especially those living on the leeward coast cut off by fallen power poles and lines -- are raising a legitimate issue. As reported yesterday, some of the poles brought down in the storm were replacements for poles that fell in a March 2006 storm.
Steel or composite utility poles might be candidates to replace the wood poles that seem so vulnerable, especially at the traffic choke points along the Waianae Coast and north shore. We have no expertise in this field; readers can use websites such as this one to read about the alleged advantages of composite poles.
Emergency Radio Adequacy
Since CHORE is mostly concerned about emergency communications, comments by a Pupukea resident on Oahu’s north shore caught our attention:
"The biggest problem I see is there is no emergency radio station to go to for information…. It seems the whole state's response is, 'Click on www' to find out. But we don't have power, we don't have Internet, and it's not on the radio. How do we check?"
Radio coverage is indeed spotty on the north shore, but this resident’s quote is “…there is no emergency radio station to go to for information….” and “…it’s not on the radio….”
North shore residents presumably have battery-powered radios available and know that KSSK-AM and FM are the designated emergency stations. KSSK-AM did a good job reporting on the storm’s immediate aftermath (the FM station went off the air). Our inference is that he’s referring to the scarcity of information on the radio following the storm as the hours dragged on overnight and throughout yesterday.
Prolonging the Coverage
As we said after Earthquake Sunday in October 2006, emergency broadcast stations have an obligation to continue their “emergency mindset” as long as significant numbers of residents are still feeling the effects. Big-city radio often elects to “throw out the format” during and after a crisis, meaning music programming is set aside in favor of news coverage, or the mix of news with regular programming is increased.
Thousands of residents were still without power 24-36 hours after the storm pounded Oahu, but programming on the emergency stations was pretty much back to routine aside from drive time. Clear Channel executives undoubtedly will protest, but they certainly have to agree that the product is never perfect.
The Pupukea resident’s quotes in the Star-Bulletin make that clear enough. When he says “…it’s not on the radio…,” that’s exactly the point. The task ahead for radio executives and civil defense officials is to continue refining emergency communications until residents have no reason to complain about the lack of information.
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Case Can Be Made We Deserve Better, and if Not Better, We at Least Deserve Some Answers
It wasn’t a hurricane, so we can’t even call it by name; it’s just the “Kona Storm of December ‘07.” Yet this storm with sub-hurricane-strength wind gusts brought commerce to a halt and left whole communities and tens of thousands of residents without electrical power.
Oceanic Time Warner announced a statewide interruption of all services – Internet telephone, cable TV, email and Internet access itself. Businesses closed and events were cancelled. Downed utility poles isolated communities in the same place where utility poles fell less than two years ago. Dozens of public and private schools, including pre-schools and after-school programs, didn’t open. Bus service throughout Oahu was suspended, temporarily stranding untold numbers of commuters.
Yes, it was windy and trees were uprooted. Roads were blocked, and roofs flew into neighbors’ yards. There's no question it was a strong storm.
But it must be asked: Should a storm with sustained winds far below hurricane strength paralyze our island society the way this one has? Is it inevitable that a tropical storm will knock us down this hard? And is it a given that residents should be left wondering what’s happening because first responders have failed to respond in a timely fashion?
Questions in Search of Answers
• Exactly what are the protocols at the utility companies, civil defense agencies, schools and universities and other governmental departments that guide the quickness of their response to a crisis? How quickly are they expected to contact the emergency broadcast station and start feeding information to the public? (See yesterday’s CHORE post for our suggestion that first responders should be operational at least as quickly as the radio station is ready to take their information.)
• What resources are devoted to system maintenance by the “infrastructure” companies – the utilities, the cable company and the like? What would comparisons show, year-to-year and decade-to-decade?
• Re the utility poles that collapsed on the Waianae Coast: How strong were the winds there? What is the rated wind resistance of those poles? Did the storm’s winds exceed their rating, and if not, why did they fall?
• Since 16 poles fell in the same stretch of road where 13 poles were blown down and blocked the highway in March 2006, what are the plans – if any – to erect even stronger poles there?
• With predictions for a wetter-than-normal winter, have these companies adjusted their operations to account for unusually inclement weather? Has the tree trimming budget item been increased in anticipation of stormy weather that often blows tree limbs into power lines? Is this line item growing, shrinking or idling?
• For the telephone utility: Why do your land lines hum after a rain so much that conversations are difficult, and what’s being done about it? Or is this simply something else to endure without hope of improvement?
• Was it a good decision to shut down TheBus during the storm? Does one bus being struck by lightning in Kaneohe (if that’s really what happened) justify a lockdown on bus service throughout the island? What’s in the SOP?
• Is the Honolulu Police Department’s 911 system robust enough to handle a big emergency? Not even a recording could be reached at times during the storm, let alone a live operator. If a tropical storm can handcuff 911, what can we expect in a hurricane?
Questions for the Public
Have our expectations fallen so low that we just shrug off the massive inconvenience caused by this tropical storm? Is our island society so fragile that a few hours of windy weather can shut down so much of our commerce and so many institutions?
We live in one of the most expensive places in the country. We shell out a great deal of money compared to our mainland friends for the services we rely on, even after a kona storm.
We have to wonder how long Oahu residents will be content to tolerate what looks like a collapse of our infrastructure and services after a relatively minor storm – yes, relatively minor and nothing like a major hurricane. The highest reported gust on Oahu was 70 mph at Schofield Barracks, and sustained winds were far less than that.
Don’t we deserve better, or was the aftermath to the Kona Storm of December ’07 what we should expect?
We’re just asking the questions, but here’s one thing we do know for sure: If we don’t care about any of this, we deserve what we get.
Oceanic Time Warner announced a statewide interruption of all services – Internet telephone, cable TV, email and Internet access itself. Businesses closed and events were cancelled. Downed utility poles isolated communities in the same place where utility poles fell less than two years ago. Dozens of public and private schools, including pre-schools and after-school programs, didn’t open. Bus service throughout Oahu was suspended, temporarily stranding untold numbers of commuters.
Yes, it was windy and trees were uprooted. Roads were blocked, and roofs flew into neighbors’ yards. There's no question it was a strong storm.
But it must be asked: Should a storm with sustained winds far below hurricane strength paralyze our island society the way this one has? Is it inevitable that a tropical storm will knock us down this hard? And is it a given that residents should be left wondering what’s happening because first responders have failed to respond in a timely fashion?
Questions in Search of Answers
• Exactly what are the protocols at the utility companies, civil defense agencies, schools and universities and other governmental departments that guide the quickness of their response to a crisis? How quickly are they expected to contact the emergency broadcast station and start feeding information to the public? (See yesterday’s CHORE post for our suggestion that first responders should be operational at least as quickly as the radio station is ready to take their information.)
• What resources are devoted to system maintenance by the “infrastructure” companies – the utilities, the cable company and the like? What would comparisons show, year-to-year and decade-to-decade?
• Re the utility poles that collapsed on the Waianae Coast: How strong were the winds there? What is the rated wind resistance of those poles? Did the storm’s winds exceed their rating, and if not, why did they fall?
• Since 16 poles fell in the same stretch of road where 13 poles were blown down and blocked the highway in March 2006, what are the plans – if any – to erect even stronger poles there?
• With predictions for a wetter-than-normal winter, have these companies adjusted their operations to account for unusually inclement weather? Has the tree trimming budget item been increased in anticipation of stormy weather that often blows tree limbs into power lines? Is this line item growing, shrinking or idling?
• For the telephone utility: Why do your land lines hum after a rain so much that conversations are difficult, and what’s being done about it? Or is this simply something else to endure without hope of improvement?
• Was it a good decision to shut down TheBus during the storm? Does one bus being struck by lightning in Kaneohe (if that’s really what happened) justify a lockdown on bus service throughout the island? What’s in the SOP?
• Is the Honolulu Police Department’s 911 system robust enough to handle a big emergency? Not even a recording could be reached at times during the storm, let alone a live operator. If a tropical storm can handcuff 911, what can we expect in a hurricane?
Questions for the Public
Have our expectations fallen so low that we just shrug off the massive inconvenience caused by this tropical storm? Is our island society so fragile that a few hours of windy weather can shut down so much of our commerce and so many institutions?
We live in one of the most expensive places in the country. We shell out a great deal of money compared to our mainland friends for the services we rely on, even after a kona storm.
We have to wonder how long Oahu residents will be content to tolerate what looks like a collapse of our infrastructure and services after a relatively minor storm – yes, relatively minor and nothing like a major hurricane. The highest reported gust on Oahu was 70 mph at Schofield Barracks, and sustained winds were far less than that.
Don’t we deserve better, or was the aftermath to the Kona Storm of December ’07 what we should expect?
We’re just asking the questions, but here’s one thing we do know for sure: If we don’t care about any of this, we deserve what we get.
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
KSSK Steps Up to Kona Storm’s Emergency; Spokespeople Still Slow with their Response
Last night’s kona storm was as close as we came to a hurricane this year. Utility poles, trees and boulders reportedly blocked streets and highways around Oahu early today as southwesterly wind gusts in the 60-mph range were recorded on Oahu and Molokai.
Oahu’s designated emergency broadcast station, KSSK, has responded well this time. We tuned in shortly after 3:45 a.m. when our neighborhood’s circuit went out (for the sixth time since November 4th).
Christmas music continued to play except for a short “live” newsroom announcement around 4:10, and Mike Perry went “live” at 4:30 and has been going at it nonstop as of this posting.
The station’s newsroom seemed to be fully activated, with personnel breaking in with reports on school closings, highway reports and other newsworthy items. Overall, this was the Michael W. Perry we remembered from Hurricane Iwa 25 years ago – fully engaged and obviously wearing his “emergency hard hat” today.
Where Were the Responders?
What wasn’t as smooth was the flow of information from first responders. Officials with storm-related information were slow in communicating with the public through KSSK.
Hawaiian Electric Company had been experiencing power outages yesterday and last evening, so the company presumably could have anticipated that thousands of customers would wake up in the dark this morning and need information.
Yet HECO's spokesperson wasn’t heard “live” on KSSK until shortly before 6 a.m., long after many customers began calling the station. Even then, his first two reports were brief and focused only on outages on the windward side, north shore, central Oahu and the leeward coast. Nothing was said about the ongoing blackouts in urban Honolulu, leaving those of us without power since 3:45 wondering whether the company knew about our outage.
HECO sent a second spokesperson to KSSK’s studio, and that was a good move. Perry could turn to HECO’s in-studio representative, a former Advertiser reporter who hit a good sympathetic tone about the public's inconvenience in his reports on the company's efforts to restore power.
Callers complained about the lack of information from the Department of Education. Its spokesman wasn’t on “live” until after 6 a.m. The University of Hawaii’s rep didn’t call until after 6:30. We don’t recall hearing anyone from the civil defense agencies or a Honolulu Police Department spokesperson in the first hours. Callers obviously were displeased, and some urged KSSK to contact the DOE and UH for information.
Keeping Step with KSSK
CHORE’s advice to first responders is to just pick up the phone and call radio stations early and often. How hard is that? More to the point, it’s what first responders should be conditioned to do. This was a major lesson we wrote about recently in our 25th anniversary remembrance of Iwa in the Honolulu Advertiser.
First responders are not information “gatekeepers.” That’s the term for newsroom professionals who decide what’s “news” and what isn’t. Official spokespeople don’t horde information; they exist to disseminate it quickly.
We don’t know what explains the relatively slow response today, but we do have this simple suggestion for all companies and agencies that are expected to communicate information to the public during emergencies:
Be as quick with your response as the official emergency broadcast station – KSSK. If the station was operating at full speed by 4:30 a.m. today, why weren’t you? Help KSSK and other stations keep your customers and citizens informed by planning your response to be as quick as the broadcasters'.
KSSK performed well during and after today’s storm. First responders still have work to do.
What About the Public?
Several callers to KSSK said they couldn’t listen to the station because their power was out – meaning they apparently don’t have a portable radio in the home. That’s pretty amazing, so people:
Go out and buy a cheap battery-powered radio! It will help you stay informed – and keep you off the phone so you're not blocking others with important information they need to convey to KSSK and the public.
Oahu’s designated emergency broadcast station, KSSK, has responded well this time. We tuned in shortly after 3:45 a.m. when our neighborhood’s circuit went out (for the sixth time since November 4th).
Christmas music continued to play except for a short “live” newsroom announcement around 4:10, and Mike Perry went “live” at 4:30 and has been going at it nonstop as of this posting.
The station’s newsroom seemed to be fully activated, with personnel breaking in with reports on school closings, highway reports and other newsworthy items. Overall, this was the Michael W. Perry we remembered from Hurricane Iwa 25 years ago – fully engaged and obviously wearing his “emergency hard hat” today.
Where Were the Responders?
What wasn’t as smooth was the flow of information from first responders. Officials with storm-related information were slow in communicating with the public through KSSK.
Hawaiian Electric Company had been experiencing power outages yesterday and last evening, so the company presumably could have anticipated that thousands of customers would wake up in the dark this morning and need information.
Yet HECO's spokesperson wasn’t heard “live” on KSSK until shortly before 6 a.m., long after many customers began calling the station. Even then, his first two reports were brief and focused only on outages on the windward side, north shore, central Oahu and the leeward coast. Nothing was said about the ongoing blackouts in urban Honolulu, leaving those of us without power since 3:45 wondering whether the company knew about our outage.
HECO sent a second spokesperson to KSSK’s studio, and that was a good move. Perry could turn to HECO’s in-studio representative, a former Advertiser reporter who hit a good sympathetic tone about the public's inconvenience in his reports on the company's efforts to restore power.
Callers complained about the lack of information from the Department of Education. Its spokesman wasn’t on “live” until after 6 a.m. The University of Hawaii’s rep didn’t call until after 6:30. We don’t recall hearing anyone from the civil defense agencies or a Honolulu Police Department spokesperson in the first hours. Callers obviously were displeased, and some urged KSSK to contact the DOE and UH for information.
Keeping Step with KSSK
CHORE’s advice to first responders is to just pick up the phone and call radio stations early and often. How hard is that? More to the point, it’s what first responders should be conditioned to do. This was a major lesson we wrote about recently in our 25th anniversary remembrance of Iwa in the Honolulu Advertiser.
First responders are not information “gatekeepers.” That’s the term for newsroom professionals who decide what’s “news” and what isn’t. Official spokespeople don’t horde information; they exist to disseminate it quickly.
We don’t know what explains the relatively slow response today, but we do have this simple suggestion for all companies and agencies that are expected to communicate information to the public during emergencies:
Be as quick with your response as the official emergency broadcast station – KSSK. If the station was operating at full speed by 4:30 a.m. today, why weren’t you? Help KSSK and other stations keep your customers and citizens informed by planning your response to be as quick as the broadcasters'.
KSSK performed well during and after today’s storm. First responders still have work to do.
What About the Public?
Several callers to KSSK said they couldn’t listen to the station because their power was out – meaning they apparently don’t have a portable radio in the home. That’s pretty amazing, so people:
Go out and buy a cheap battery-powered radio! It will help you stay informed – and keep you off the phone so you're not blocking others with important information they need to convey to KSSK and the public.
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Fatality Update: ‘Corroded’ Insulator Faulted in Power Line Fall; HECO Starts its Inspections
Hawaiian Electric says a “corroded metal internal component within the ceramic insulator” contributed to the insulator’s failure, which caused the line to fall and ignite a fire that killed a Wahiawa man in his parked van three days ago.
Mid-Morning Update: A HECO representative told CHORE this morning that the company began inspecting the Wahiawa grid the day after the 7,200-volt line fell, noting that an insulator failure is extremely rare.
Despite the rarity, CHORE believes a system-wide inspection – even if it only involves spot examination of insulators around the island – would give customers some comfort that the Wahiawa tragedy was more likely a fluke accident and not evidence of a wider problem. The public needs reassurance that the high-powered electric grid above our heads isn’t corroding into disrepair.
Whether the news media will give this story its due is problematic; the Star-Bulletin buried HECO’s statement in its Newswatch column today, and the Advertiser ignored it.
Closer to Home
HECO also told CHORE this morning that the power circuits serving the Waialae-Nui Ridge and Ainakoa neighborhoods, which have been plagued by blackouts recently, are being examined by engineers to see what short- and/or long-term actions might be implemented to improve reliability.
That’s good news to those who’ve come to anticipate an outage nearly each time it rains -- five of them in November, but not last night!
Mid-Morning Update: A HECO representative told CHORE this morning that the company began inspecting the Wahiawa grid the day after the 7,200-volt line fell, noting that an insulator failure is extremely rare.
Despite the rarity, CHORE believes a system-wide inspection – even if it only involves spot examination of insulators around the island – would give customers some comfort that the Wahiawa tragedy was more likely a fluke accident and not evidence of a wider problem. The public needs reassurance that the high-powered electric grid above our heads isn’t corroding into disrepair.
Whether the news media will give this story its due is problematic; the Star-Bulletin buried HECO’s statement in its Newswatch column today, and the Advertiser ignored it.
Closer to Home
HECO also told CHORE this morning that the power circuits serving the Waialae-Nui Ridge and Ainakoa neighborhoods, which have been plagued by blackouts recently, are being examined by engineers to see what short- and/or long-term actions might be implemented to improve reliability.
That’s good news to those who’ve come to anticipate an outage nearly each time it rains -- five of them in November, but not last night!
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