Some Media Show More Interest in Response Issues, but State CD Has Yet to Set Meeting

• 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.....

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.

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.

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.