KITV has won an Edward R. Murrow Award in the spot news category for its breaking news coverage of the October 15th earthquakes, according to "The Buzz" column in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The station was essentially the only TV outlet to perform well on Earthquake Sunday thanks to an emergency generator that provided power during the massive island-wide outage. The story says there were no Hawaii radio winners -- which should tell you something about radio's performance that day. CHORE began writing about radio's deficiencies one week after the quakes.
CHORE was launched in 2006 after officials responding to an earthquake emergency obviously didn't measure up; see CHORE's earliest posts. Their performance left an opening for average citizens to weigh in with experience-based suggestions to improve crisis communications. The many deaths recorded after California's wildfires also revealed gaps in officials' ability to communicate effectively. Visitors are invited to comment with their own ideas.