Once a Hurricane, Tropical Depression Cosme Provides Incentive to Stock Up on Batteries

CHORE has really let it slide this summer. We’re average only one post a month during hurricane season, a tipoff we’ve pretty much moved on and beyond the communications failures during and after Earthquake Sunday. Trouble is, so has everyone else, and there’s been virtually zero follow-up by the news media in recent months on how or whether October’s communications deficiencies have been corrected.

We may not have the answers to all the questions that have been posted here at CHORE until the next emergency, which is not a comforting feeling. If all the radio and TV stations stay on the air during the next major power outage, we’ll know the stations’ staffs have done a responsible job in fixing their problems. If they go to dead air, we’ll be the losers then and there.

COSME Comes Calling

Tropical Depression Cosme, a one-day hurricane earlier this week, has winds estimated at 30 knots this afternoon that could strengthen to minimal tropical storm intensity as it approaches the Hawaiian Islands. We need the rain.

Cosme is also delivering a reminder that storms are inevitable in Hawaii and require forethought to survive – from individual households to broadcasters and all the way up the emergency chain of command.

Cosme looks to be a minor inconvenience at worst for the islands. We’ll have to wait and see about the other Eastern Pacific storms that may come our way this year, starting with Delila, Erick, Gil, Henriette, Ivo, Juliette, Kiko………..

Is State’s Ace in the Hole for Crisis Response Really a Call to Jakarta for Emergency Help?

Jet lag undoubtedly has something to do with CHORE’s reaction to the news. Traveling 27 hours over 12 time zones can play tricks with your senses, so at first reading we were skeptical that Hawaii state government was actually asking Indonesia for assistance with its response to future emergencies. But there it is again today in the Star-Bulletin (“Lingle inks Indonesian disaster partnership”) and the Advertiser ("Partnership augments disaster readiness").

Give us another day to get over the lag and we’ll probably have questions about what it all means. In the meantime, we’ll rely on Larry Geller’s Disappeared News blog to ask them, and as usual, Larry asks some good ones.

Setting our initial skepticism aside, maybe some real good can come from the budding relationship. As noted today at The Jakarta Post.com, the deal includes civilian-to-civilian activities that will “focus on domestic emergency readiness, search and rescue operations and improvements in democratic institutions.”

Since Indonesia’s voter participation seems to be about 30 percentage points higher than Hawaii’s, Jakarta might have some democracy-strengthening tips for our local government.

About that CCRC Update

Our Internet connection in France was generally pretty good, and we accessed Honolulu’s online newspapers fairly regularly. Unless we missed it in the past month, though, the State still doesn’t seem to have published an update to the Comprehensive Communication Review Committee’s recommendations, which were released early this year in response to the communications meltdown after the October earthquakes.

As we asked back on May 22 in our only vacation-time post to CHORE, what have local radio stations done to improve their ability to remain functional during a power blackout? That’s a legitimate angle for local journalists to chase.

Speaking of angles, check out our sister blog, Tsunami Lessons, for another angle to this Indonesian story.

Good Practice, Good News for Storm Season

Travel has reduced our posting frequency lately, and we're still checking in from a distance. We'll break the string of non-posts today by linking to the hurricane preparedness stories in the Advertiser and Star-Bulletin and their good advice to get ready for the season.

The prediction of 72 dead from a category 4 storm striking Oahu is a sober reminder of the serious hurt hurricanes can inflict on our islands. That kind of storm ferocity also calls into question some of the communications channels being proposed to aid citizens during such a disaster. E.G., let's just assume that cell phone towers will be blown away, as will text messaging as a way to communicate emergency information.

Now would be a good time for the Governor's Comprehensive Communications Review Committee to publish an update on the communications enhancements it presumablly has overseen during the past seven months since the committee was formed. A good start would be to disclose how many radio stations have added backup generation since Earthquake Sunday.

Oahu’s Primary Crisis Response Station Is Failing To Manage Its Own Self-Made Emergency

KSSK’s management is giving us a classic example of how not to react when the going gets tough. By not returning phone calls – which seems to be the standard operating procedure down at Clear Channel Communications – management is making things worse.

But the papers are spelling everybody’s name correctly, so it’s all good publicity, right? Ratings undoubtedly are higher than they were before Larry Price’s “blue-eye” comment, and as we’ve already heard from management, ratings are what’s important.

But speaking of ratings, the crown appears to have slipped slightly. The Star-Bulletin reports Cox Radio’s KRTR has moved ahead of KSSK in a “key demographic” group, the 25-to-54-year-old audience.

A Matter of Trust

KSSK is the station we’re supposed to turn to during our next island-wide crisis, when communication to the public becomes critical. Trouble is, the public is now killing the messengers for their lack of professionalism.

What are we to make of that?

KSSK’s Price Steps in It – Suggesting That ‘Infallibility’ Isn’t One of the Station’s Assets

The only reason to wade into the KSSK/Larry Price flap is to point out the obvious: Nobody and no organization is beyond reproach. Larry Price’s unfortunate dialogue with Senator Hooser that prompted a pseudo-apology was proof once again that the only way off a pedestal is down. (Read the Price-Hooser conversation here.)

[5/7 Update: The Advertiser's "Breaking News" section today has one of the strangest apologies you'll hear or read. What Larry Price gives as an apology to Senator Hooser, sidekick Michael Perry takes away with his "You don't have to apologize" rant. There's not much room up there on that pedestal, so maybe Perry's just too close to "get it" -- which is what Hooser seems to think based on his afternoon response to KSSK's weird apology.]

KSSK’s personalities have been up there so long that it’s hard to think of them as mortal – subject to the same flaws that afflict us all. But they’re only human, and this latest evidence of their mortality may make our earlier criticism of their performance in October’s Earthquake Sunday emergency more believable.

CHORE takes no pleasure in watching the mighty tumble. We only hope this experience also makes the radio station humble and convinces KSSK’s management that ratings aren’t necessarily the measure of their performance.

We all will rely on KSSK to be there in our next crisis as one of the primary emergency communications stations. All we want is clear-headed thinking and professionalism from KSSK’s on-air personalities, who presumably will be rolled out as the “face” of our next emergency response.

A taste of humble pie may be what it takes to improve KSSK's performance.

Half-Measures Are Inadequate in Emergency; YouTube & My Space Should Be Mandatory

The University of Hawaii tested its new mass telephoning system yesterday, and administrators are assessing how this and other channels can alert the mass campus audience in an emergency.

Some say text messaging would be the best way to reach students in an emergency – evidence of an ardent love affair with technology that seems as hot as ever.

If technology is the answer, why stop with text messaging? Why not use every conceivable high-tech medium to reach the young adult audience?

Let’s make YouTube and My Space mandatory. Everyone should be required to check for updates on YouTube and My Space at least once every 30 minutes just in case there’s an emergency. Website traffic can be monitored, and violators of this public-spirited policy can expect to be fired or expelled.

Not such a good idea? Here’s another one: Use radio.

Why is radio missing from the discussion? Are UH administrators not mentioning this virtually ubiquitous channel to reporters? Are officials talking about radio but reporters aren’t listening?

CHORE made this point a couple weeks ago. Neither the Advertiser story then nor today’s story mentioned KTUH, the on-campus station that presumably should be a key communications link during a campus emergency.

Old, Old, Old School

Radio enthralled the great-grandparents of students in school today. It’s not just old school; it’s old, old, old school – so old that maybe even administrators don’t give it a second thought.

But if a multi-channel approach is the objective, they simply can’t ignore their own on-campus radio station. Old-school radio is still around because it still works for enough people. Computers and cell phone technology are great; we wouldn’t want to be without them. But we especially wouldn’t want to be without radio in an emergency.

That’s a lesson the new school has let to learn, but it shouldn't have to wait. The high-tech solutions being evaulated presumably will take months or longer to implement. I just checked, and KTUH is up and operating right now at 90.3 FM.

If UH administrators intend to interrupt programming in an emergency, the UH community needs to know that now!

Veteran Big Island Reporter Rips State Civil Defense Chief for “Failure To Communicate”

While we await updates on the University of Hawaii’s effort to construct a workable emergency communications program, we’ll turn to an unexpected source of inspiration.

Hawaii residents with even a modicum of public affairs awareness will recognize Hugh Clark as the long-time (as in, decades-long) Honolulu Advertiser reporter/editor/bureau chief on the Big Island. During his long tenure as the Advertiser’s “man on Hawaii,” Hugh covered every imaginable natural and man-made disaster – hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, volcanic eruptions and more.

You name it, Hugh Clark was there – which is why his letter to State Civil Defense chief Major General Robert Lee has so much weight. Hugh was moved to write his letter after reading General Lee’s commentary in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin that attacked CHORE for questioning State Civil Defense’s response to the October 15th earthquakes.

Here’s Hugh’s letter to General Lee, printed with his permission and cleaned up only for the occasional typo:

Maj. Gen. Robert G.F. Lee
Director, State Civil Defense
3429 Diamond Head
Honolulu, HI 96815

Dear Sir:

I was dismayed when I read your attack on Doug Carlson in the Star-Bulletin in March. My reply was delayed by my desire to think through an appropriate response.

Several pieces since then, including Gordon Pang’s (story) about 147 sirens MIA, convinced me to act, since it is clear you have done little or nothing after your disastrous response to the October double earthquake event.

I speak from 40 years of residence on the Big Island where, as a former editor and reporter, I participated in Civil Defense drills as a guest and covered events from major earthquakes to such wide-ranging events as disastrous lava flows and snow-blinded tourists on Mauna Kea. I also was involved in several would-be hurricane events that alarm Oahbu residents far more than seasoned Big Islanders.

That an alleged 147 tusnami sirens are needed and not yet installed six months after the Kiholo quakes speaks volumes about your inaction. Sirens are the key to tsunami alerts, more so than on-air radio stations.

That you have not set up to this point radio backup electric systems also is unpardonable.

Let me add some other observations. I was alert when these events occurred nearly simultaneously and my Big Island radio stations were dead. I turned on my television service and listened stupefied by Fox News that had some moron who said he was puzzled by a Hawaii earthquake because there are no fault zones here.

Later, as electric service here was restored, (Mayor) Harry Kim came on with his reassuring voice and gave us the first sense of what was happening. He continued to do that while you folks in Honolulu failed miserably, as Doug obviously has observed.

You say you “don’t understand the purpose of the negative.” A more real question is, do you understand your responsibility and your failures since these earthquakes?

You might have the spit and polish of a military officer, but your Civil Defense performance is plainly lacking.

I recommend you sign up Doug as an adviser, rather than trying to kill the messenger, and get yourself in gear to fix the most obvious problems – lack of radio signals because there is no back-up generation ,and get the damn sirens up and running.

Until then, you are the one “failing to communicate.”

Yours truly,
Hugh Clark
Hilo, HI

We've posted this letter simply to reflect the fact that CHORE was not alone in our criticism of State Civil Defense's commuications efforts during its big test in October. The agency's aggressive response to our criticism seemed out of line at the time and still does.

We’re glad Hugh Clark -- an experienced and respected observer of current events -- sees it that way, too.