2013-06-26, Committee on People with Disabilities, Minutes

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NEW BUSINESS Presentation by Civil Defense Director, Darryl Oliveira on emergency preparedness for people with disabilities W. Tanigawa introduced Darryl Oliveira, Civil Defense Director, who will be speaking about emergency preparedness for people with disabilities and the issues surrounding that. D. Oliveira wanted to apologize to the committee because he didn’t even know this body existed but would like to work together with everybody to address the different needs of the community. Civil Defense has multiple roles. First and foremost, it is understanding the hazards that affect our community. One of the primary job is to understand these hazards and how it impacts the community. Another mission is the responsibility to communicate to the public about what’s going on and giving the community information so that they can make decisions to protect themselves. With the exception of an earthquake, we do have some kind of an indication something is going to happen. Different sources of media are used to get information out to the community. First is the radio. We have a partnership agreement with the radio system here on the island and they will play messages as soon as we get it to them. We also have the ability to cut into their program if it’s that urgent like if you have an earthquake with a possible tsunami. Another tool is a mass notification system at Civil Defense which will send out a text message, an e-mail as well as a phone voice message. The phone voice messaging is something you have to subscribe to, because we don’t have access to the phone numbers, etc. But we do get our information message out through them. The other one would be the sirens. For all intent and purpose, the siren means turn your radio on and see what’s happening around the island as far as what’s the threat, what’s the problem, and what’s the recommendation. We also have access to the emergency alerting system which is the scrolling on the TV. And for the most part, the National Weather Service does that. Those are the primary means by which we will notify the community of what is happening. Worst case scenario is if we lose any of the capability to get messaging out. Let’s say we’ve lost power, the sirens aren’t working, we will actually dispatch first responders into the community, go door to door in most cases, and warn people and get the message out. So, we identify the hazard, we identify its potential risk or threat, and communicate to the public what’s going on. Next is to support people when they are asked to evacuate or relocate even if it’s just to relocate temporarily, i.e., flooding. We can do a better job of educating the community on what is a shelter. The State surveyed the buildings to identify that 2