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Hundreds of school children arrive at the end of their walk across Hilo International Airport's taxiways in a mock tsunami evacuation drill. Teachers and aides carry signs with the name of their class in an attempt to keep the students together during the drill. - Photo By Peter Sur/Tribune-Herald
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Keiki prepare for tsunami
by Peter Sur
Tribune-Herald Staff Writer
Hundreds march to airport in safety exercise
Keaukaha students know what to do the next time a tsunami warning is issued: They head to the airport.
Sirens across Hawaii sounded at 11:45 a.m. Monday, as they do at that time every first workday of the month. For most people, it's a time to check their watches and make sure it is time for a scheduled tsunami drill. For students of several schools, including Keaukaha Elementary, Kamehameha Preschool and Ka 'Umeke Ka'eo Public Charter School, it was time to swarm out of their classrooms and make their way to one of two gates at the edge of Hilo International Airport. (In a real emergency, four Keaukaha gates would be open.)
From there, it was a trek of more than a half-mile inland, across the two main runways and a 75-foot-wide taxiway, finally arriving at the perimeter fence near the passenger terminal.
At least 752 students and other school personnel participated in the mock evacuation, which takes place every three years.
Almost all of Keaukaha lies in a tsunami evacuation zone, and most days the only way out is the two-lane Kalanianaole Avenue. Should a tsunami warning be issued, those in the district may have only a couple hours to get to safety. Monday's drill was designed to determine how fast that could be done.
The results were encouraging. Shortly after noon, 22 cars, carrying preschool kids and those who couldn't make the walk, headed southbound across two of the airport's taxiways. The children were not far behind. The first group of walkers reached safety, and the waiting buses, in 11 minutes.
An ahead-of-schedule Hawaiian Airlines plane inbound from Honolulu circled over Maui during the drill, and a Civil Air Patrol plane buzzed Keaukaha to take aerial photos.
By the end of it, the kids were hot and sweating. Some carried jackets and others rolled suitcases. Some ran the final few hundred feet; others were just happy it was over.
"It was good. It was hot. Weather was nice," said Keaupuna Clarke, an assistant teacher at Ka 'Umeke Ka'eo, a Hawaiian immersion school. "We all got here safe."
Keaukaha Elementary sixth-grader Kaysha Mikami said essentially the same thing.
"It was good. It was hot, and it was slow, but it worked out," she said. When the siren sounded, the kids got out of their classes and hurried to the gate at the perimeter fence of the airport. There, they waited until officials gave the go-ahead to shut down the runway and let the students through.
"The tsunami evacuation takes place every year," said Keaukaha Elementary Principal Lehua Veincent," but the students cross the airport only once every three years. He credited a number of agencies in working together to make the drill happen, including the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, Civil Defense, the county Mass Transit Authority, the Department of Transportation, Airports Division, and the Keaukaha and Leleiwi community associations.
"I think this year is much faster than three years ago," Veincent said.
Several communication problems cropped up. There was a bottleneck at the intersection of Baker and Todd avenues, and the issue of pedestrians and vehicles passing through the same gates created a potential safety hazard.
Of the six buses that were supposed to take students back to class, only returned to the airport, leaving some students there until 1:20 p.m.
E-mail Peter Sur at psur@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
Sirens across Hawaii sounded at 11:45 a.m. Monday, as they do at that time every first workday of the month. For most people, it's a time to check their watches and make sure it is time for a scheduled tsunami drill. For students of several schools, including Keaukaha Elementary, Kamehameha Preschool and Ka 'Umeke Ka'eo Public Charter School, it was time to swarm out of their classrooms and make their way to one of two gates at the edge of Hilo International Airport. (In a real emergency, four Keaukaha gates would be open.)
From there, it was a trek of more than a half-mile inland, across the two main runways and a 75-foot-wide taxiway, finally arriving at the perimeter fence near the passenger terminal.
Almost all of Keaukaha lies in a tsunami evacuation zone, and most days the only way out is the two-lane Kalanianaole Avenue. Should a tsunami warning be issued, those in the district may have only a couple hours to get to safety. Monday's drill was designed to determine how fast that could be done.
The results were encouraging. Shortly after noon, 22 cars, carrying preschool kids and those who couldn't make the walk, headed southbound across two of the airport's taxiways. The children were not far behind. The first group of walkers reached safety, and the waiting buses, in 11 minutes.
An ahead-of-schedule Hawaiian Airlines plane inbound from Honolulu circled over Maui during the drill, and a Civil Air Patrol plane buzzed Keaukaha to take aerial photos.
By the end of it, the kids were hot and sweating. Some carried jackets and others rolled suitcases. Some ran the final few hundred feet; others were just happy it was over.
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Click Photo to Enlarge
Samuel Kamakau, a first-grader at Ka'Umeke Kaeo Public Charter School, gulps down a bottle of water with his classmates at Hilo International Airport after finishing his trek. - Photo By Peter Sur/Tribune-Herald
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Keaukaha Elementary sixth-grader Kaysha Mikami said essentially the same thing.
"It was good. It was hot, and it was slow, but it worked out," she said. When the siren sounded, the kids got out of their classes and hurried to the gate at the perimeter fence of the airport. There, they waited until officials gave the go-ahead to shut down the runway and let the students through.
"The tsunami evacuation takes place every year," said Keaukaha Elementary Principal Lehua Veincent," but the students cross the airport only once every three years. He credited a number of agencies in working together to make the drill happen, including the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, Civil Defense, the county Mass Transit Authority, the Department of Transportation, Airports Division, and the Keaukaha and Leleiwi community associations.
"I think this year is much faster than three years ago," Veincent said.
Several communication problems cropped up. There was a bottleneck at the intersection of Baker and Todd avenues, and the issue of pedestrians and vehicles passing through the same gates created a potential safety hazard.
Of the six buses that were supposed to take students back to class, only returned to the airport, leaving some students there until 1:20 p.m.
E-mail Peter Sur at psur@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
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