Lessons learned? ADVERTISING Lessons learned? It has been a year since Iselle. With a storm of that destructive force, it’s safe to say many will be impacted for years to come. Sure, Iselle wasn’t even a Category 1 hurricane, but
Lessons learned?
It has been a year since Iselle. With a storm of that destructive force, it’s safe to say many will be impacted for years to come. Sure, Iselle wasn’t even a Category 1 hurricane, but that’s Mother Nature for you.
As an eight-year East Hawaii resident, the storm seemed more about the economic conditions, the infrastructure it hit, and THAT IT HIT, than about the strength in numbers.
That’s when everything got relative real quick as Ali‘i Ice was violated, more than 2,000 poles went down, and catchment-system drawbacks were all over the place. And those were just the collateral ramifications. The real stories are in the thousands affected by a natural disaster with much more devastating personal losses. This is just one person’s thoughts.
As far as what the county did, along with HELCO and other civil servants, overall they did pretty well considering the historic scale of the event. It had been over three decades since a storm bore down upon East Hawaii like Iselle did on Aug. 7. So the speed in which they responded to the destruction and simultaneous lava flow scare was fantastic. The amount of work the county, HELCO and Civil Defense did for Iselle and the June 27 lava flow was astounding.
During the days immediately after Iselle, things got testy for almost everybody. From the extra trucks, traffic and safety hazards to the lack of electricity for well over a week for many, the storm made its mark on numerous souls and properties. No, no souls were lost (that I know of), but the marks are still there, and it never hurts to admit them every once in awhile.
Events like Iselle teach important lessons. Be more ready for a big, huge event. Get your kit and plan together. If you think it’s done, it may be. But probably not. Go over it again. An emergency preparedness plan needs to be almost intuitive. Yes, we want it at our finger tips, but the intuitive part comes from being so familiar with it that it comes naturally when times are toughest.
Recently there have been several fairly big earthquakes around the Pacific Rim, and now (Tropical Storm) Guillermo. If one hit here or generated a tsunami, would you be able to hit high gear right away with your plan?
Try to remember the weaknesses in the plan right after Iselle, and incorporate new preparedness from now on. I thought I was ready for “the storm that never hits,” so I have prepared for myself a 22-page plan and three-suitcase emergency preparedness kit.
Thanks to everyone who got us through it. Not everything was perfect — like the election debacle and the announcement to go to the fire station for ice, where two card tables were set up for thousands. But, again, given the immensely destructive force applied to Puna’s infrastructure, most came out tattered and with extra bills, but OK, and way smarter about an approaching storm.
Marty Mimmack
Hilo
