tags: Central Pacific, Hurricane, Disaster Preparedness, Emergency Planning

Every year in Hawaii, the Central Pacific hurricane season kicks off in June. This year, during June 2-5, DP&R teamed with Native Hawaiian Veterans (NHV) to provide the Evaluation Team for the State’s annual hurricane preparedness exercise called Makani Pahili, which means “strong wind.” The exercise provided opportunity for each county, as well as State and Federal partners, to challenge their catastrophic plans through various sub-exercises. DP&R provided a team to serve as third party evaluators during the initial Table Top Exercises, the three day Functional Exercises for each Emergency Operations Centers (EOC), as well as for the one day Full Scale Exercise in each county.

The exercise included involvement of the Governor, as well as Mayors and the state adjutant general. “We can’t predict what exactly will happen, but there are indications that we should be prepared for an increased number of hurricanes,” said Gov. Neil Abercrombie.

The exercise portrayed a category four hurricane making landfall in Hawai’i County and lessening to a category three hurricane as it hit each of the other counties.  The NHV/DP&R evaluation team provided key observations during the exercise measured against the training objectives and standards of expected performance, ultimately producing salient and invaluable recommendations for the participants to improve in areas of disaster preparedness and response.

Gov. Abercrombie said, “This exercise was extraordinarily valuable. I’m very confident in the responsible agencies and personnel at the county, state and national level.”

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