There are times when one wonders whether anyone listens. Part of the problem may be a lack of communication, or perhaps a lack of understanding of perhaps a lack of leadership. You decide which of these applies in the recent tsunami siren debacle.

In December 2009, my office initiated discussions with County Civil Defense to address obvious shortfalls in tsunami siren coverage in our resort areas in West Hawaii, brought to my attention by a Puna resident. A little research also noted that our County code had no requirements for such an early warning system. The first “tsunami drill” of 26 Feb 2010 highlighted these deficiencies in an actual evacuation, and shortly thereafter, my office prepared a draft amendment to our code to address this issue.

The proposed legislation was referred to both the Planning Commissions, where last November and December, it was met with less than an enthusiastic reception. The Planning Director criticized the draft proposal on several counts: this effort shouldn’t be part of the plan approval process, State and County Civil Defense should administer the program, and maybe we shouldn’t inconvenience a developer with the associated costs of installing such a system. Both Planning Commissions gave my proposal a negative recommendation and sent it back to Council for further action.

Now I’ve been a Council member long enough to appreciate that there are many possibilities to address issues of this nature. I have no difficulty if the Planning Director and the Commissions didn’t agree with my suggestions for resolving the issue, but someone please offer alternatives. However, none were provided. When the draft returned to the Council’s Planning Committee in January, I urged the administration to work on some viable options. Several coastal communities were without an obvious public safety mechanism, our County code included no such requirements, and we already had one tsunami evacuation to prove that my concern was not science fiction. My pleas fell on deaf ears. I received ‘thunderous silence’ from the administration. The only response noted was to suggest that the State should pay for the sirens, and that my proposal did not work with the Planning Department’s plan review process.

Personally, I really didn’t care who pays for the installation of the sirens. The real questions remained: when will the sirens be installed and when will a requirement be established? Surely I couldn’t be the only one who saw this issue. Where was the administration’s initiative? Where was effective leadership demonstrated? And please, let’s stop the bureaucratic double-talk and concentrate on the shortfall.

In mid-February, after continuing to plead for the administration’s assistance in crafting a bill that would meet its criticisms, the Council’s Planning Committee, frustrated with the administration’s lack of action, approved my proposal sending it to full Council by a vote of 6-3. Finally, we heard voices from the administration that the Council’s concerns would now be considered.

On 1 March, State Civil Defense went out on bid to install a number of new civil defense sirens on the Big Island not merely in tsunami evacuation zones. These would include sirens in areas along the coast where none previously existed: among others, two at Mauna Lani, two in the Waikoloa resort area and one at Kona Village. On 2 March, we were told that an alternative proposal would be drafted to address the deficiency in our code regarding siren requirements. This flurry of activity did precede the second ‘tsunami drill’ on March 11, and generated a renewed urgency regarding this topic. The new administration proposal has already been placed on both Planning Commission agendas in April and May, and it can be anticipated that the long-sought alternative will be brought to Council sometime in early June.

The route taken in the effort has been torturous. Would that all tsunamis react with the same ‘glacial speed’ as this legislative process, but at least it is moving forward. We pride ourselves, with good reason, on the effectiveness of the County’s response to both of the tsunami evacuations and how all assisted. However, the fact remains that we had thirteen hours and five and a half hours warning respectively. Would we have been so fortunate if we only had one or two hours notice?? While this issue is finally being addressed and sirens will eventually be installed, after some 15 months of discussion the situation today is: there are significant shortfalls in siren coverage in our resort areas, and no requirement has yet been established for new developments in our code. Let’s hope for better leadership and let’s pray we don’t have a “third tsunami drill” in which our reaction time would be dramatically reduced as it was in Japan.

(Submitted by Councilman Pete Hoffmann)