 | |
State of Hawaii
|
|
|
February/March 2013
| Issue 30
|
|
|
|
Emergency Preparedness E-News
for People with Disabilities and other Access and Functional Needs
|
|
|
|
|
Community Forums
|
Greetings! In December, DCAB completed Emergency Preparedness Forums in each county. Each forum had an excellent turnout of people with good discussion on issues specific to their locations. We are in the process of revising the 2009 Interagency Action Plan to use terminology more consistent with FEMA, and incorporating changes suggested by each county. Individual comments from each county were summarized and sent to participants of specific county forum, and the final plan will be posted on the DCAB website in early summer. Forum participants will be informed when the 2013 Interagency Action Plan is available. It was a pleasure to travel around the state and work with people in each county. A special part of all the forums were the speakers at lunch. They were a dynamic group and provided information to the participants at each forum with local contacts to work with to assist in exercises and providing feedback related to the needs of people with disabilities and others with access and functional needs in each area. Mahalo to all of the presenters and participants. The Developmental Disabilities Council county staff provided excellent support in obtaining meeting space and assisting at the forums. State Civil Defense added to the presentations by allowing a staff person to accompany DCAB staff to each county forum, while American Red Cross did a fantastic job with providing lunches for all forum participants. Exchanging information was pertinent for DCAB. And a special mahalo to the County Civil Defense Agencies, the Department of Emergency Management, and the University of Hawaii, Center on Disability Studies for their kokua and participation! Aloha, Debbie Jackson
Planner
 | | Hilo Community Forum December 2012 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 New Big Island Civil Defense Administrator |
Darryl Oliveira took over as the Big Island Civil Defense Administrator at the beginning of the new year. He was born and raised on the Big Island, mostly in Hilo, and is a 1979 graduate of Hilo High School. He attended UH Hilo before beginning a career with the Hawaii Fire Department on October 1, 1980. He held the following positions when he was at the Hilo Fire Department: Firefighter/Emergency Medical Technician, Mobile Intensive Care Technician or Paramedic, Fire Rescue Specialist, Fire Equipment Operator, Aero-Medical Program Coordinator, Fire Captain, Acting Battalion Commander (Operations), Acting Emergency Medical Services Bureau Chief, and Fire Chief.
He has been involved with a variety of multi-agency emergency incident operations and served as Incident Commander for events such as large brush fires, multi-agency search and rescue incidents and other typical emergency response events supported and directed to the fire department.
He has also served as the Incident Commander for a Unified Command/Multi-Agency Hazard Risk Assessment Task Force with the March 2008 eruption at Halemaumau and the subsequent sulfur dioxide emissions. And finally, as the Fire Chief, he was the primary liaison for the fire department to the Civil Defense Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to provide for coordination of agency activities and response for all events from 2002 through to his retirement in 2011. During that time, there were numerous events, including the October 15, 2006 earthquake and the Chilean tsunami event.
With his solid foundation in emergency management and preparedness, as it relates to the missions of the Fire Department and with his involvement with the EOC, he is familiar with and appreciates the tremendous amount of interagency and community collaboration and coordination required with any type of emergency. He also realizes he has a great deal more to learn with regard to the specific roles and functions of Civil Defense and will work very hard at his new job to serve and protect the community.
We are very fortunate to have Mr. Oliveira take on the responsibility of Civil Defense Administrator on the Big Island! Welcome to your new job and we look forward to working with you. |
Kauai CERT Training Courses
|  The Garden Island Community News announced that the County of Kauai Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) course is being offered in Lihue and Hanalei. CERT trainings are a good way for citizens to be taught by fire fighters, as part of a program sponsored by the Kauai Fire Department and the Kauai Civil Defense Agency. "The most effective thing we can do is to do for ourselves and each other in the event of an emergency is be prepared," said Kauai Fire Chief, Robert Westerman. "During a massive disaster, such as a hurricane, assistance from a first responder is not immediately guaranteed. The CERT program allows us to be proactive and train residents in basic disaster response so they become equipped to assist family members and neighbors until help arrives."
Lihue classes will be held every Thursday, beginning February 21 through March 28 from 5:30 - 9:30 p.m. at the Kauai Fire Department headquarters located in the Piikoi Building, Suite 315 in the Lihue Civic Center.
Trainings will also be held from 5:30 - 9:30 p.m. at the Hanalei Community Center every Tuesday from March 5 through April 9. Participants are required to complete all six courses in order to become a CERT member. Missed classes can be made up during a later session.
Additional courses will be offered around the island throughout the year in hopes of having CERT members in every neighborhood across Kauai.
Participants learn about different types of disasters and how to prepare and respond. Topics such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization and medical operations will be covered.
For more information or to request an auxiliary aid (ASL interpreter or materials in alternate format) or service call John Cornell at(808) 645-0661 or e-mail kfdcert@kauai.gov.
Excerpted from The Garden Island, 2/15/13 |
| March is Red Cross Month |  March is Red Cross Month, and the American Red Cross thanks all who help their community by giving of themselves - Red Cross volunteers, financial supporters and those who take safety training classes.
The Hawaii Red Cross is on call 24/7, 365 days a year to respond to disasters and to provide emergency communication between deployed military service members and their families. Red Cross also teaches important skills, including baby-sitting and nurse's aide training. Last fiscal year, the Red Cross in Maui County responded to 16 disasters, helping 72 members of the Maui community get back on their feet and start rebuilding their lives after tragedy struck. One Red Cross shelter opened due to civil disturbance, sheltering 43 individuals who needed to evacuate or were unable to return to their residences. Red Cross volunteers served 111 meals to emergency responders and to those affected by disasters. Red Cross provided 227 certificates for free disaster training courses to volunteers interested in responding to emergencies and reached 2,707 individuals in the community with disaster preparedness information. Courses taught critical skills like first aid, CPR and aquatics to almost 1,300 individuals in Maui County as part of Red Cross' mission of saving lives.
There are many ways the people of Maui County can support the Red Cross during March. One way is to shop at the Red Cross Awesome Online Auction at www.hawaiiredcross.org through March 16. Great deals are available for a good cause. There are various items you can bid on such as airline travel to the West Coast and Neighbor Islands, hotel stays, a car, a stand-up paddle board, restaurant certificates, and more.
Pizza Hut and Taco Bell will have a promotion from March 13 to 19 to donate $1 to Hawaii Red Cross if you purchase Pizza Hut's nine-piece Pizza Sliders at regular price or Taco Bell's Cool Ranch Doritos Taco Box meal. There are other promotional events throughout March, so check with the Maui Red Cross office or find out what you can do to support Red Cross.
The Red Cross encourages everyone to develop a preparedness plan for their families, become a volunteer and to sign up for a CPR or first-aid class. For more information visit www.hawaiiredcross.org. The Red Cross is not a government agency and relies on the generosity of Hawaii's people to provide humanitarian services to our community.
Excerpted from The Maui News, March 4, 2013 article by Michele Liberty, Maui County Director for the American Red Cross, Hawaii State Chapter. |
| Personal Preparedness Training |  The University of Hawaii's Center on Disability Studies conducted two Hawaii's "Feeling Safe, Being Safe: Train the Trainer" courses in February. Feeling Safe, Being Safe (FSBS) is a community-based program that helps prepare individuals and neighborhoods for emergencies of all kinds. The FSBS Training provides a guided step-by-step experience ideal for individuals who live alone, are aging, have a disability or may need additional support in an emergency. Hawaii's FSBS curriculum is a modified version of 'California's FSBS' curriculum. Hawaii's Emergency Preparedness Project is a partnership between the University of Hawaii's Center on Disability Studies and Hawaii's Department of Health Developmental Disabilities Division.
The February trainings were conducted on February 12th and 19th from 9:30 - 11:30 a.m. at Easter Seals in Kapolei and at American Red Cross in Honolulu. For information about the next training date contact Yoko at (808) 956-5096 or e-mail her at kitami@hawaii.edu. |
| June 1, 2013 Hurricane Exercise |  Makani Pahili, the annual hurricane exercise, is currently in the planning stages. As part of the event, there will be an evacuation exercise and the City and County of Honolulu's Department of Emergency Management, State Civil Defense, and American Red Cross-Hawaii Chapter, and DCAB are asking for volunteers with disabilities to participate. The exercise is planned at two locations, one at a school and one at a parks and recreation site on Oahu. We are looking for people with different types of disabilities to volunteer and provide feedback about the experience of going to an evacuation site, checking in with the volunteers who are working at the site. We need people who use wheelchairs and other mobility aids, people who are deaf, people who are blind, people who use service animals, people who are elderly and may need assistance, people with children with disabilities or family members with disabilities, people with any other type of disability who will go to a shelter during a hurricane. People need to be able to get themselves to the site and be willing to volunteer for several hours in the morning on Saturday, June 1, 2013.
For more information and to volunteer for the event, contact Debbie Jackson at (808) 586-8121 or e-mail her at dcab@doh.hawaii.gov. Mahalo for being willing to volunteer your time to assist community agencies in practicing for and improving emergency evacuation shelter services. |
|
|
|
Disability and Communication Access Board
919 Ala Moana Blvd., Room 101 Honolulu, HI 96814 Phone: (808) 586-8121 (V/TTY) FAX: (808) 586-8129 E-mail: DCAB General Delivery Website: DCAB Home PageCounty of Hawaii: (808) 974-4000, ext. 6-8121# County of Kauai: (808) 274-3141, ext. 6-8121# County of Maui: (808) 984-2400, ext. 6-8121# Molokai & Lanai: 1-800-468-4644, ext. 6-8121#
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
