In the event of a destructive hurricane or tsunami it is possible that water pumping facilities could be damaged or that electrical power necessary to run the pumps would be unavailable.  If that happened, water reservoirs would run dry in 2 or 3 days.  After hurricane Iniki hit Kauai, some homes were without water for a month.  In such an emergency, how would you get water for drinking, cooking, flushing toilets, bathing, doing laundry? Mānoa residents are perhaps more fortunate than those in other areas of the island because we have ample rainfall.  Thus it is possible to set up a water catchment system for emergency water needs.  How do you do that?  Every quarter, the Halawa Xeriscape Garden run by the Board of Water Supply gives a Rain Barrel Catchment class.  Recently several members of the WWAP NSW attended the class and came home with a 55 gallon water barrel and the knowledge of how to set up a catchment system.  Here is George working on his new water barrel. If you are interested in learning more, call 748-5363 or send an email to workshops@hbws.org to sign up for their next Rain Barrel Catchment class.  The cost of the class is $35.

“Together, we prepare, survive and thrive” is the motto, which we chose to rally our community members in developing a strategic preparedness framework for Mānoa.  As the first urban community in Honolulu to develop a disaster preparedness plan, we strive to serve as a model to help our immediate neighbors and others beyond. In the chaos and uncertainty, which can accompany disaster, our best chance of surviving and thriving will only happen when working together.

After the Katrina and Sandy experiences, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) realized that Federal, State and Local agencies could not do it all so has focused its efforts on building skills at the local level to enable communities to respond to disasters .  We were told at our first FEMA course for Community Leaders on November 21, 2013 not to expect emergency agencies to be able to respond within a week of a disaster.    Hawai‘i is the most remote archipelago in the world; there is less money, fewer personnel and a very long supply line.   We must rely on our own resources.

The solutions are numerous and daunting. We will be training as many of our residents to be Community Emergency Response Team members, developing an overall communications framework (that includes training residents on HAM radio and family radio service – FRS – devices), organizing and strengthening our existing Neighborhood Security Watches with more training, and encouraging our residents to always be prepared.rous and daunting. We will be training as many of our residents to be Community Emergency Response Team members, developing an overall communications framework (that includes training residents on HAM radio and family radio service – FRS – devices), organizing and strengthening our existing Neighborhood Security Watches with more training, and encouraging our residents to always be prepared.