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Hurricane Awareness

As noted in the post below, hurricane season in Hawaii starts June 1.  The following is some excellent information on hurricanes from The National Preparedness Community:

What is a Hurricane?

History teaches that a lack of hurricane awareness and preparation are common threads among all major hurricane disasters. By knowing your vulnerability and what actions you should take, you can reduce the effects of a hurricane disaster.

Hurricane hazards come in many forms, including storm surge, heavy rainfall, inland flooding, high winds, tornadoes, and rip currents. Gaining a better understanding of tropical cyclones and hurricane hazards will help to make a more informed decision on your risk and what actions to take.

Today we’re talking about high wind and inland flooding two incredibly deadly and destructive elements of hurricanes. Read, watch and share!

Inland Flooding: The Deadliest Element

When these powerful storms move over land, they lose wind strength but continue to dump massive amounts of rain into streams, rivers and lakes, posing a serious threat of inland flooding. These floods account for more than 50 percent of hurricane-related deaths each year.

Watch this short and shareable video of National Hurricane Center (NHC) Hurricane Specialist John Cangialosi discussing the deadly danger of inland flooding caused by tropical cyclones and hurricanes.

HurricaneFlooding

 

Wind Scales: Judging Hurricane Intensity

HurricaneWindScaleThe Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale is a 1 to 5 rating based on a hurricane’s sustained wind speed. This scale estimates potential property damage. Hurricanes reaching Category 3 and higher are considered major hurricanes because of their potential for significant loss of life and damage. Category 1 and 2 storms are still dangerous, however, and require preventative measures. In the western North Pacific, the term “super typhoon” is used for tropical cyclones with sustained winds exceeding 150 mph.

 

The Makings of A Hurricane: Storm Surges & Storm Tides

Storm surge is an abnormal rise of water generated by a storm, over and above the predicted astronomical tides. Storm surge should not be confused with storm tide, which is defined as the water level rise due to the combination of storm surge and the astronomical tide. This rise in water level can cause extreme flooding in coastal areas particularly when storm surge coincides with normal high tide, resulting in storm tides reaching up to 20 feet or more in some cases.

StormSurge

Click on picture for more information on storm surge

Click on picture for more information on storm surge

 

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Posted in Hurricane.

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By Wes Oda – May 29, 2014

The Mānoa Disaster Preparedness Team is No More

Wait. What happened?  Not to worry.  The Mānoa Disaster Preparedness Team has changed its name to Be Ready Mānoa.  Same people, same mission.  We are now officially a corporation (unfortunately NOT tax exempt) of community volunteers.  The official information is:

Be Ready Mānoa
P.O. Box 61623
Honolulu, HI  96822
email – info@bereadymanoa.org
Website – bereadymanoa.org

Lots of things are happening.  You may notice  our new logo above thanks to Courtney Hara a UH senior in graphic design.  Also, plans for the Be Ready Mānoa community fair in September are going full speed ahead.  Sponsors, vendors, exhibitors, entertainment and much more are lined up.  Plans are to stimulate interest by involving local schools and school kids in disaster preparedness and education.

Stay tuned for future developments including the unveiling of our super hero mascot “Disaster Blaster”.

 

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Posted in Miscellaneous.

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By Wes Oda – May 3, 2014

Are You Prepared for No Water?

WaterBarrel1In 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.

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Posted in Emergency Water.

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By Wes Oda – April 16, 2014

Be Ready Mānoa Team

NewLogo“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.

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Posted in General.

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By Wes Oda – April 12, 2014