By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
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A crumbling system of radio communication towers that will cost $25 million to repair heads a list of problems with Honolulu's outdated and poorly maintained emergency preparedness system, the mayor said yesterday.
O'ahu's emergency communications equipment — a critical link after any disaster — needs major repairs because it has been poorly maintained over the years, said Mayor Mufi Hannemann.
"These tower sites — and there are 24 of them — are so decrepit that high winds could topple them, seriously impairing emergency communications," he said.
Overall, Hannemann said, he thinks the city is ready to respond to an emergency but must remain vigilant in updating plans.
"National experts rank our city and county responders as among the best in the nation, and I'm very, very proud of that," he said.
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina's devastation on the Gulf Coast, Hannemann yesterday publicly reviewed the city's disaster preparedness plans. He said he began the evaluation shortly after taking office and found that the overall emergency operations plan was last updated in 1991 by former Mayor Frank Fasi.
Hannemann said the emergency plan is lacking in several key ways:
"As 9/11 taught us, police, fire and EMS and other responders must be able to talk to each other in a coordinated joint response," he said.
Hannemann said the city's first responders — police, fire and emergency medical services staff — have been updating their emergency plans each year and have some communications capabilities. But the larger city plan was so old that it called for responses from departments that no longer exist.
"Hurricane Katrina is a grim reminder of the importance of preparedness," as is tomorrow's anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Hannemann said. But Hurricane 'Iniki and Hurricane 'Iwa already have shown residents that big problems can happen here.
Hannemann said the city is using $13 million in urban area security grants to improve communications. He said the city would also look at using its fleet to evacuate the frail, the poor and the elderly in the event of a disaster. That could include using buses and Handi-Vans and working with the private transportation system.
O'ahu Civil Defense Agency spokesman John Cummings III said the city is working with the state to update evacuation routes and the evacuation shelter system. He said some changes have been made in recent years, such as eliminating Sunset Beach Elementary School — which is across the street from the beach.
And the state Legislature just set aside $2 million for shelter improvements, which have begun with small but important steps such as installing bolts on doors so that the doors don't blow open in a storm, and security doors, Cummings said.
Police Chief Boisse Correa said the police have back-up communications equipment that can serve in any emergency in the meantime.
"We have repeaters, mobile antennas that we can put up," he said. "We have communications for first responders and we can extend that to all city agencies."
City information technology director Gordon Bruce said the city is working on various high-tech options for improving communications in the future.
Bruce said $2 million was spent last fiscal year on repairs, with $2 million more in the current fiscal year's budget, leaving $21 million more to be spent. Bruce said one tower on Palehua Ridge above Makakilo was in such bad shape that the maintenance crews refused to climb it.
But he added that the system is designed so that the loss of one tower would not hurt a particular geographic area, because the rest of the system can take over if one part goes down.
Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.
