Nursing homes and other care providers in Hawai'i are expected to have evacuation plans, but people who look after an elderly parent or a disabled or sick child at home, or are frail and live by themselves, are basically left to find help and shelter on their own in a hurricane or other natural disaster.

With disturbing scenes in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina of the old and the sick left to die in their wheelchairs outside crowded shelters, or stuck inside as their homes turned into watery tombs, state lawmakers want to know what might happen in Hawai'i in a similar emergency.

Asked at an informational briefing yesterday by state House and Senate lawmakers whether people are at risk, Ed Teixeira, the vice director of Civil Defense, was candid.

"Yes, we are at risk," Teixeira said. "We've been at risk and we're working to reduce that risk."

The state has no specific count of how many elderly, sick or disabled might require help during an evacuation, but the chances that thousands might be trapped in their homes or shut out of dwindling shelter space is disconcerting, officials said. Lawmakers also learned that none of the 219 shelters across the Islands has been designated to help people with special needs.

A few years back, Honolulu optimistically hoped to have emergency workers or volunteers visit people who are home-bound as a hurricane or other natural disaster approached to make sure they got to safety. But civil defense officials soon realized there are simply too many people who might need help in an evacuation and, rather than raise expectations, they dropped the idea.

"It's a tough one to crack. But it's an issue we have to address," said John Cummings, the plans and operations officer for the O'ahu Civil Defense Agency.

The briefing yesterday was the second by the state Legislature this week to focus on hurricane preparedness after Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast. Lawmakers said they likely would hold another round of briefings in November, when more is known about Katrina's impact, and state and county officials have had more time to make recommendations for the next session.

Civil defense officials said they would work to identify shelters that could handle people with special needs during this hurricane season while a more elaborate plan is developed through the counties for the future. The state is short 124,000 shelter spaces — 60,000 on O'ahu — and the elderly and people with disabilities would likely have to share available shelter space with other residents.

State lawmakers likely will review whether to spend some of the $35 million civil defense officials believe is necessary to upgrade emergency shelters. The state Legislature has provided $2 million over the next two years for shelter upgrades, and officials believe it could take five years or longer to do all the work.

"New Orleans, for example, sat on their 'okoles for a lot of years and didn't spend the money that they had to in order to reinforce the levees. And we don't want to make that mistake," said state Sen. Bob Hogue, R-24th (Kailua, Kane'ohe).

Lawmakers also will consider whether to require new public buildings and private development projects to serve as or contain emergency shelters. Lawmakers heard yesterday that Kapolei High School, the state's newest public high school, which opened in 2000, could not be used as a shelter in a hurricane.

State and county officials will also increase their outreach to residents to be individually prepared for a disaster, from having enough food and water to survive alone for a few days to knowing where the nearest shelter is located if forced to evacuate.

State Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland, D-13th (Kalihi, Nu'uanu), the chairwoman of the Senate Human Services Committee, said she would like to see disaster preparedness elevated in public schools and at private businesses to help with the work being done by the American Red Cross and other nonprofit volunteers.

The Hawai'i chapter of the Red Cross, which would staff many of the shelters, has 3,000 volunteers and believes it has enough resources to complete its mission for a week without outside assistance.

"I think we really need to engage the community and tell people what they can do to take a leadership role," Chun Oakland said.

Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com.