HAUULA, Hawaii (KHON2) — Living in rural communities comes with challenges, including limited resources, especially during a disaster.
A tsunami warning on Tuesday, July 29, gave us a stark reminder of that. But one group has been working on emergency preparedness with the Hau’ula community since 2009, and progress is being made.
Some of the issues Hau’ula faces, along with other rural communities on the Windward Coast, are power outages, which impact water access. Then there’s the two-lane road, the only way in and out of Hau’ula.
“Many, many people are in the flood and tsunami zone, so that creates a problem getting out of that area, and then where do they go? You know, that’s another big problem. So that’s why everyone needs to have a communication plan with their family, an emergency plan,” stressed President of Hui O Hau’ula Dotty Kelly-Paddock.
This is something that caregivers should be aware of.
“The big additional thing that’s hard for kupuna is mobility. Some people don’t have a lot of mobility. Some people don’t have transportation. So all of those things have to be arranged,” said Kelly-Paddock.
Hui O Hau’ula, a non-profit run by Kelly-Paddock, has been helping kupuna prepare for emergencies before they hit. Thanks to grants from AARP and the Harold Castle Foundation, she said, they were able to purchase Starlink Internet devices and generators for the Windward side.
“This is an amazing thing to have, because you can actually have good communication even when all the power is down and everything else, and that is key. We learned that in Maui because that was a problem there,” said Kelly-Paddock.
Councilmember Matt Weyer, who represents this side of the island, applauds the work of these community groups and said safety is the top priority.
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“Because oftentimes when an emergency strikes, it’s going to be our neighbors that are there on the ground with us. You know that the first few seconds are crucial, and of course, increasing emergency response times. So that’s why we advocated so hard in our most region, recent budget to increase ambulance services on that side. We should see two over the next year or so,” said Weyer.