abstract introduction methods results conclusion references
Undergraduate Category: Interdisciplinary Degree Level: Abstract ID#: 1147
The Resilience of Paradise: Hurricane Preparedness of the Hawaiian Island of Oahu Auroop Ganguly, Shahed Najjar, Joseph Schenosky, Itxaso Garay
ABSTRACT Today, hurricanes are becoming more common and more powerful; the likelihood of a hurricane making landfall in Oahu is ever increasing due to climate change. Even with the threat of larger and more frequent storms, a lack of preparedness represents the main determinant for a catastrophe. With these prospects in mind, we set out to gauge the preparedness of Oahu in regards to hurricane-born hazards such as high winds, rain, and powerful storm surges. We looked for points of weakness between five critical infrastructure networks that could, potentially, mean disaster for Oahu if these networks are not returned to basic functionality in the wake of a storm or if a cascading failure were to happen. Important areas of improvement were identified through this research, but we also found that changes aren’t going to occur quickly unless a hurricane forces that change upon the Hawaiian people and their policymakers. With this research, we aim to influence the creation of a more effective plan for a well-executed response to a hurricane in addition to generalizing our method of resiliency analysis to several different states and other pacific island nations.
CONCLUSION
RESULTS After intensive online research, interviews with officials from lifeline networks and critical infrastructure sectors, and analyzing the data from the survey conducted with a sample size of 101 residents, we were able to identify multiple points of failure in the overall resilience of Oahu that, in the event of a category four or stronger hurricane making landfall, could result in many lives lost and an innumerable amount of economic damages. Location
Communication
Failure of agencies to participate in exercises
Tourists
Dept. of Emergency Mgmt.
Education Location of Power Plants
Housing
Location of T-Lines
HECO
Dependency on Harbors
Civil Defense
Collaboration with DOT Grid weakness
Money Military
FEMA
Fuel supply shortage
Boundaries
Water boiling
Shelters
Management of wastewater
West coast
Red Cross
aid
Water and Wastewater Mgmt.
Fixed Bridge Communication/
Drawbacks of satellite phones Back ups
Lack of Training
DR Fortress
Cranes
HECO/DOT Collaboration
Continuous load paths
Location of Workforce
Highways
Lack of knowledge of the culture Lack of consensus on sea walls Albizia Trees Abundance of information, no action
Workforce location Geography of Oahu
Miscellaneou s Cry wolf hypothesis
Population of Oahu
Lack of knowledge
Confidence Lack of Swift response (Supplies) Large homeless population
Past hurricane tracks 2010 – 2014 (Pacific Disaster Center, Global Hazards Atlas)
INTRODUCTION
The fact that a major hurricane has never hit Oahu has played a substantial role in the preparedness and resilience, or lack thereof, of the people and the critical infrastructure of Oahu. Major changes in preparedness and resilience, with respect to resource allocation and disaster preparation, likely will not occur until after Oahu is hit by a major hurricane. However, there are steps that can, and should, be taken so as to minimize the immediate effects of hurricane-born hazards as well as to optimize the response effort. A major obstacle to these relatively small but meaningful changes is the overall lack of urgency towards resilience initiatives that exists within the government as well as within the population. For example, one project that was suppressed due to its perceived lack of importance was the initiative to buy steel cables that would attach the cargo cranes to the port so they would not fall into the harbor. That initiative failed due to those resources being allocated to more visible projects, which is indicative of the attitude towards most public resilience projects.
“
”
With Oahu, it’s not a matter of if a hurricane will hit, it’s when.
Yes
Yes, But Unlikely
Honolulu, the most isolated city in the entire world, sits in the center of the hurricane zone of the Pacific Ocean, yet has never been directly hit by a hurricane in modern history, although there have been many close calls such as Hurricane Inkiki in 1992. Our hypothesis was that since Honolulu has never had a chance to learn from their mistakes, it will be underprepared for the landfall of a category 4 or stronger hurricane. We intended to identify the weak points in Honolulu's lifeline networks, Including water, power, transportation, communication and emergency services, and recommend solutions based off legislation enacted in other hurricanethreatened places around the United States and the pacific.
No Unsure
1. Extensive preliminary research was done to prepare for this study, we focused on the critical infrastructure sector specific plans released by the Department of Homeland Security and used those as our guide as we further embarked on our study. 2. Our research study was more qualitative in nature where we took an extensive amount of notes based on our observations and the recorded interviews with several key people in the critical infrastructure sectors of Oahu. 3. We surveyed a sample of Oahu residents in order to better inform ourselves of the preparedness of the residents and their perception of threats.
1: Very confident 2: Somewhat confident 3: Not confident 4: Unsure
No
Yes
Unsure
METHODS
The graphs to the right represent the data collected from the Emergency Preparednes Survey (n=101).
REFERENCES Map of Oahu highways (jbcoyote.com, Oahu State Roads and Highways)
Hurricane storm surge inundation with 0 m and 1 m sea level in downtown Honolulu (Pacific Island Ocean Observing System, Hurricane storm surge inundation)
1. Communications Sector Specific Plan. Rep. Department of Homeland Security, 2010. Web. . 2. Emergency Services Sector Specific Plan. Rep. Department of Homeland Security, 2010. Web. . 3. Energy Sector Specific Plan. Rep. Department of Homeland Security, 2010. Web. < http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/nipp-ssp-energy-2010.pdf>. 4. Transportation Systems Sector Specific Plan. Rep. Department of Homeland Security, 2010. Web. < http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/nipp-ssp-transportation-systems-2010.pdf>. 5. Water Sector Specific Plan. Rep. Department of Homeland Security, 2010. Web. < http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/nipp-ssp-water-2010.pdf>. 6. Features of an Active and Effective Protective Program for Water and Wastewater Utilities. Rep. United States Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. . 7. Hwang, Dennis J., and Darren K. Okimoto. Homeowner's Handbook to Prepare for Natural Hazards. 3rd ed. N.p.: U of Hawai'i Sea Grant College Program, n.d. Print. 8. Transportation Asset Climate Change Risk Assessment Project. Rep. Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization, Nov. 2011. Web. . 9. Report on the State of Physical Infrastructure in Hawaii. Rep. US Department of Commerce, July 2010. Web. .
The Resilience of Paradise: Hurricane Preparedness of the Hawaiian Island of Oahu Auroop Ganguly, Shahed Najjar, Joseph Schenosky, Itxaso Garay
ABSTRACT Today, hurricanes are becoming more common and more powerful; the likelihood of a hurricane making landfall in Oahu is ever increasing due to climate change. Even with the threat of larger and more frequent storms, a lack of preparedness represents the main determinant for a catastrophe. With these prospects in mind, we set out to gauge the preparedness of Oahu in regards to hurricane-born hazards such as high winds, rain, and powerful storm surges. We looked for points of weakness between five critical infrastructure networks that could, potentially, mean disaster for Oahu if these networks are not returned to basic functionality in the wake of a storm or if a cascading failure were to happen. Important areas of improvement were identified through this research, but we also found that changes aren’t going to occur quickly unless a hurricane forces that change upon the Hawaiian people and their policymakers. With this research, we aim to influence the creation of a more effective plan for a well-executed response to a hurricane in addition to generalizing our method of resiliency analysis to several different states and other pacific island nations.
CONCLUSION
RESULTS After intensive online research, interviews with officials from lifeline networks and critical infrastructure sectors, and analyzing the data from the survey conducted with a sample size of 101 residents, we were able to identify multiple points of failure in the overall resilience of Oahu that, in the event of a category four or stronger hurricane making landfall, could result in many lives lost and an innumerable amount of economic damages. Location
Communication
Failure of agencies to participate in exercises
Tourists
Dept. of Emergency Mgmt.
Education Location of Power Plants
Housing
Location of T-Lines
HECO
Dependency on Harbors
Civil Defense
Collaboration with DOT Grid weakness
Money Military
FEMA
Fuel supply shortage
Boundaries
Water boiling
Shelters
Management of wastewater
West coast
Red Cross
aid
Water and Wastewater Mgmt.
Fixed Bridge Communication/
Drawbacks of satellite phones Back ups
Lack of Training
DR Fortress
Cranes
HECO/DOT Collaboration
Continuous load paths
Location of Workforce
Highways
Lack of knowledge of the culture Lack of consensus on sea walls Albizia Trees Abundance of information, no action
Workforce location Geography of Oahu
Miscellaneou s Cry wolf hypothesis
Population of Oahu
Lack of knowledge
Confidence Lack of Swift response (Supplies) Large homeless population
Past hurricane tracks 2010 – 2014 (Pacific Disaster Center, Global Hazards Atlas)
INTRODUCTION
The fact that a major hurricane has never hit Oahu has played a substantial role in the preparedness and resilience, or lack thereof, of the people and the critical infrastructure of Oahu. Major changes in preparedness and resilience, with respect to resource allocation and disaster preparation, likely will not occur until after Oahu is hit by a major hurricane. However, there are steps that can, and should, be taken so as to minimize the immediate effects of hurricane-born hazards as well as to optimize the response effort. A major obstacle to these relatively small but meaningful changes is the overall lack of urgency towards resilience initiatives that exists within the government as well as within the population. For example, one project that was suppressed due to its perceived lack of importance was the initiative to buy steel cables that would attach the cargo cranes to the port so they would not fall into the harbor. That initiative failed due to those resources being allocated to more visible projects, which is indicative of the attitude towards most public resilience projects.
“
”
With Oahu, it’s not a matter of if a hurricane will hit, it’s when.
Yes
Yes, But Unlikely
Honolulu, the most isolated city in the entire world, sits in the center of the hurricane zone of the Pacific Ocean, yet has never been directly hit by a hurricane in modern history, although there have been many close calls such as Hurricane Inkiki in 1992. Our hypothesis was that since Honolulu has never had a chance to learn from their mistakes, it will be underprepared for the landfall of a category 4 or stronger hurricane. We intended to identify the weak points in Honolulu's lifeline networks, Including water, power, transportation, communication and emergency services, and recommend solutions based off legislation enacted in other hurricanethreatened places around the United States and the pacific.
No Unsure
1. Extensive preliminary research was done to prepare for this study, we focused on the critical infrastructure sector specific plans released by the Department of Homeland Security and used those as our guide as we further embarked on our study. 2. Our research study was more qualitative in nature where we took an extensive amount of notes based on our observations and the recorded interviews with several key people in the critical infrastructure sectors of Oahu. 3. We surveyed a sample of Oahu residents in order to better inform ourselves of the preparedness of the residents and their perception of threats.
1: Very confident 2: Somewhat confident 3: Not confident 4: Unsure
No
Yes
Unsure
METHODS
The graphs to the right represent the data collected from the Emergency Preparednes Survey (n=101).
REFERENCES Map of Oahu highways (jbcoyote.com, Oahu State Roads and Highways)
Hurricane storm surge inundation with 0 m and 1 m sea level in downtown Honolulu (Pacific Island Ocean Observing System, Hurricane storm surge inundation)
1. Communications Sector Specific Plan. Rep. Department of Homeland Security, 2010. Web. . 2. Emergency Services Sector Specific Plan. Rep. Department of Homeland Security, 2010. Web. . 3. Energy Sector Specific Plan. Rep. Department of Homeland Security, 2010. Web. < http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/nipp-ssp-energy-2010.pdf>. 4. Transportation Systems Sector Specific Plan. Rep. Department of Homeland Security, 2010. Web. < http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/nipp-ssp-transportation-systems-2010.pdf>. 5. Water Sector Specific Plan. Rep. Department of Homeland Security, 2010. Web. < http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/nipp-ssp-water-2010.pdf>. 6. Features of an Active and Effective Protective Program for Water and Wastewater Utilities. Rep. United States Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. . 7. Hwang, Dennis J., and Darren K. Okimoto. Homeowner's Handbook to Prepare for Natural Hazards. 3rd ed. N.p.: U of Hawai'i Sea Grant College Program, n.d. Print. 8. Transportation Asset Climate Change Risk Assessment Project. Rep. Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization, Nov. 2011. Web. . 9. Report on the State of Physical Infrastructure in Hawaii. Rep. US Department of Commerce, July 2010. Web. .
