PDC: Supporting Hawaii disaster managers in exercise and event in the same week
Pacific Disaster Center is rapidly expanding its services to a global scale. However, a core part of the mission of PDC—which was founded in response to Hurricane Iniki, 1992—is the safety and security of the state of Hawaii. Last week, while participating in a large annual hurricane exercise, the PDC team was called on to support a wildfire on Maui that was threatening nearby homes.
PDC imagery was used to fight the fire. “We participate in many disaster exercises to better prepare for events,” said PDC Executive Director Ray Shirkhodai. “And as a result, our products, services and tools are regularly tested and proved useful during actual hazard events.”
Makani Pahili, Hawaii’s annual statewide hurricane preparedness exercise, brought together a wide range of local, state and federal governmental resources, including both civil and military organizations. PDC teams, along with hundreds of others engaged in the exercise responded to a simulated Category 4 hurricane, which killed more than 100 and injured thousands of imaginary people.
The exercise was held from May 26 through June 4, with the earlier days being devoted to preparing people for their jobs and doing tabletop exercises. On June 2, when the functional portion of the exercise began, PDC was stationed at Fort Shafter, assisting in the coordination of efforts that took place in many locations, including the Hawaii Convention Center, Oahu hospitals, military installations and PDC headquarters on Maui.
Just before Makani Pahili moved beyond tabletop activity to become a simulated exercise, a wildfire started in Kihei, South Maui. A Civil Defense representative called a PDC off-hours emergency number asking for an analyst to initiate contact with the Maui Fire Department (MFD). Imagery Analyst Rich Nezelek rushed to help, and created a detailed imagery map of the burning and endangered areas, incorporating predicted wind directions, topography and potentially imperiled infrastructure.
When he delivered the map to the scene of the emergency, firefighters immediately began marking it up with their plans of action. The fire continued for several hours, burning about 300 hundred acres of gulches and open space that day, but MFD prevented it from reaching nearby homes.
The fire could not be determined to be “completely extinguished” on Sunday, however. Hot spots and flare-ups in the area continued for a week, expanding the burn zone to an estimated 400 acres. Finally, in declaring the fire extinguished at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 6, an advisory released by the County of Maui said, “45 firefighters aided by helicopters, bulldozers and water tankers had battled the brush fire on difficult terrain to keep it from spreading to nearby homes.
It came as close as 200 yards to the nearest structure but did not require evacuations of nearby homes and no structures were damaged. No injuries were reported. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.”
As PDC’s role in national, regional and global disaster management increases, the Center continues to make a significant difference locally by supporting the vital work of county and state disaster managers and emergency-response personnel.