Makani Pahili Exercise Simulates Hurricane Scenario

Makani Pahili exercise. Search and rescue, and triage training. Photo by Wendy Osher.

Makani Pahili exercise. Search and rescue, and triage training. Photo by Wendy Osher.

By Wendy Osher

***Additional photos are available on our Maui Now Facebook page.

An exercise to prepare firefighters for a Search and Rescue mobilization and evaluate team readiness will be conducted today at the Maui Fire Joint Training Center site in Kahului.

This is being conducted as part of the Civil Defense Agency’s annual, Makani Pahili, hurricane preparedness exercise.

It is designed to provide a platform for partner agencies to practice emergency procedures using a simulated emergency.

The seven hour drill will focus on command and communication and victim rescue techniques.

The exercise will include disaster simulations, featuring victims trapped inside a collapsed building, car wrecks, and various other props.

Makani Pahili exercise. Search and rescue, and triage training. Photo by Wendy Osher.

Volunteers from the Community Emergency Response Team will be acting as victims to add realism to the exercise.

Crews will be practicing victim rescue, training in forcible entry, breaching walls, triage and treatment, and incident management. The exercise begins at 8 a.m., and will conclude at 3 p.m.

The 2014 Hurricane Season Outlook for the Central Pacific Basin calls for 4 to 7 tropical cyclones with El Niño conditions expected to develop during the summer.

Agency officials from the National Weather Service say El Niño conditions typically mean a more active hurricane season in the Central Pacific.

That figure is slightly more than the average 4 to 5 tropical cyclones recorded in the Central Pacific each year.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there have been 147 tropical cyclones in the Central Pacific over a 33 year period between 1981 and 2013.

The Central North Pacific hurricane season in Hawaiʻi runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, 2014.