West Maui Disaster Planning Meeting, April 20

The West Maui Taxpayer Association announced it will host a West Maui community disaster planning meeting on April 20, at the Lahaina Civic Center Amphitheater at 5:30 p.m.

West Maui flooding PC: 9.14.16 by Brenda Brinkley Carpenter

The WMTA is working with the Maui Emergency Management Agency, The Pacific Disaster Center, and the State Emergency Management Agency on developing a customized disaster plan designed to meet West Maui’s specific needs. The isolation from Maui’s major hospital and airport, due to frequent road closures, fires and flooding, have highlighted the need for special preparedness planning.

The Hawaiian Hazards and Resilience Program is a series of monthly workshops, presented by subject-matter experts, to provide education for hazard understanding and offer tools and information resources to guide community mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery planning.

Dr. Gerard Fryer will be one of the guest speakers at the meeting and will present on Tsunami Basics, Detection, Warning & Response. The other speaker will be General Bruce Oliviera, Community Programs Director, State Department of Defense.

Dr. Fryer worked as a researcher in geophysics at UH Mānoa when warnings in 1986 and 1994 introduced him to tsunamis. Within a few years he was appointed tsunami adviser, first to the City & County of Honolulu, then to Hawaiʻi Emergency Management Agency. After the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, he moved to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center where he recently retired as the senior geophysicist. He also serves on the Hawaiʻi Earthquake and Tsunami Advisory Committee.

The current meeting schedule follows:

· April 20 5:30-8 p.m. Lahaina Civic Center – Amphitheater
· May 18 5:30-8 p.m. Lahaina Civic Center – Amphitheater
· Further meetings will be announced.

These meetings are free and open to the public. There is parking for the Lahaina Amphitheater by the District Courthouse adjacent to the Entry Gate.

More Information on WMTA and Disaster Preparedness can be found here.