Hurricane Lane and civil defense

[kalakoa]

They should just keep it simple

They should give us meaningful alerts with useful information.

Like which stores have run out of beer.

[geochem]

quote:

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Originally posted by Rob Tucker

"Hurricane evacuation shelters are a last resort option for residents and visitors who do not have a safer place to stay," ...

I remember when the DOE was building the new gym at Pahoa H.S. and I asked if the structure was designed to double as an emergency shelter. No, I was told. No one thought of that.

That gym only cost $8 million. You'd think they could squeeze a little seismic or wind load capability out of a budget like that. But that takes thought.

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Unfortunately, it is a bit more complicated than that... As with all Federal programs, FEMA's come with not only strings, but handcuffs. If you participate in FEMA programs (aka: are to receive disaster relief funds), you have to follow their rules. Among their rules are those requiring that official emergency shelters must be engineered and constructed to withstand pretty much any hazard just short of the end of the world as we know it. It seems that they believe that it's better to have no shelter at all, than have one that only works most of the time... (might be a few lawyers involved in the instances that they don't). Our legislators have too many other things to spend our tax dollars on and haven't seen fit to appropriate the (substantial) added funds that are required to upgrade existing buildings or build new buildings to the required shelter codes. That will only happen when a few hundred or a few thousand residents die when we get a direct hit with a Cat 5 storm that generates so much federal funding that we can build them with that...

[Rob Tucker]

well, there was no need for FEMA to be involved. As they said, they didn't consider the gym as a shelter. Meanwhile they spent 3x the going rate for a gym of that size. As a builder I can tell you the difference between meeting a code (minimum standard allowed by law) and exceeding the code is not 3x.

[knieft]

quote:

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Originally posted by kalakoa

They should give us meaningful alerts with useful information.

Like which stores have run out of beer.

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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RFmF3I9amto

Cheers,
Kirt

[knieft]

HPD is giving CD a go for their money with the title at least (from latest email):

AVOID Location for the next Timeframe due to Situation.

Is that the boilerplate template that they are supposed to fill in specifics for [Location] [Timeframe] and [Situation]?

Well, the rest of the notification did have specifics, kinda.

Thinking of cranking out a script for National Lampoon’s Hawaiian Vacation given all the great material...

Cheers,
Kirt