Hawaii Kai Strong: Working Toward A Prepared Community

A newly formed disaster-readiness group plans to meet with the Hawaii Kai community this month and next to better prepare residents for hurricanes, tsunamis, floods and earthquakes.

The information meetings are set for 7 p.m. Sept. 9 at Kaiser High School cafeteria and 7 p.m. Oct. 15 at the same site. Organizers also want to find out what people are interested in learning.

“The two meetings have the same content,” explained Rene Garvin, a Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board member. “We are just doing two different nights of the week to enable more folks to attend.”

Garvin, area resident Matt Glei and others are working closely with city, state and federal agencies to bring the community up to speed on emergency preparedness. Glei facilitates the new group, called Hawaii Kai Strong. He also took the three-day training offered by the city Department of Emergency Management and highly recommends it to anyone.

“We are just starting public outreach sessions to help Hawaii Kai become a more resilient community,” he explained. More sessions will be held in the future. The group also reminds residents of the destructive New Year’s Eve flash flood that hit Hahaione Valley at the start of 1988, when torrential rains overflowed a clogged canal to make Kahena Street a raging river.

For details, call 395-5406, email hawaiikaistrong@yahoo.com or visit Hawaii Kai Strong on Facebook.