Hawaii County Civil Defense requesting new emergency operations center for 24-hour monitoring

HONOLULU (KHON2) — From tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and hurricanes, Hawaii Island has seen its fair share of natural disasters. During emergencies, the emergency operation center in Hilo is the brain where heads of all County departments gather to call the shots.

However, with an aging facility built back in 1992 and newly repaired infrastructure that was failing, the Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency is requesting a new EOC.

Officials said, day-to-day operations are fine, but when it goes into activation, it’s a different story.

“When we activate, which seems like we activate quite a bit, it’s just maxed out,” said Talmadge Magno, Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency Administrator.

The Civil Defense Agency is asking for $500,000 from the Hawaii County Council for the design of a new facility.

Officials said this expansion will include a “warning point operation” that will allow the agency to monitor emergency calls 24 hours a day. Currently, each county has a warning point operation through its police dispatch, but Civil Defense said creating one of their own would speed up the response.

“Recognizing that police dispatches are busy with their normal work, with 911 calls, all their responding and taking calls, working with officers, we need to incorporate that back into Civil Defense or emergency management,” Magno said.

With emergency response top of mind for officials following the Maui wildfires, Hawaii County councilmembers said they are in support of this request.

“This is one way we are able to invest in ensuring that the Civil Defense Agency is equipped to respond to all of the future disasters we are going to be anticipating,” said Ashley Kierkiewicz, Hawaii County Councilmember.

“Supporting Civil Defense and their efforts to ensure that we have effective communication happening during events and we can provide quick response, it’s broadly supported by the Council,” said Heather Kimball, Hawaii County Council Chair.

While funding is still in the works for the project…the Civil Defense Agency hopes to see this request become a reality to better serve Hawaii Island during emergencies.

“This is one other aspect so we can get immediate messages out to people so they know what to do. We encourage people to have their plans, but they need to be alerted on when to put their plans into motion,” said Magno.

The Hawaii County Council said it’ll look into securing grants or federal funding to support the Civil Defense’s request.