Project Impact - Hawaii

Project Impact brings communities together to take actions that prepare for and protect themselves against natural disasters in a collaborative effort.

Mitigation Activities:

1. Identify and build partnerships with local businesses and agencies;
2. Complete a hazard mitigation survey and plan for the entire island;
3. Conduct a community disaster education and preparedness program;
4. Enhance the island-wide communication and warning system;
5. Complete an energy management program.

Adoption of the New Building Codes

The County of Hawaii has adopted the 1991 Uniform Building Code (UBC). These codes are the government's official statement on building safety. Properly designing or retrofitting your home to comply with the most recent UBC, helps to protect your home or business.

State Civil Defense

Responsibility of all disasters or major crises in the State of Hawaii begins at the county level. As the disaster or crisis develops, the Hawaii State Civil Defense System provides operational infrastructure and procedures to apply additional resources to meet the demands of the emergency from all appropriate levels of government.

Mitigation Activities:

1. Community education programs conducted by the University of Hawaii at Hilo's Outreach Program.

Center for the Study of Active Volcanoes

The Center for the Study of Active Volcanoes (CSAV) is located on the Big Island of Hawai'i, and operates out of the University of Hawai'i at Hilo. CSAV is a training and outreach program established by the Hawaii State Legislature in 1989.

Mitigation Activities:

1. Conducts public symposiums at the University of Hawaii at Hilo to discuss impacts of natural hazards, mitigation measures, and policy/warning systems.
2. Plans symposia for teachers for credit.
3. Conducts presentations to 4th and 6th grade classes and community associations on earthquake preparedness.

The Pacific Tsunami Museum

The mission of the Pacific Tsunami Museum is to promote public tsunami education for the people of Hawaii and the Pacific Region.

Mitigation Activities:

1. Promote public safety by providing important tsunami education programs;
2. Encourage cultural preservation by recording local history and the oral histories of tsunami survivors;
3. Provide statewide out-reach programs that will travel to schools, libraries, and other museums;
4. Foster national and international tsunami research;
5. Provide the public with access to current tsunami research;
6. Furnish the scientific community with a repository to store valuable documents related to tsunamis;
7. Provide residents with a place of honor to pay tribute to those who lost their lives in past tsunamis.

National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program

A State/Federal partnership created to reduce the impacts of tsunamis to U.S. Coastal areas of Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington with the federal activities of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the U.S. Geological Society.

Mitigation activities:

1. Providing Hawaii with $50,000 for tsunami mitigation
2. Raising public awareness of tsunami hazards and mitigation (video, publications, support existing outreach programs)
3. Supporting meetings and projects of a Hawaii Tsunami Group
4. Miscellaneous (supplement equipment cost to permit airing video broadcast, supplement cost of building revetment wall)