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Disaster-relief
By Susan Kreifels
experts see Hawaii
as model for Asia
Star-BulletinWhen a powerful earthquake hit central Taiwan last September, local rescue operations collapsed. It took four days for the central government to send help.
At least 2,400 people died and 100,000 buildings collapsed, and the Taiwanese vented anger at government bungling and shoddy construction.
Hawaii is playing a key role in helping see that such massive death and destruction doesn't happen again in Taiwan.
Cheng-chung Hsia, Taiwan's director general of urban and housing development, recently met here with 45 delegates from 15 Asian nations to trade what she considered valuable information on how to handle disasters. She also learned how the Federal Emergency Management Agency helps communities become more disaster-resistant, and how it coordinates rescue efforts.
She wants U.S. training and technology to help her develop central Taiwan as "an earthquake model for the rest of the country."
"We hope to learn a lot from Hawaii," said Hsia, who studied at the East-West Center 20 years ago.
Helping countries build such communities is a new frontier with vast economic potential, and Hawaii is becoming a major player as a meeting site and provider of information and technology.
Hawaii should "focus on this like a laser," said J. Joseph Grandmaison, director of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, which hosted the recent conference at the Sheraton-Waikiki Hotel on "Building a Disaster-Resistant Asia." The conference drew 100 companies, including seven from Hawaii, and put delegates and businesses one-on-one.
"You have technology readily available that's in demand in Asia," Grandmaison said. "All the countries are looking for it, and they want the U.S. involved. The timing can't be better."
The recent conference even drew FEMA director James Witt. The nation's top disaster manager wants Hawaii communities to be showcases for how Asian countries can cut loss of life and property from natural disasters.
Maui, Kauai and the Big Island have each received $300,000 in federal grants as part of FEMA's Project Impact: Building Disaster Resistant Communities. The program encourages public and private sectors to assess disaster risks in their communities and limit future damage.
"Project Impact could be the showcase for Asian countries," Witt said in an interview. "A lot of Asian countries look to Hawaii as a focal point ... on quality of life."
Maui recently held a statewide hazard mitigation workshop to look at how communities can assess risk levels, said Diane Zachary, Maui's Project Impact coordinator. A May 19 workshop will train businesses to do the same.
"We're looking at the whole education and awareness program for the community," Zachary said. "People become complacent."
South Korea, which is spending $24 billion over the next decade on a national disaster management program, has sent delegates to Hawaii five times in the last two years to look at the state's key facilities such as Maui's Pacific Disaster Center. The center provides satellite information and develops simulation models for 600 clients from 20 nations, helping them predict when and where disasters will hit. It contracts work to local businesses and researchers.
The center will co-sponsor the first international Global Disaster Information Network Information Technology Exposition and Conference this October at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. It's expected to draw 500-700 delegates from around the world as well as information technology businesses.
"A lot of nations and organizations are aware of Hawaii's involvement," said Sen. Daniel Inouye, who got funding for the disaster center.
Such conferences give local companies a chance to jump in with products and services ranging from mapping and engineering to insurance and construction. Dayananda Vithanage, vice president of Oceanit Laboratories Inc. who attended the recent conference, met with a Thai official looking for ways to ease flooding in Bangkok.
"By knowing what's happening in the hillsides," said Vithanage, who believes the conference was a good foot-in for his engineering consultant company. "That's the type of thing we do."
Joseph Lees, the Pacific Disaster Center's director, wants people "to see the kind of things going on right now in Hawaii. Folks here have the capability and are demonstrating it."
For more information on the October conference, check www.state.gov/www/issues/relief/gdin.html
