Hawaii residents have opened their wallets to help victims of the Haitian earthquake, and the disaster also holds lessons about how to ensure that our island state can cope with whatever nature dishes out.

The leader of the Hawaii chapter of the American Red Cross stresses individual preparedness, saying people should expect to be isolated from the rest of the world after such a major disaster.

“;Because to the extent that you are prepared, then we'll be able to use our scarce resources to help others who couldn't prepare adequately themselves, like the elderly or the disabled,”; said Coralie Chun Matayoshi, chief executive officer of the American Red Cross in Hawaii.

Matayoshi, 53, has been on the job since 2003. Before that, she was executive director of the Hawaii State Bar Association for 13 years. Her earlier work as an attorney includes three years as a trial attorney for the antitrust division of the U.S. Justice Department in Washington, D.C.

Hawaii's 1976 Narcissus Queen graduated from Punahou School, the University of California-Berkeley and Hastings College of Law in San Francisco.

Her husband, Ron Matayoshi, is the director of international programs and of practicum at the University of Hawaii-Manoa School of Social Work. They have three grown children: Punahou alumni Scot, 25, and Kelly, 23, are both first-year law students; 'Iolani School graduate Alana, 20, is a junior at Santa Clara University.

In her limited free time, Matayoshi enjoys traveling, reading, baking, sewing and volunteering for a variety of causes. Volunteers, including the four-legged variety, are the backbone of the Red Cross.

“;We have 41 dogs, cats and rabbits that visit soldiers in bed at Tripler Army Medical Center. A lot of people don't know that,”; she said. “;We're here to serve the community every day, 24 hours a day,

365 days a year.”;

QUESTION: How much has been donated from Hawaii for Haitian relief?

ANSWER: As of (Wednesday), we've received about $123,000 from over 950 donors. This represents donations only received at our Hawaii office. It doesn't count people from Hawaii who have donated directly to our national headquarters in Washington, D.C., through online or toll-free hotline or text messaging. ... And we've been publicizing the national online Web site and national toll-free hotline because those are 24 hours a day, so I'm sure that people from Hawaii have donated through these means and we wouldn't know until way later on.

Q: That seems like a pretty strong response.

A: It is. It's amazing, the speed in which these funds are being raised for this disaster, and I think it might be because of the greater use of technology - online giving, and texting and Twitter and Facebook. There's an interesting note that in the first 48 hours after the earthquake the American Red Cross (nationwide) received more donations than in the 48 hours after Hurricane Katrina (August 2005) and the Indian Ocean tsunami (December 2004). Here we are, just a few years later, and the response is just so rapid. People are Twittering and people are seeing it on TV and they're reacting. The compassion is just turning everything to action so quickly, and that's wonderful, and it's a way to link the world together.

Q: Does the Hawaii Red Cross have a disaster team in Haiti?

A: No, we don't, and we probably will not, and that's par for the course in international disasters. American Samoa was considered a domestic disaster. ... The American Red Cross does have specialists in Haiti, but none are from Hawaii.

Q: What lessons do Hawaii disaster preparedness experts gain from the situation in Haiti?

A: I think there are a lot of lessons for Hawaii because Hawaii is not only vulnerable to lots of different natural disasters, like hurricanes and earthquakes and tsunamis, but we also need to worry about flu pandemics and terrorist attacks. It's not “;if,”; but it's “;when”; a major disaster will happen in Hawaii. And when it does happen, we really need to be prepared because of our isolation. Haiti has seen disaster relief efforts stymied because the airports were out. For us, it would be really a lot of isolation for a long time.

Q: So part of it is about being prepared to save yourselves?

A: Yes. Hawaii is not only an island state, we're an island chain, and each island has to be prepared. So we have nine offices: four on military bases, four on neighbor islands, and then our headquarters. And each of them needs to have their own community prepared with volunteers to help in a major disaster, and families and businesses need to be prepared as well in order to be able to survive and recover, ... because to the extent that you are prepared, then we'll be able to use our scarce resources to help others who couldn't prepare adequately themselves, like the elderly or the disabled. So it's really everybody's responsibility.

Q: The Red Cross responds to “;everyday disasters”; as well. What are the most common in Hawaii?

A: House fires. We actually respond to disasters in Hawaii every three to four days, but in the past two weeks we've responded to nine house fires, and it's been on almost every island. We've also responded to major flooding every year for the past three years.

Q: So every three or four days, there's some individual disaster?

A: Yes, and of course we also have to be prepared for the bigger ones. When (Hurricane) Felicia was going to strike (last August) we were prepared to open 47 shelters and we actually opened 10 shelters on Maui. ... We had to call down hundreds of volunteers. Sometimes they work at the shelter all night and then go to their regular job. It's really wonderful that we have so many trained disaster volunteers statewide. We have about 500 of them and they're ready to respond 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. They sleep with phones underneath their pillows. They get called down by the hotline of first responders, and they're at the scene of any disaster within two hours, ready to work 12-hour shifts.

Q: In those “;everyday disasters,”; what does the Red Cross do for the victims?

A: The intangible thing is to have a Red Cross volunteer who's passionate about helping even a stranger show up ... at 2 o'clock in the night when you are in your pajamas. The firefighters are busy putting out the fire. They don't have time to help the person that's lost everything they own, or a pet or a loved one in the fire. So our Red Cross volunteers are ... there to help emotionally, but also to make sure the family is taken care of, to have a place a stay, to replace prescription drugs - just to think of all those things that you wouldn't think about right away when something terrible has happened to you. We help them with temporary housing, first month's rent, security deposit, food, clothing, bedding, things like that. First the immediate emergency needs, and then we help them get more long-term help, from other community organizations or the government or their insurance company.

Q: How many people do you help each year?

A: We respond to about 100 disasters and last year helped about 700 individuals and we provided about 3,500 meals in shelters. We opened 13 shelters. But that's only disasters; we do a lot of other things.

Q: I know the Red Cross offers a lot of classes. What's the most popular?

A: We teach about 33,000 people a year first-aid, CPR, baby-sitting, aquatics, nurse-aid training. We even have pet first-aid, to learn how to do mouth-to-snout resuscitation for your pet. ... But the most popular, or the ones that people go to most, are the CPR and first-aid classes, about 26,000 people. We also have that free summer swim class that we've had for 45 years at Ala Moana Beach, and we've taught thousands of adults and keiki how to swim. This is all entirely volunteer-run by volunteer water safety instructors and lifeguards.

Q: Where does your funding come from?

A: We do not receive any state or federal funding for operations. This is one of the biggest misconceptions about the Red Cross. We are a nonprofit organization. We're not a government agency. I think that the reason why people think we're part of the government is because we work side-by-side with police, fire, the military, civil defense. (The American Red Cross) actually is chartered by Congress to respond to every disaster that happens in the United States. And that's 70,000 a year, or one every eight minutes, and Katrina counts as one. We also have a congressional mandate to provide emergency communication for military service members and their families. But we pay for this through donations. (In Hawaii) we need to raise about $3 million a year from just donations. We really appreciate our donors and our volunteers. We couldn't do without them.