tsunami warning / As local emergency-response planners assess how Oahu residents got information and instructions during last month’s tsunami warning, Hawaii State Civil Defense is moving forward with an opt-in warning system that would send emergency alerts via text message to Oahu residents. Civil Defense officials say text messaging will fill gaps in the current alert system, as they overhaul the aging network of sirens statewide.

“People have complained about not hearing the sirens,” said Hawaii State Civil Defense Telecommunications Chief George Burnett. “That’s because our siren systems don’t cover 100 percent of the population.”

Burnett said Oahu residents will be able to sign up for a text-message alert system before the end of the year. More complex notification systems–similar to the emergency warning communications available to University of Hawaii students, faculty and staff–are already in place on Kauai and on the Big Island. Burnett said the pilot years of those programs were funded by the state at about $50,000 each. Both counties opted to continue the service with municipal funding.

“It could be as much as $1 million for Oahu to have a system like what they have on Kauai,” said Burnett. “Probably somewhere between $500,000 to $750,000, in that range, to have a hosted system including the ability to put out voice messages, text messages to cell phones, e-mails.”

Burnett said there are opportunities for federal funding via the Department of Homeland security, though there are no guarantees.

“Some of those funds, even if we get them, we don’t have the latitude to use them for this kind of thing,” said Burnett. “Some funds are targeted toward law enforcement use, and can’t be used for anything else.”

Already, though, a small-scale text-message alert system is in place on Oahu. First responders like police officers, firefighters, Civil Defense employees and other emergency management officials–as well as residents with special needs who qualify for the alert system–receive text message alerts.

“People such as hearing impaired and those in other types of special situations that make them susceptible would qualify,” said Burnett. “We have about 100 subscribers logged onto that system, but it’s not something where we can say, ‘Everybody in the world: Subscribe to this.’ We’re still reaching for such a solution.”

The department’s bigger project is a $21 million overhaul of the audio warning system, which entails upgrading current sirens and installing 140 new sirens for a total of 504 across Hawaii.

“We’ve got over half of that funding for that expansion and modernization in place,” said Burnett. “In terms of completion of that initiative, I would say 2015 is a general timeframe.”

In the meantime, Burnett said Civil Defense is working to add more protection for Oahu residents.

“Warning is a layered and redundant type of thing,” said Burnett. “Not everybody hears the siren but everybody generally gets warned in one fashion or another: radio, TV, sirens, texting. Notification systems work together. We don’t have the ability to be focused one-on-one with the public, so we keep the lines of communication open.”

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