Latest / The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi / Jennifer Walter on HNL Alert, the City's new mass notification system

Transcript

Jennifer Walter on HNL Alert, the City's new mass notification system · The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi

0:14
Welcome to the One Oahu podcast.
0:16
I'm your host, Brandi Higa, and today is Thursday, April 10th, 2025.
0:20
And we're joined this week
0:22
by Department of Emergency Management Acting Director Jennifer Walter.
0:25
Jen, thanks for making some time for us.
0:27
Thanks so much for having me.
0:28
So we thought it time to get you on right now,
0:30
because the city just unveiled a new mass notification system.
0:33
So if you could tell us what is a channel alert.
0:37
So each channel alert is our brand new system that we're going to use
0:40
to send emergency information out to residents and visitors,
0:44
as well as other information on city services
0:47
that might be impacted, like water main breaks or road closures.
0:51
It's a system that people, need to sign up for, but it's totally flexible.
0:55
That's the great thing about it is that you can get message
0:59
just about the emergency stuff, the big stuff that's happening,
1:02
or you can opt in to those other messages I talked about, like road
1:05
closures or water main breaks or ocean safety conditions.
1:09
So the users really in control.
1:11
But the most important uses is emergency alerts.
1:14
But it has a lot of other uses as well.
1:16
So that's why we encourage everyone to sign up.
1:19
Yeah, I signed up when we made the initial announcement, and a lot of the initial,
1:23
notifications were on road closures.
1:26
So how would you,
1:27
I guess, advise those that signed up to set up their notifications?
1:31
What do you think would be most useful for folks?
1:33
Because, well, someone like me appreciates the information.
1:36
Maybe some folks would be like, okay, how do I opt out of this?
1:38
Yeah.
1:39
So the first thing to know is that the most urgent things
1:43
we automatically opt you into,
1:45
because we don't want someone
1:46
opting themselves out of a tsunami warning or something like that.
1:49
And so those decisions are kind of made.
1:51
And so we're not trying to alert you every time.
1:54
You know, there's going to be strong trade winds.
1:56
But it's really about there's a significant weather warning that's going
1:59
on. So the other things really depend on what matters to you.
2:03
So for road closures,
2:05
we rely primarily on HPD to send those out,
2:08
and they usually send them out about the road closures
2:10
that are having kind of big traffic impacts.
2:13
So if you're a commuter and, you know, want to know something
2:15
big's going on on each one, that's going to really tie things up.
2:19
I would sign up for those.
2:20
There's not a huge number of those that go out.
2:23
But that's something
2:24
you can always opt out if you feel like you're getting too many.
2:27
The nice thing about this new system, or some of the other alerts,
2:30
we this is replacing a previous system we were using called a channel info alert.
2:35
You had to send it to everybody every time who was signing up.
2:38
And in the new system, we can really target.
2:40
So instead of if you want to know about water
2:43
main break, and if you want to know that,
2:44
why don't I have water service today or that there's a conservation message?
2:48
Now we're just targeting it to people who live in the area that's impacted.
2:52
If you've entered your address, that's how we're alerting.
2:54
So when you sign up for certain things,
2:56
we're trying to target it to more what people want.
2:59
Same with, ocean safety conditions.
3:00
You can pick, what area of the island you're interested in.
3:03
And instead of getting, affected by everything.
3:06
So it's really simple.
3:07
When you sign up, there's a little checkbox if you don't want it, uncheck it.
3:11
If you want it, make sure there's a checkmark there.
3:14
And any time you can go in and update what you want to get notified about.
3:19
Yeah, you mentioned for those you know,
3:21
previously signed up for info for those that need to switch over,
3:24
what kind of things do they need to know like?
3:25
Well, they need to give their address or they need to give personal information.
3:29
What do they need to know?
3:30
So the one thing that they need to sign up, if they're doing an account
3:33
online, would be their email address and their phone number.
3:37
What we would encourage is that you put at least one address
3:40
in, because that way we can target messages to you.
3:43
If we're trying to just let people know in a certain area of the island, it's
3:47
not required, but it's suggested, and we actually suggest
3:50
not just putting in your home address, but maybe your work address
3:54
or maybe your kid's school address too.
3:56
So that if something happens in that area, you'll get alerted.
4:00
So that's really the basic would be,
4:02
an email address and a phone number so that we could send text alerts.
4:07
We also have the option
4:08
if you don't want to go through the process
4:10
of setting up an account, which is really easy,
4:12
it's just inputting some basic information and checking options.
4:16
We created a quick sign up option, and this just only gets you
4:20
text alerts to those urgent notifications.
4:22
So severe weather warnings, evacuation notices, things like that.
4:28
And that's just sending a text message.
4:30
So if you are not a techie person, if you know how to send a text,
4:33
you could sign up and you just have to type H and L alert
4:37
all one word to 888777.
4:41
And you'll get a little reply back saying that you're signed up
4:44
and you will get text alerts going forward.
4:47
So that's kind of the low tech option.
4:49
If you don't want to take the extra step or give other information.
4:54
Y you know, if I've never signed up for city alerts before, right?
4:57
If I wasn't previously, there all the info.
4:58
Why is this important and how is this different from like,
5:02
you know, the ones that everyone gets on their phones during emergencies
5:04
when it kind of makes that loud noise that no one can kind of silence in time.
5:08
Every time there's an emergency situation,
5:12
especially a disaster, you know, like we saw in Lahaina,
5:14
I realize there's just so much information
5:17
that comes at people so fast and there's so much misinformation.
5:21
And I've really realized that a key thing we need to let people know about being
5:25
prepared is to knowing what your trusted sources
5:28
are going to be and being tapped into them.
5:30
And this is really what that is.
5:32
It's a trusted source, first of all,
5:34
and it's a way for us to quickly reach people with what's most important,
5:38
just do all all the noise that's going to happen.
5:41
The second thing is, even if people don't sign up,
5:44
there are those big alert systems you mentioned.
5:46
You know, we can we have the ability to put the scroller across the TV or make
5:49
people's phone make that that noise, that loud noise and send an alert.
5:53
Those are really for urgent situations when lives are immediately impacted.
5:57
Many people take action.
5:59
The problem with those is that while they're effective
6:02
at getting your attention,
6:03
they're really limited in how much information we can give you.
6:06
For instance, if we send one of those ones that a wireless emergency alert
6:10
that makes your cell phone make that noise, we only have 365 characters.
6:15
That means letters to tell you what to do and where to go and how to be safe.
6:19
And that includes spaces and periods and all of that.
6:22
That's really hard to do, especially if you're trying
6:25
to describe an area that needs to evacuate or something like that.
6:28
And the other thing is this quickly kind of disappear
6:31
from your phone, you see it and then it disappear, saying what?
6:34
The things across the TV.
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What if we included a link to a map for more information
6:38
and you didn't get that web address? It's gone.
6:41
And so what this is, it's kind of like,
6:44
extra to those alerts.
6:46
We are
6:46
able to send it out at the same time, but it was going to stay on your phone.
6:50
We can include links, to things like open shelters
6:55
or a map to an area that we're talking about
6:57
where the hazard is so that you not you're not going to miss it.
7:01
And it can be updated in real time.
7:03
And you don't have to wonder
7:04
if the situation's changed because we can quickly send updates about it.
7:08
We can't make people's phone be going off every five minutes.
7:12
With those really serious alerts.
7:14
But this is a way to kind of
7:16
get real time information to people and cut through some of the noise.
7:20
It also will let us be more targeted.
7:22
You know, if we have a big emergency, like they had a Maui and the Lahaina fires,
7:26
we could set up special registration just for people affected
7:29
who just want to receive alerts about that ongoing response and nothing else.
7:34
So things like if someone's a visitor, we could set up a special quick
7:37
registration just for a hurricane that might be coming.
7:40
And then at the end of that, we don't alert those people anymore.
7:43
So it gives us a lot of flexibility to include people just in time
7:47
to target information to them.
7:49
But for me, the most important is it's a trusted source.
7:52
You know, it's coming from city government that's working
7:56
direct on scene with the first responders who are having to make these decisions.
8:00
And it's fast and it's it's going to be real time.
8:03
So that's why to me, it's so important.
8:06
It's not like you won't get alerted, but this is that extra
8:09
of what do I where my I go.
8:12
What's the exact area where there are resources to help me?
8:16
That's what we're trying to be able to include in these going forward.
8:20
You kind of alluded to it, the website.
8:21
And then you can also sign up for the text, the quick way, but what do you
8:25
what's the easiest way for folks to sign up?
8:28
I think
8:28
there's the easiest way and the best way, and those aren't always the same things.
8:32
Right.
8:32
So I would rather people at least get emergency alerts.
8:35
So really, if you're the type of person who's who's, you know, in your head,
8:39
oh yeah, I'll go to that website.
8:40
But, you know, you're really never going to
8:42
just if you're listening to this right now, send a text that says eight
8:46
channel alert to 888777 and then you're done.
8:50
Right?
8:51
But if you really want kind of more robust notifications
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because the text opt in is a little bit more limited
8:59
than the types of alerts we can send through the fully registered platform,
9:03
I would really encourage you to do that just because you can enter your address.
9:07
If we do want to kind of geo target things,
9:10
you can update your contact information easier, things like that.
9:14
Especially
9:14
you know, we just rolled this out and we were talking to other city agencies
9:17
today about other types of information they might have that people need.
9:21
So expect the platform to kind of grow.
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And being a full subscriber by going to each and all alert.gov
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will let you grow with it,
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and you can quickly opt into new things as they become available.
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Versus just the text only alerts.
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It's just really going to be those urgent emergency situations,
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which is still important if you're going to do anything
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that's that's certainly better than nothing.
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But we feel like, just the user experience is probably better
9:45
by going to HLN alert.gov and signing up.
9:48
You mentioned, you know, the interface with the emergency responders on scene.
9:52
And then even,
9:53
you know, up until this point, a lot of the traffic alerts came from HPD.
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So how does that flow of information work in real time?
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Is it HPD that's actually uploading to this alert?
10:02
Is it HFT that alert, you know, how does that work? Yeah.
10:05
So one of the things about managing a system like this is you have to be real
10:09
clear on who's in charge of sending what, because the last thing you would want is
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HPD send something out, and we don't realize
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and then we send something else out and people get confused.
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So, what we do is we went through the categories of alerts,
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and we've given, certain agencies, the ability
10:24
to direct message and the responsibility for direct messaging about that.
10:28
So anything related to the drinking
10:30
water system, Board of Water Supply has direct access to the system.
10:34
And those alerts are coming through them for HPD.
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They're sending the traffic alerts, Board of Water can to.
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Only if it's the traffic issues caused by a water main break.
10:45
But for anything emergency related, it's really coming through.
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Our department, the Department of Emergency Management, and the reason
10:52
for that is because most emergencies you have police, fire, EMS, all they are.
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And, you don't want them to have to negotiate who's going to send it.
11:00
And part of our role
11:01
is to kind of coordinate the information and push out the official word.
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So what we do is we work with their dispatch centers, and they,
11:09
will advise us when there's a need to send a more urgent emergency alert
11:13
and keep us apprized, of when we need to update it.
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The other reason that it's our department is because we have the access
11:21
to those bigger alert systems, like the emergency alert and the wireless
11:25
alert that interrupts TV and makes your phone make that loud noise.
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And, because we're the ones that do that, we want to make sure
11:32
that we're sending the same message out across all platforms.
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And one of the real enhancements of this new system we work for
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is that we're going to be able to send those really urgent alerts
11:43
at the same time, we send alerts to people who've signed up.
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Right now, we have to go into two separate systems.
11:51
The people who have subscribed to send the alert
11:53
and then a separate system to activate alert systems,
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and even a third system to activate the sirens.
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And so if you think about that
11:59
in an urgent situation, each of those steps is time.
12:03
And, especially if you're putting out messages in two different places,
12:07
you could potentially get inconsistency.
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And so now we're going to have one message that gets disseminated automatically.
12:15
If we need to use those urgent systems at the same time,
12:19
subscribers are getting it and the subscribers are going to be able
12:22
to keep it on their phone and kind of refer back to it.
12:25
So we feel like the speed is going to be really important,
12:30
in this,
12:31
an important enhancement that we're going to be able to give, to,
12:36
the people that need urgent information, it's going to happen faster.
12:39
And I hope, I think more consistently,
12:43
and just more so being more robust.
12:45
So that's kind of the partnership.
12:47
We designate agencies for kind of each category of message.
12:51
Ocean safety obviously.
12:52
Does the beach condition messages.
12:55
And then they're responsible for, for doing those for visitors.
12:59
What was the text number again?
13:01
So, right now, if visitors want to sign up, they would the probably
13:06
the easiest way for them is just to do the urgent alerts and text
13:10
alert to 88777.
13:13
What we would probably do if we have a really urgent situation
13:16
is set up a special temporary tax code that only lasts
13:20
as long as that hurricane does. Right.
13:22
And once the hurricane has passed, all those users will stop messaging.
13:28
And that's probably best for visitors.
13:29
But during day to day, it's hard to know.
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Is someone here for a week or two weeks?
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So we can't kind of temporarily register people and then wipe
13:36
wipe them out automatically.
13:38
So visitors, if they want to sign up, they can sign up for urgent alerts
13:42
and then just on text, unsubscribe at the end of their trip.
13:45
Text like, yeah, ignore it.
13:47
Yeah. It'll tell you in the text message you get,
13:50
you can text stop to stop the messages.
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So like if my family from Maui is visiting for a couple days,
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they could text that text, stop when they leave,
13:57
and then same thing resubscribe when they come back.
14:00
And every time they're on Oahu. Yeah.
14:03
And there's also the ability
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you know people create an account especially if you have people
14:08
that use multiple islands.
14:09
So right now Hawaii County uses the same alert system that we do the same vendor.
14:14
So if you have someone who travels back and forth, you can
14:18
and you already have an account with Hawaii County
14:20
to get their notifications, now you're going to be able just to add us.
14:23
And, when you sign up to you can set up quiet hours for alerts
14:27
you'll see when you sign in.
14:28
If you don't want to be notified at 10 p.m.
14:32
about something, you know, road closures, you can kind of set quiet hours,
14:37
and kind of pause alerts.
14:38
So that's another feature.
14:40
They're going in to do the full system.
14:41
If you're a resident and you spend a lot of time here, might be more helpful.
14:45
Just like I said, there's just more options in there
14:47
to kind of control how you get information.
14:50
Is there a way for folks to I know you're kind of going through
14:54
what this looks like and how to opt into certain notifications,
14:56
but where can folks find maybe more information?
14:58
And then, you know,
14:59
I've gotten a call recently from someone who was a little older who's not as savvy,
15:03
navigating the internet.
15:04
So will there be resources for kupuna to learn how to, you know,
15:09
do the full subscribe
15:10
and then how to get rid of some of the ones they don't really want to see.
15:12
Every day.
15:13
Yeah. So I think, a couple of things.
15:16
One is, if you go to a channel alert.gov,
15:20
there's a bunch of information there in addition to being able to sign up
15:24
just about what the system is, there's a link to an app, things like that.
15:30
That is
15:30
also a resource that if you don't sign up, the nice thing
15:34
is every alert that we send ends up on a public facing website.
15:38
So at any time, if someone goes to alert channel
15:42
alert.gov, you're going to see everything that was published.
15:45
And you'll also see that there's a weather section for any recent weather warnings.
15:49
So that's one way that even if people don't subscribe,
15:52
we can push those links out during an event.
15:55
One of the things that we're going to be working on, as we roll this out
15:58
the next couple weeks, is to really try to work with our partners
16:01
in the community that work with groups that might be, a little less technology
16:06
friendly, or maybe it's a group that, you know, we,
16:10
we don't reach when we kind of do these podcasts or something like that.
16:14
We want to try to put information,
16:16
especially in the nonprofits, in their hands
16:18
so that as they're meeting with people about other things day to day,
16:21
they can mention this
16:22
and perhaps give that hands on attention to help people sign up.
16:26
We're also going to be at the town halls, that the mayor is doing,
16:29
and we're going to have people there.
16:31
So if someone needs help signing up, we are going to have,
16:34
staff from the Department of Emergency Management who can help them
16:37
do that and opt into what they do or don't want on the system.
16:41
So that's another way,
16:43
to, come and see us and get some assistance with that.
16:47
Yeah, I like that you brought that up.
16:48
I know that you were at the first town
16:49
hall meeting, and not actually before each of these,
16:52
the department heads kind of go through some of the issues that might come up.
16:55
Was there anything you anticipated or you're ready to present on that?
16:58
Maybe the community didn't ask.
17:01
I know in the past, whenever we went out
17:02
to that community, it was kind of, you know, wildfire concerns PSPs.
17:06
But but yeah.
17:08
Those were kind of the concerns I would think of.
17:10
And a lot of it, it,
17:11
you know, wildfire has really been top of mind and evacuation has been top of mind.
17:16
In some communities it's also, evacuation routes.
17:20
And that's one of the reasons that,
17:23
we've been trying to look at technology in terms of communication,
17:28
and why Channel Alert plays into that is because we found that
17:32
it's really hard when you don't have, you know, a wildfire is not like tsunami.
17:36
Tsunami.
17:36
We have a set zone that we can do a lot of education on before
17:40
and tell you, you never know where a fire is going to happen.
17:43
And that's what people want.
17:44
A lot of time is certainty, and we just can't give them that.
17:47
For dynamic hazards like fire, we just don't know that
17:51
the route we might tell you to take today might be really unsafe.
17:54
And a wildfire, depending on how the wind is blowing.
17:57
And so the importance of being able to put information into people's hands,
18:03
not just at the moment when it's crisis,
18:06
but as things are developing, is really important.
18:09
And so one of the things that we've worked out that we're using
18:12
the system to enhance is some of our evacuation guidance.
18:16
So if there's something a fire or wildland fire that,
18:19
breaks out that, HFT feels like they're getting a lot of calls
18:23
about or is visible or people should just be aware of no action needed.
18:28
We're going to start messaging on that when they advise us
18:31
that it's reach that level, just be aware.
18:33
And so that's what each alert lets us do, is to send that out to people to be aware
18:38
we can't activate our big emergency alert and warning systems for that,
18:43
but channel alert gives you that early, information just to be aware.
18:49
And then if there's any threat that it's getting more serious,
18:52
any threat, we might have to tell people to evacuate.
18:55
We are going to
18:56
be alerting, a second level, which would be,
18:59
you'll see, kind of an orange alert that says,
19:02
you know, be prepared to act.
19:05
And, and then obviously when we get to the level red, it's, it's go now.
19:10
But we've tried to work out how to get people early
19:14
notice, early information and to include things like a link
19:19
to the area we feel that is impacted
19:23
so people can visually see it as early as we can.
19:26
And some of these fires, the reality is there, so close
19:29
to where they break out to homes,
19:31
we might not be able to go through this nice progression,
19:34
but we understand those concerns.
19:36
We have those concerns in public safety.
19:39
And so we're really looking,
19:42
on how we can put information out better into the hands of people earlier.
19:47
We're looking at how we work together behind the scenes to give each other
19:51
early, notice and to be more positioned to help us fast.
19:56
That's both internally within departments, but together,
20:00
and then we still have some of the larger issues that I know
20:03
communities are concerned about, which is, you know, alternate evacuation
20:06
routes and things like that, which, in certain areas, we're trying to work
20:10
with private landowners to see what's available,
20:13
to open up under emergency conditions.
20:17
Department of Transportation is working with Hawaii,
20:20
the state Department of Transportation on some, emergency access routes.
20:24
So we're continuing to work through the process.
20:26
So those are the kinds of questions, I expected,
20:29
that there's not good answers to everything yet.
20:33
You know, these are really dynamic disasters that are harder to predict,
20:38
which makes it harder, to respond as orderly as you'd like.
20:43
Everything to go and to preplan everything.
20:45
But we do want to promote this because this is a tool,
20:48
you know, among many that we're trying to use to make it better
20:51
for everybody in the community that might face, you know, that threat one day.
20:54
Yeah, I know
20:55
you mentioned Hawaii Island, but as you guys were getting ready to launch this,
20:59
are there other municipalities that use something like this?
21:02
And did you kind of look at, like, their best practices
21:03
and things that maybe didn't work so well in other cities?
21:06
Yeah, we we looked at a lot of different alert systems
21:09
because there's a lot out there.
21:11
And we also looked at messaging.
21:13
We really looked at some especially around,
21:17
wildfire and evacuation, the places that do it all the time
21:21
usually that's kind of where you start because they're very practiced at it.
21:25
And we really liked a lot of the messaging.
21:27
We saw from Cal Fire in California and then some of the other Western states,
21:32
that it was kind of simple and easy to understand.
21:36
One of the other reasons, Hawaii County really loved this particular system,
21:40
but they also have a lot of, non-government,
21:44
you know, users, around the state,
21:47
like businesses that might use it for internal notifications.
21:50
And one of the features they offer is that,
21:53
they can link different accounts they have together.
21:56
So users,
21:57
in the state, maybe your company and you use it for internal notifications.
22:01
You can set up your account to rebroadcast our messages.
22:05
So rather than you having to turn around
22:06
and tell your employees, oh, here's this hazard coming, you could decide,
22:10
oh, certain messages in this category,
22:12
we're just going to automatically have our employees get as well.
22:16
So we thought there was a lot of ability
22:18
to partner and scale, which we think is really important.
22:21
And so that was one of the other reasons,
22:23
in addition to it just being really a reliable system,
22:27
a lot of redundancy, if for some reason we can't access it,
22:30
we have, you know, 24 hour way to still send out alerts.
22:33
There are a lot of factors we looked at.
22:35
And, and this was the pick. So.
22:38
Back to town halls.
22:39
Our next town hall is tonight, April 10th at 630 in Holly, UVA.
22:44
A lot of issues, that could come up with that one.
22:47
Coastal erosion, emergency shelters.
22:49
What kinds of questions are you preparing for for that tunnel?
22:52
I think some of the things that you just mentioned,
22:55
I think they also have a lot of evacuation concerns out there, a lot of it,
23:00
some a wildfire threat.
23:01
But they also have considerable concern about tsunami threat.
23:05
Because it's just any area where you have,
23:07
you know, kind of one way in, one way out, really limited options.
23:12
It is concerning, you know, because they know what the traffic looks like.
23:16
And a lot of the concern that we hear, too, from that community
23:21
isn't just about the people that live there, but
23:23
they realize they have so many visitors there.
23:25
And a lot of what I've heard is, you know, we know where to go.
23:27
We've lived here forever. We know the back roads.
23:30
But all these people, you know, that come up for the day, don't.
23:33
And, so I think that's why kind of promoting this alert toward
23:38
the visitor industry is one thing, but also some of the other work
23:41
we're trying to do with the private landowners, we're kind of just in time
23:45
evacuation routes that we could open up that's ongoing.
23:48
But, it's a it's important issue that, the community raised out there,
23:53
and we acknowledge it's an important issue that we got to work on.
23:56
Yeah. So, Jen, we're already into April.
23:58
Flood Awareness Month just ended.
23:59
What kinds of hazards exist during these spring?
24:01
Once there were in there, what should folk be preparing for aware of?
24:05
What are their hazards? What's your message?
24:07
So you know hazard months are convenient tool to get,
24:11
you know, behind the curtain people to pay attention temporarily.
24:14
But, hazards could happen any time, you know?
24:17
I mean, we could have a tsunami threat any any time.
24:20
And those are the ones that really make me worried.
24:23
And so I think
24:25
people
24:25
having, you know, deciding what your baseline level of readiness
24:28
is, is really important because you know, what can't you live without, in
24:33
what can be a last minute action is really where I'd like to get people.
24:38
I'm always worried about flooding because those tend
24:40
to come up out of nowhere and they're a really,
24:44
difficult hazard because there's just so many vulnerable places.
24:47
It happens so fast, and it's just a real,
24:52
a lot of real impacts.
24:53
A lot of people aren't as insured as they could be.
24:56
It tends to affect areas where there's not a lot of,
24:59
shelter options and other resources if people do get displaced.
25:03
So that's always one.
25:04
But really, we're about to roll into hurricane season in two months.
25:08
And knock on wood, we've had a couple of years
25:12
where we haven't had a threat to remind us.
25:15
But every year that's the the one that worries me the most
25:19
because we are so vulnerable with, you know, how old some of our homes are,
25:25
just, you know, we have some minor flood, you know, events that are,
25:29
you know, closing roads.
25:30
Imagine what a hurricane is going to do.
25:32
And the way to stop that from being a catastrophe
25:37
day one is to have a public that's prepared and knows what to do,
25:42
because there's no way that it's not going to be impacted
25:45
one day, and it's not going to be really hard.
25:48
But until we can get the resources we need to do the full response,
25:53
we've got to be at a place where we can take care of ourselves and each other.
25:57
For that interim period when we are having
26:00
communications and transportation challenges and things like that.
26:04
And so everyday people can do small things to kind of get them there.
26:09
You know, this channel
26:10
alert tool, it's five minutes of time to either text or set up
26:14
and think about in a big hurricane situation as things are starting to happen
26:19
and you need that information of what's open, what's close, where can I go?
26:23
This is the answer to that.
26:24
It doesn't solve all the other problems, but it's a piece of it.
26:27
And, you know, there's we often look for a magic bullet
26:30
that's going to fix everything that doesn't exist.
26:32
This is a piece by piece, step by step process of getting better,
26:36
getting more ready.
26:38
That's how I see our work here.
26:40
And but that's how I think everybody needs to kind of take those small steps
26:43
every day, because the day it happens, it's too late.
26:47
We go into, you know, disaster mode and out of preparedness mode. So.
26:52
So that's the real message.
26:53
I think, is just this is this is one thing on your to do list
26:56
you could check off this month is a channel alert and then,
27:00
and then get starting, get ready for that hurricane season.
27:02
Check your kit.
27:03
You know, rotate your supplies, you know, go over your family plan.
27:07
I think those are going to be the key messages the next few months.
27:11
Well thank you.
27:11
Is there anything that we missed?
27:13
I don't think so.
27:14
I think I'll just say in closing, this is a great upgrade
27:18
to the technology that we have, to alert people and keep them safe.
27:22
But the technology is useless unless people sign up to use it.
27:26
And so, really, we need the public, to help us spread the word.
27:31
If you could, you know, repost on social media about this,
27:34
help someone in your family who might need help signing up.
27:37
If you have a,
27:38
you know, a company or business and you can tell your coworkers,
27:41
every little bit helps.
27:42
We really want to get people well informed.
27:44
And so we appreciate everyone's partnership and,
27:47
helping us make that happen.
27:49
And while the one on a whole podcast is about programs, policies
27:53
and announcements, it's also to get to know
27:54
the leaders in the city and county of Honolulu.
27:57
So, Jen, if you could live anywhere
27:59
in the world for one month, where would it be and why?
28:04
I think that's why I live here.
28:06
Oh, no.
28:07
Besides Hawaii, that's nice. I,
28:10
okay, I know, a few years ago,
28:12
my husband and I went to Bora Bora, and it is just.
28:17
I loved it.
28:18
It's the same time zone.
28:19
I can direct flight.
28:21
So peaceful.
28:23
So beautiful is the most lovely people in the world.
28:26
Wait. Someone else is paying for this, right?
28:28
Because that's, Okay.
28:29
All right.
28:30
For you to live there for my caveat. So yes,
28:33
I think that would be my month long choice.
28:35
It was, yes. My moment of Zen.
28:38
I would go back.
28:39
All right. Well, Jen, thank you so much for your time.
28:41
Appreciate it.
28:42
And thank you for listening.
28:44
Next week,
28:44
we'll be back with Mayor Rick Blangiardi right here on the One or Ahu podcast.
28:47
Until next time. Aloha.