LIHUE — With the false ballistic alert message wreaking havoc throughout Hawaii last Saturday, Kauai’s mayoral candidates had the following to say about the incident.
County Councilmember Derek Kawakami said he was at the airport going through TSA when the false alarm came through.
Kawakami said he told his wife and friend that the alert looked real and it was directing them to take cover, so he suggested they do so. At the same time, Kawakami reminded them that, “this is the United States. We have the best military in the world, with a robust missile-defense system.”
The incident, he said, is a reminder of just how unprepared we really are in a situation like Saturday’s. “When you’ve got minutes to respond, you’ve gotta be prepared. Families need to know what to do and where to go,” he said. “The best way to mitigate fear and panic is to be prepared.”
Kawakami said he refuses to live in fear, but it’s unfortunate to live in a day and age when this is the reality.
“I have faith in God and faith in my country,” Kawakami said. “If you can overcome through that, you can overcome through anything.”
Lenny Rapozo, county Department of Parks & Recreation director, said he hopes safeguards that are in place will be improved so no one has to experience the same fear they did Saturday.
He said if there’s anything the county can do to help improve the system, he’d like to reach out to Vern Miyagi, administrator of the state of Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, or vice versa.
His first concern was for the people of Kauai.
“It caused panic and mayhem,” he said. “It impacted me both personally and professionally.”
Council Chair and candidate Mel Rapozo, in a statement to The Garden Island, said he can accept that the accident happened, but what’s disconcerting to him is the time it took to correct the error.
“They could have sent a blast e-mail to all the media outlets. The radio would have known and TV would have known,” Rapozo said.
When the error came through, Rapozo said he was stuck in traffic in Kapaa because of a car accident. He didn’t get the message on his phone, but his daughter who lives in Oregon received the message. She called him in a panic. Rapozo said he was listening to music on one radio station. They weren’t playing the alert, so he turned it to FM97, where he heard the warning.
“When I heard the warning, there was no reason for me not to think a missile was on the way,” he said.
Others who were also stuck in traffic began to turn around and head back toward Lihue, he said. “I could see people in their cars crying.”
Rapozo said he called his wife and told her to go into the middle of the house away from any glass. Then he called his daughter to tell her he loved her.
“This never should have happened,” Rapozo said. “The fact that it took 38 minutes to correct the error is a long time. I’m talking to people now who thought they were going to die.”
Rapozo said he hopes they fix the problem, because there’s no way the alert should go off unless it’s real. There should be something that takes away the chance of pushing the button, he said.
“I believe the missile was on the way,” he said.
Even so, he said he wasn’t as frightened about it as some people were, because he believes in our military and said we have a great missile-defense system.
Nepotism? Affirmative Action? Blue State Gone Rogue?
This has been a wonderful experience hearing the words of our next potential leader of KAUAI.
Derek, while you have faith in our military, let me remind you that you may have also had blind faith in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy…the US lost the 1st war in KOREA, then lost in VIETNAM, then IRAQ (we’re still there), then PAKISTAN, we are still in AFGHANISTAN, AND SYRIA, and how many more countries they have not informed us of…like Yemen and Iran?
And while you’re faithfully going to depend on God, it didn’t protect the innocent civilians from the atomic bombs in 2 cities at the end of World War 2, nor the millions killed since then in all wars before and after.
Derek, you say we have the best military in the world, tested often, but not proven in over 70 years. Are you and millions of Americans suffering from THE ILLUSION OF INVINCIBILITY, a dangerous illusion considering the lives of so many of us.
Between, the lines we’re hearing you say leave it up to Faith, blindly so.
Lenny, while you are HOPING there will be improvement to the safeguards, we the people Demand complete CORRECTION, NOT JUST IMPROVEMENT, we are talking the lives of our families and friends; and clearly those in place and in the Authority Chain above those people in place need replacement. Everyone involved in the Emergency System knew the system and yet did not see the flaw, the failure we met.
Better the federal gov’t should control the safety of the million and a half lives of Hawaii Nei instead of what and who we have in place locally now, how can local gov’t agencies possibly know about what is happening on the far side of the Pacific Ocean (North Korea) and their nuclear threat to Hawaii.
And Lenny you say we shouldn’t have to experience the FEAR again? How about not experiencing the Blast itself…how about prevention of a potential blast, is anyone working on that? All we hear are taunts and threats…! Is immaturity in control?
The article caused me to think you said the False Alarm caused you Panic, we the people prefer a person with a better leadership response to any disaster, real or otherwise.
Mel, while you can accept the False Alarm Disaster was an ACCEPTABLE ACCIDENT, we can assure you that most of your constituents do not accept it and demand it never happens again by PLACEMENT of capable and competent people in the Emergency Management System knowing the severity of their responsibility and authority.
Your recognition of the DOUBLE INCOMPETENCY with the follow up of failure to alert us all that it was an accident, taking 38 minutes, (thank you Tulsi Gabbard); but to dwell on the Stand Down as to the false alarm is akin to doing all same same while waiting for the “heart attack” after the fact treatment.
And your confidence in our military may also be unfounded, last night on the news one of our former top military people said 80% of our military planes are grounded in disrepair.
What’s happening with our Fed and State leaders?
Maybe we should have the illegal immigrants build the WALL FOR FREE, working 12/7 and when the wall is done give them a green card, and give the $18 Billion for the wall to the hungry people of North Korea to build a Peace Bridge between our 2 countries.
Mahalo,
Charles
Thanks for showing us how incredibly delusional all the “candidates” are….
News flash!!!!
This is not AMERICA and we are evicting all of you who are in collusion with the enemy who is the u.s. military industrial complex
The warning siren at Wailua Homestead Park has been broken for over two years so we never hear tests or tsunami warnings. While workers at State and County have been prompt and thorough at answering my email inquiries the process for making repairs to an emergency warning system appears to be flawed. Very slow delivery of parts and bid process for the repair work places the possible fix still several months away. While I applaud and see need for a bid system an emergency siren needs to be working 100% of the time.