KEKAHA — Armed with special evacuation backpacks containing water and snacks, more than 550 students and staff from four Kekaha schools participated in a tsunami evacuation drill yesterday morning. The schools involved included Kekaha Elementary School, St. Theresa School, Kula
KEKAHA — Armed with special evacuation backpacks containing water and snacks, more than 550 students and staff from four Kekaha schools participated in a tsunami evacuation drill yesterday morning.
The schools involved included Kekaha Elementary School, St. Theresa School, Kula Aupuni Ni‘ihau a Kahealani Aloha School and Kekula Ni‘ihau o Kekaha School.
After an alarm sounded at 9:45 a.m., students filed out of the schools two-by-two and walked a half a mile up the road toward Waimea Canyon to a “safe” area. The Kaua‘i Police Department and Kaua‘i Fire Department blocked roads to ensure safe access for the children.
Observers from the Kaua‘i Civil Defense, Pacific Missile Range Facility, the Hawai‘i Department of Education and NOAA were also on hand to help.
According to Barbara Bulatao-Franklin, chairperson of the Kekaha Elementary School Community Council, it took only 11 minutes for the first group of keiki to get the holding zone. The last of the students arrived 20 minutes after the start of the drill.
Overall, Bulatao-Franklin was pleased with the results.
“I’m delighted it took only 11 minutes for the students to get there,” Bulatao-Franklin said. “But in case of a real tsunami, we wouldn’t have the police stopping traffic for us.”
KPD officer Paul Applegate acknowledged that it will be hard for police to help with an evacuation in the event of an actual tsunami.
“It’s a given we won’t be there in time of emergency,” Applegate said. “But it’s good to know where you will be every step of the way.”
Jason Yoshida, principal of Kekaha School, thought the exercise went well but will hold a meeting on Monday to fully assess the evacuation drill and get feedback from staff.
NOAA spokeswoman Delores Clark filmed the evacuation drill for later use as a training tool.
“This is a good community effort done with good planning and preparation,” Clark said. “The fact the whole community supports it is something we can learn from.”
The purpose of the drill was to give each school an opportunity to evaluate each school’s evacuation plan.
Hanalei School Principal Corey Nakamura was on-hand yesterday to check out the Kekaha evacuation plan.
“We did our drill in November,” Nakamura said. “But I wanted to see the mass evacuation to see how the little kids did the drill and if it is something we can coordinate with the preschool.”
The evaluation meeting will be held Monday morning at 9 a.m. in the Kekaha School cafeteria.
• Rachel Gehrlein, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) or rgehrlein@kauaipubco.com.
