Community Update: PDC’s Ongoing Support to Local Programs in Hawaii
Left: Mike Napier, Pam Cowher, and Jim Buika of PDC have coordinated and participated in several recent outreach activities (listed below). Right: PDC’s Glenn James provides a weather presentation to local students at the Center’s Maui headquarters.

As part of an ongoing commitment to Hawaii, the Pacific Disaster Center continues to support educational and outreach opportunities for local schools, professional organizations and the public.

PDC provides experience and expertise in all aspects of natural disasters, from response, to risk reduction, to planning through a variety of activities. The Center also provides Hawaii’s schools, planning agencies, and other officials with a resource team that is able to increase education and awareness statewide—especially in terms of how science and technology can be used to improve disaster preparedness.

PDC’s community outreach activities are geared towards promoting the application and use of science and technology tools. In turn, this leads to increased opportunities for science and technology education and employment in Hawaii.

Some recent examples of community activities include:

Education

• The Center participated in the Kamehameha Schools Maui Career Day at the school’s campus in Pukalani, Maui. The event highlighted potential career paths for Native Hawaiian High School students on Maui. PDC’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analyst Mike Napier presented his field experiences with the Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina to 25 students who had expressed interest in pursuing technical and science careers. Concurrently, PDC’s Project Assistant Pam Cowher provided hands-on demonstrations of GIS computer programs—both how they are used in disaster planning, and how GIS is a growing profession in today's technology sector.
• PDC’s Weather Analyst Glenn James provided a lecture on the “Science of Weather” to young students visiting from Kamehameha Schools Maui. The group was touring the Center as part of their school’s educational program.
• PDC hosted 60 local high school students for a day as part of the Maui Economic Development Board’s “High Tech Career Day.” These students were treated to a panel discussion by young Maui-based high tech professionals and also were treated to a series of briefings on topics including an overview of major PDC operations, dam break modeling and visualization, the Natural Hazards Atlas, and Indian Ocean Tsunami/Katrina field work.

• Mr. Napier was an invited guest speaker and presented, Asian Tsunami, The View From Ground Zero – Banda Ache at the Government Efficiency Teams' (GET) forum, “Planning for the Worst” at the Hawaii State Capitol Chamber Auditorium. GET is a volunteer, non-profit community-based organization. In addition, he was also featured as an invited speaker at the University of Hawaii-sponsored World Town Planning Day. Mr. Napier discussed approaches to conducting damage assessments in the wake of recent disasters. World Town Planning Day is organized by the American Planning Association, and highlights the role that municipal and other planners play in communities worldwide.

• In addition, Senior Imagery Analyst Rhett Rebold recently participated as a panelist and staffed a PDC preparedness booth at the forum “Surviving Disasters in West Maui.” Fellow panelists included the Maui County Civil Defense Administrator Gen Iinuma and the county’s Red Cross Disaster Coordinator, Anna Foust.

PDC’s community-based public preparedness partners: Left: Gen Iinuma, Civil Defense Administrator of Maui County briefs citizens on his Agency’s role during a disaster. Right: Anna Foust, the Disaster Coordinator for the American Red Cross gives a presentation on her organization’s role.