HHARP Community Meeting July 20th, 2017

PRESS RELEASE
 
July 20, 2017
 
Lahaina, HI -  WMTA ANNOUNCES SPECIAL SPEAKERS COMING TO PARTICIPATE IN EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS: MAUI ELECTRIC TO SHARE STORM RESPONSE AND POWER RESTORATION
West Maui Community Disaster Planning Meeting Scheduled for Thursday, July 20, 2017 at Lahaina Civic Center Amphitheater at 5:30 p.m. These meetings are free and open to the public.
 
With hurricane season officially underway, the Hawaiian Hazards Awareness and Resilience Program (HHARP) invites the public to hear from Maui Electric representatives Chris Reynolds and Kūhea Asiu who will discuss important storm response and power restoration efforts.
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“It’s our responsibility to provide safe and reliable power to our community, but natural disasters do happen and outages can occur, so being prepared is critical,” said Chris Reynolds, manager of system operations at Maui Electric. “That’s why we’ll be discussing how residents and businesses can make plans now to safeguard themselves and their families during this potentially active storm season. We’ll also be sharing how our trained crews respond to emergencies and the steps we take to restore power should a natural disaster strike.”

Maui Electric provides electrical service to nearly 70,000 customers on Maui, Moloka‘i and Lāna‘i. Reynolds oversees the company’s system operations area that monitors and controls the company’s electrical system 24-7, as well as reroutes power and relays outage information and restoration crews during outages. Asiu coordinates the company’s community and government relation efforts for Maui County.

The WMTA is working with the Maui Emergency Management Agency, The Pacific Disaster Center, and the State Emergency Management Agency on developing a customized disaster plan designed to meet West Maui’s specific needs. The isolation from the Island’s major hospital and airport, due to frequent road closures, fires and flooding, have highlighted the need for special preparedness planning.
 
The Hawaiian Hazards and Resilience Program (HHARP) is a series of monthly workshops, presented by subject-matter experts, to provide education for hazard understanding and offer tools and information resources to guide community mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery planning.

The current meeting schedule follows:  

• July 20, 2017                5:30-8:00 p.m. Lahaina Civic Center – Amphitheater
• August 17, 2017            5:30-8:00 p.m.   Lahaina Civic Center – Main Hall
• Further meetings will be announced.

 
For more information about HHARP and this event, contact Joseph Pluta at (808) 661-7990 or email pluta@maui.net. For more information on the Maui Electric emergency response presentations, contact Kūhea Asiu at (808) 872-3244 or email kuhea.asiu@mauielectric.com.