New head is an old hand at emergency management

The new man at the helm of Hawaii County Civil Defense is an old hand at emergency management for the state.

That’s allowing a smooth transition for Ed Teixeira, former vice director of state Civil Defense, now called the Emergency Management Agency. He stepped into the county role of county Civil Defense interim administrator May 16, just two weeks before the June 1 start of hurricane season.

Teixeira, who served in the state office from 1996-2011, praised Hawaii County’s prior success with evacuation of the public from areas threatened by natural and man-made disasters, whether it be hurricanes, tsunamis, wildfires or lava flows. Indeed, county staff has had plenty of experience over the past several years.

The new focus, Teixeira said in a recent interview, is emergency shelters. The county has 32 shelters, almost all of them public school buildings, that the county can open as needed.

“The sheltering of our people and our visitors is a priority,” Teixeira said. “We need to look at where are we now on the status of our hurricane shelters. Has anything changed? There’s been some retrofit of buildings, have they been adequately hardened? Do we have enough facilities?”

Shelters are generally owned by the state Department of Education, coordinated by the county and staffed by volunteer organizations such as the Red Cross.

“Ed’s a dedicated person who worked here for many years,” said Galen Yoshimoto, spokesman for the state Emergency Management Agency. “There are a lot of things he set up over the years that we still use.”

Retrofitting an emergency shelter can be as simple as installing wire over glass windows.

Sometimes moving to a more interior room is called for after an inspection.

More shelters could be needed in specific areas as well. Two Hilo hotels evacuated staff and guests during the threat of Hurricane Iselle. Regions of the county seeing faster growth might need more shelters as well.

Teixeira is no stranger to the Big Island. An Army veteran, he has owned a home in Waimea since he was stationed at Pohakuloa Training Area in 1986.

That combination of having lived on the Big Island and having the state experience where he helped Hawaii County navigate a variety of disasters bodes well for his leadership here, said Mayor Billy Kenoi.

“We worked with Ed during Hurricane Flossie through the tsunami of 2010,” Kenoi said. “Every request that Hawaii Island made, he was accommodating.”

There is a lot residents can also do for themselves.

The county has purchased beds and blankets for older and disabled evacuees, but for water, medicine, snacks and basic essentials, that’s the public’s responsibility for the short-term until help arrives from the Red Cross and other groups, said former Civil Defense Administrator Darryl Oliveira.

He recommends residents keep a “bug-out kit” or go-bag ready, stocked with water, snacks, medicine and the like, in case they need to evacuate in a hurry.

“We’re providing space to ride out a storm,” Oliveira said. “Other things may not be readily available.”

Yoshimoto echoed those recommendations.

“The more people we get to be resilient, to be prepared, the better off we are as a community,” Yoshimoto said.

Oliveira, a former county fire chief, has retired, but he’s not abandoning ship at Civil Defense.

He’s been helping with the transition to the new boss, and he also plans to be around as an extra pair of hands during emergencies.

Kenoi said Teixeira and Oliveira “get along great” and make a great team.

“I couldn’t ask for better leadership,” Kenoi said.

“The people of Hawaii Island can know they have the very best in charge.”

Email Nancy Cook Lauer at ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com.