Waikoloa evacuation study questioned at meeting
Fears of mass wildfire fatalities in Waikoloa Village boiled over on Tuesday during a community meeting held to discuss evacuation routes after a 200-acre blaze sparked at the edge of the community last week caused partial evacuations and left residents on-edge.
Read more NBA commissioner Adam Silver defends second apron, says the system is fair
Fears of mass wildfire fatalities in Waikoloa Village boiled over on Tuesday during a community meeting held to discuss evacuation routes after a 200-acre blaze sparked at the edge of the community last week caused partial evacuations and left residents on-edge.
Held at the Waikoloa Village Association Golf Banquet Room, the meeting was originally billed as a presentation of a study by consulting firm KLD Associates about potential traffic evacuation improvements, but quickly devolved into shouting matches between “terrified” residents and Hawaii County officials struggling to maintain order.
“Don’t be argumentative with a community that is terrified for our lives,” one agitated attendee said. “We are scared that we are going to burn to death in a fire … let us express our emotions, please!”
The tense back and forth swelled to the point that one county official in attendance threatened to stop the meeting, saying “I’m not the one yelling.”
“Go for it, and see how that goes for your boss,” another attendee snarled, referring to Mayor Kimo Alameda.
The Waikoloa Village Evacuation Traffic Study was contracted by the Civil Defense Agency last year in an attempt to improve emergency planning, identify ways to shorten evacuation timetables, guide future development projects, and provide “data-driven justification” for building more access roads. It was informed by a survey completed by 501 households.
Lack of adequate emergency roads has been a perennial grievance in the village, earning it the nickname “world’s largest cul-de-sac” with only one way in and out for roughly 7,000 full-time residents: Waikoloa Road.
These concerns have grown to the point of locals demanding the county include funds in annual capital improvement project budgets to design what advocates are calling the “Waikoloa Second Road.”
Without built-out escape routes, village resident and fire safety advocate Matt Chalker recently told the Tribune-Herald he had “no doubt” that if the community experienced a conflagration on the scale of the 2023 Lahaina Fire on Maui, “more than a thousand people will die.” The charging, wind-driven blaze consumed the historic fishing town on Aug. 8 and killed at least 102 people, more than a dozen of whom burned to death inside their vehicles while trying to flee.
Wildfire danger has loomed large over the village since 2021, when firefighters battled the Mana Road Fire for five days from July 30 to Aug. 3. At its peak, roughly 140 fire personnel were on the ground fighting aggressive, runaway flame fronts burning along the northern and eastern slopes of Maunakea.
It took a massive multiagency response including local, state, federal, military and private efforts — including the use of Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters — before the conflagration was contained, but not before 40,000 acres were scorched.
A mandatory evacuation order for Waikoloa Village was issued on Aug. 1, 2021, around noon by Civil Defense after the rapidly moving fire jumped across Highway 190 and advanced closer to the community.
Thousands of residents attempted to flee via Waikoloa Road after the order went out, only to get stuck in traffic for hours while smoke billowed overhead.
Some relief came in the county’s opening of the steep, winding one-lane emergency evacuation route — which is gated off year-round — connecting Hulu Street to Queen Ka‘ahumanu Highway, also known as Highway 19 or simply “Queen K.” Since then, the county has held regular voluntary evacuation drills using the route known as the “Hulu Holoholo.”
During Tuesday’s meeting, KLD Associates’ Program Director of Evacuation and Emergency Planning Rebecca Cohen presented study results, which found that it would take roughly four and a half hours to fully evacuate the village.
“(That’s) quite some time,” Cohen said. “That does not mean when you get in your car, you’re going to sit in your car for four hours and 35 minutes. That’s how long it takes for the last vehicle to exit the area being evacuated.”
Read more Records were set for June rainfall
She said at the busiest point of a hypothetical evacuation, it would take individuals between 35 minutes and one hour on average to get to safety.
“That’s peak,” she said. “That’s your worst-case scenario. That’s if you leave at the very worst time.”
Disgruntled attendees pushed back on this estimate, saying they had “lived this situation” and that it took significantly longer to get out.
“The village — this community — has been evacuated three times,” one resident said. “In 2021, we all experienced it, and there was longer than one hour wait for many people. So, when you put the thing on the screen that says that the longest wait expected for anyone is one hour, you’re going to lose most of this room because a lot of people — when the (village) population was lower — already experienced worse traffic.”
The resident then asked whether the study included traffic from the nearby Waikoloa beaches and resort area, which could also be evacuated under serious enough conditions.
Cohen said the model assumed roughly half of residents in that area would also be escaping along Highway 19.
“So, your model’s false,” another attendee claimed. “That’s the answer to this question: This whole traffic study is wrong. You did it wrong. They didn’t give you the proper parameters for your study … that’s not on you, that’s on the county for not giving you any correct information.”
At this, the room erupted into more incomprehensible shouting, with one county official attempting to rein in the crowd.
“Okay, you people need to just settle down — just calm down,” he said. “The study is the study.”
The conversation eventually veered from the study’s findings to the county response to last Friday’s fire, which started around 4:20 p.m. south of Waikoloa Road. It skirted against the village before shifting winds and an aggressive Hawaii Fire Department response kept flames out of developed areas.
Containment lines held, and the partial evacuation order was lifted by 7:15 that night, with no reports of injuries or structural damage.
“What upset me was that my phone didn’t ding to tell me there was a fire in the village until 5:01,” one resident said. “All that time — 4:20, that fire was burning. And at 5:01 the county let me know, and that’s to me unacceptable.”
According to a county press release issued Wednesday, construction of a third evacuation route for the village in addition to Hulu Street and Waikoloa Road is scheduled to start this week. The project is a partnership between the county and state Department of Transportation.
“This evacuation route will provide a third way out during a disaster and reflects our commitment to public safety,” Alameda said in the release. “I want to thank the Department of Transportation and private landowners for working with us to get this done.”
Funding for the evacuation traffic study was provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development through a Community Development Block Grant for hazard mitigation.
Email Stefan Verbano at [email protected].
