Council committee hears multi‑agency after‑action on July tsunami warning; traffic, maps and public messaging cited as top issues

City and county officials told the Honolulu City Council Public Safety and Economic Committee on Sept. 25 that, while key objectives in the July 29 tsunami advisory were met, a range of operational and communications problems need follow‑up.

Randall Collins, director of the Department of Emergency Management, said the city accomplished its principal goals of moving people out of the most at‑risk zones before the first expected impacts, getting public warning messages out, and prepositioning life‑safety resources. Collins described an "open bridge" of communication with the state during the event and credited frequent, rapid messaging for preventing more widespread harm. "We were pretty much on an open bridge with [state agencies] the entire event," he said.

But Collins and other agency heads outlined a set of constraints and lessons learned. DEM emphasized that tsunami science leaves uncertainty about where and how large waves will be and noted two complicating factors for planning: short‑notice local tsunamis (30–60 minutes of warning) and long‑distance tsunamis that provide hours for movement but may prompt people to drive — creating road congestion that blocks responders. The agency said the event’s timing during evening commute hours amplified gridlock and complicated evacuations.

HPD’s Major Clifford Grama described tactical responses: activating the Department Operations Center and the department’s templates for evacuation and traffic control; assigning officers to traffic management and to fill "siren gaps"; and using the Joint Traffic Management Center (JTMC) for real‑time coordination. Grama said standing up roadblocks and checkpoints proved difficult where traffic was already jammed. "There was no way we could set up traffic checkpoints or roadblocks, and the traffic was absolutely at a standstill," he said. He also identified an information gap around the state decision to open a military overpass, which HPD first learned of from media reports rather than directly from the agency that opened it.

The Honolulu Fire Department said 16 fire stations required preemptive evacuation and staging to maintain operational readiness; it recommended joint tsunami‑specific exercises and clearer guidance on tsunami and "extreme tsunami" zones to reduce inconsistent interpretation across agencies. The Department of Transportation Services (DTS) said signal‑timing changes and JTMC coordination helped move traffic but that many roads reached unprecedented congestion; DTS also said transit and Skyline offered options for sheltering riders but questioned whether the public received those messages.

Several council members and public commenters criticized inconsistent maps across federal, state and city sources and urged DEM to provide a clear, single source of truth for residents. Council Member Kiayana asked DEM to lead immediate debriefs with affected communities and stakeholders; Collins agreed, noting the department had contracted an independent third‑party after‑action report and had meetings scheduled into October.

Public testimony echoed the agencies’ findings: neighborhood leaders and reporters urged faster, clearer alerts and pre‑disaster decisions about vertical evacuation options for residents of high‑rise buildings and for people who cannot easily leave by car. Testifiers asked for clearer guidance on where residents should go: stay vertical in a high‑rise or travel Mauka, and which floors provide safe refuge. Several commenters urged neighborhood‑level exercises and better outreach to kupuna and other vulnerable populations.

Agencies said they will refine tsunami procedures, pursue joint exercises (including community‑focused drills), expand the JTMC’s camera coverage where feasible, and standardize public messaging through a joint information center for PIOs. The committee asked DEM to produce follow‑up materials — including maps and a concise flowchart of roles and communications — and to convene community briefings so neighborhoods and neighborhood boards can practice evacuation options and better understand vertical versus horizontal evacuation choices.

The briefing was informational; the committee did not take legislative action but asked staff to track after‑action deliverables and for DEM to report back when work products are available.