Home >  Hawaii >  Hurricane Iselle - August 7, 2014+

Amateur radio operators responded to Hurricane Iselle starting Monday, August 4, 2014 at 7:30 am with an email alert. The Central Pacific Hurricane Center issued Advisory 22 on Tuesday, August 5, 2014 at 11:00 am HST announcing that Iselle had crossed Longitude 140 into the Central Pacific hurricane region. Iselle approached from the east, heading steadily west-northwest at 9 MPH.

The after action report for amateur radio operations summarizes the operations.

The operations was featured in the Amateur Radio Newsline. Audio Script Podcast download

Hawaiial Electric Company announces repairs to major damage as of August 22.

The time to repair for electrical/telephone service.

• Fri Aug 8, 2014 - TS Iselle causes damage along the Puna Coastline. 25,000 customers without power. 14,000 customers without telephone/Internet service.
• Mon Aug 11, 2014 - 3 days. 8,100 customers without power.
• Tue Aug 12, 2014 - 4 days. 6,800 customers without power.
• Wed Aug 13, 2014 - 5 days. 6,300 customers without power.
• Thu Aug 14, 2014 - 6 days. 3,800 customers without power. 2,500 in Puna.
• Sat Aug 16, 2014 - 8 days. 2,700 customers without power. 1,900 in Puna.
• Mon Aug 18, 2014 - 10 days. 1,200 customers without power.
• Fri Aug 22, 2014 - 14 days. Helco announces repairs to major damage completed. 200 customers remain without power.
• Thu Aug 28, 2014 - 20 days. Hawaiian Telcom announces 1,600 customers without telephone or Internet service.

Tropical Storm Iselle information

Information on Tropical Storm Iselle and personal preparations can be found at these links:

• Central Pacific Hurricane Center
• NWS Forecast Office, Honolulu Watches and Warnings
• NWS Forecast Office, Honolulu
  
  
• JTWC Graphic
  
  
• University of Hawaii Meteorology Department
  
  
• Weather Underground NEXRAD, Kauai
• Weather Underground NEXRAD, Molokai
• Weather Underground NEXRAD, North Hawaii
• Weather Underground NEXRAD, South Hawaii
  
  
• NWS WFO HNL, Surf Forecast
  
  
• NWS WFO HNL, Local Storm Reports
• USGS Hydrological Data
• Honolulu International Airport Information
  
  
• FEMA
• Hawaii State Civil Defense/Emergency Management Agency
• Kauai Civil Defense
• (Oahu) Department of Emergency Management
• Maui County Civil Defense
• Hawaii County Civil Defense
• American Red Cross, Hawaii Chapter
  
  
• Dept of Education Schools

Plans were underway with the amateur radio leadership of NWS SKYWARN and Hawaii State Civil Defense RACES and DEM (Department of Emergency Management) RACES to coordinate a joint net on the state-wide VHF Repeater system for passing storm information to the National Weather Service Honolulu Forecast office at HIG Building, University of Hawaii at Manoa campus, with supplemental traffic for SCD and DEM. The repeaters of DEM RACES (Oahu County) and SCD were linked using ALL-STAR VOIP linking to create a eight node repeater cluster of both State-wide and around-the-island repeaters for Oahu for reporting and monitoring purposes.

The repeaters linked from State Civil Defense

• 147.02+ PL 103.5, Mt Haleakala, Maui 9,769 ft
• 147.04+ no PL, Mauna Loa, Big Island 8,200 ft
• 147.04+ PL 103.5, Lihue, Kauai
• 147.06+ PL 103.5, Diamond Head, Oahu
• 444.325+ PL 103.5, Waimanalo, Oahu
• 444.350+ PL 103.5, Diamond Head, Oahu

and Department of Emergency Management, Oahu County

• 146.76- no PL, Mokuleia, Oahu
• 146.98- PL 88.5, Frank Fasi Municipal Building, Oahu

Big island operations scheduled for:

• 146.82-, BIWARN Mauna Loa
• 146.76-, BIWARN Kulani Cone is currently stand-alone
• 146.86- PL 100.0, Naalehu
• 146.72-, HSVOAD Mauna Kea

HF operations are scheduled for:

• 3888 kHz LSB, Hawaii County
• 3993.5 kHz LSB, State Civil Defense RACES
• 7080 kHz USB, SKYWARN (Monitor this frequency first)
• 7088 kHz LSB, State Civil Defense RACES
• 7095 kHZ LSB, Hawaii County
• 7195 kHZ LSB, Hawaii County
• TBD, DEM RACES
• TBD, American Red Cross
• TBD, Healthcomm

NWS SKYWARN

SKWARN operation are scheduled to start at 12:00 pm noon Thursday August 7, 2014.

Amateur radio operators should listen for the update from the NWS meteorologist scheduled for 8:30 pm, Thursday night.

Hawaii State

State CD amateur radio operations will monitor the NWS SKYWARN net remotely from work and home ready to provide additional assistance and relays of messages from SKYWARN to the SCD EOC. Operations is scheduled to transfer to the SCD EOC in Diamond Head Thursday, August 7 6 pm through Friday, August 8, 7 am.

Hawaii County

CERT operations will start at 12:00 pm Thursday. Operations expected on the BIWARN repeater system. The BIWARN link into Hilo is inoperative.

As of 6:49 pm, Thursday, commercial power to the radio repeaters on Mauna Loa is down. The radio repeaters are probably running on generator.

HSVOAD Mauna Kea Repeater 146.72 MHz has been turned on. Primary use is by HSVOAD and its member agencies including the local chapters of HSVOAD. Additionally, HCCDA has been granted secondary use on the 147.62 MHz repeater.

Maui County

Oahu County

DEM RACES activatig tonight (Thursday) 6p-4a – first shift—and 4a-4p thereafter until Monday or Tuesday depending on impact duration of the two storms.

DEM RACES is manning Red Cross HQ but are looking for radio volunteers for the following key shelters (Steve Levy point person). Volunteers for these key Red Cross shelters appreciated.

• McKinley High
• Kaimuki High
• Nanakuli

Plan is to follow SkyWarn protocol where they have precedence over the linked network. However, we will break in if an urgent DEM message needs to be passed absent commercially available comms.

Kauai County

Healthcomm

Healthcomm is not scheduled to activate, as of 6:00 pm Thursday.

Reminder

A reminder: Being prepared is a personal responsibility. Stock up ahead of time, and don't get caught in the mad rush to the store to buy stuff.

A reminder for the general population (and amateur radio operators alike) that the primary means of timely notification of an alert is via the NOAA National Weather Service Weather Alert radios.

Find out more by contacting:  rhashiro(remove this part)@hawaiiantel.net
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August 6, 2014. Updated: September 14, 2014

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