Hawaii Emergency Management Agency

Hawaii Emergency Management Agency

HI-EMA
Agency overview
Type	Emergency management
Jurisdiction	Hawaii
Employees	Approximately 70
Agency executives	Major General Stephen Logan, Director James Barros, Administrator

Hawaii Emergency Management Agency exterior

The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (HI-EMA) is the body responsible for managing emergencies in the United States State of Hawaii.^[1]

The director is Major General Stephen Logan and the administrator is James Barros.

The agency employs roughly 70 personnel focused on emergency management duties. HI-EMA manages a full lifecycle of disasters - Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, and recovery. Most disasters, and all major disasters involve these phases.^[2]

On January 13, 2018, the Agency received worldwide attention when one of its employees accidentally broadcast a ballistic missile alert to all the citizens of Hawaii, which, at the height of American nuclear tensions with North Korea, caused a statewide panic.^[3]

In August 2023, they were heavily criticized internationally for not sounding the sirens for the 2023 Hawaii wildfires on Maui. They are also known for replacing perfectly fine sirens and not maintaining their Federal Signal Modulators and SiraTones.

Prior to hurricane season, the agency organizes Makani Pahili.^[4]

References

1. "Hawaii Emergency Management Agency". Dod.hawaii.gov. Retrieved 31 August 2017.
2. "Hawaii Emergency Management Agency - Press Release". Dod.hawaii.gov. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
3. Cohen, Zachary (2018-01-13). "Missile threat alert for Hawaii a false alarm". CNN. Washington D.C. Retrieved 2024-04-27.
4. Weintraub, Adam (2023-05-03). "Emergency Managers, Officials Will Conduct Makani Pāhili Hurricane Exercise". Office of the Governor. Honolulu. Retrieved 2024-04-26.

External links

• Frequently Asked Questions about Ballistic Missile Preparedness. Archived 2017-08-16 at the Wayback Machine