Senate Democrats Advance Natural Disaster Preparedness Bills
As the entire nation continues to heal from the devastating aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Senate Democrats have taken the lessons learned from the hurricanes and pushed through legislation to better prepare Hawaii in the event of a natural disaster. The Senate Committees on Education and Military Affairs and Transportation and Government Operations advanced three disaster preparedness bills on February 16th.
SB 2214 - Establishes hurricane resistant building code for state buildings; requires developers to install siren warning devices in developments; provides wind resistant devices income tax credit; establishes rebuttal presumption in favor of undergrounding utilities in tsunami-prone areas; clarifies governor’s duties in deploying national guard; allocates funds from FY06 to establish emergency cache; prohibits profiteering and price gouging; creates residential disaster assistance special fund; requires director of civil defense to develop a disaster preparedness emergency shelter plan that provides adequate emergency shelter for residents and visitors.
SB 2955 - Requires health care facilities and nursing homes subject to licensing or certification by the DOH to file a disaster preparedness plan with the DOH; mandates the HCDCH to coordinate efforts with the counties to identify places for temporary emergency shelters for homeless individuals and families; authorizes the issuance of general obligation bonds to fund retrofit of public school buildings to enable them to be used as emergency shelters; appropriates funds to retrofit existing and construct new emergency shelters, operate shelters on a 24/7 basis, upgrade civil defense communication systems, conduct an education and awareness campaign; makes appropriations for emergency shelters.
SB2569 - Ratifies the Emergency Management Assistance Compact and allows Hawaii to become a member.