SCR175

THE SENATE	S.C.R. NO.	175
TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2005
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

REQUESTING THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII TO PROVIDE A REPORT TO THE STATE LEGISLATURE REGARDING THE STATUS OF THE 2004 FLOOD DAMAGE.

WHEREAS, on October 30, 2004, a flash flood ripped through the Manoa area; and

WHEREAS, flood water cascaded through the University of Hawaii’s Manoa Campus, and damaged over twenty buildings on campus, including the Biomedical Sciences Building, Hamilton Library, the Art Building-Bilger and Keller Halls, the parking structure, and Klum Gym; and

WHEREAS, in all, power was interrupted to thirty-five buildings, with Agricultural Sciences III, Biomedical Sciences, Sherman Lab, and Hamilton Library sustaining enough infrastructure damage to require isolation from the main electrical circuits before the rest of the campus could be powered up again; and

WHEREAS, the University of Hawaii hired a specialist disaster remediation team to initially conduct an intensive cleanup in the four power-isolated buildings that eventually led to cleaning of over twenty buildings; and

WHEREAS, the primary clean up and restoration contractor, Blackmon-Mooring Steamatic – Catastrophe was on the Manoa campus for approximately three months and had a workforce of almost three hundred people at its maximum capacity; and

WHEREAS, the state insurance policy has only $25,000,000 in coverage, which even when fully paid will not be adequate to cover the total cost of the damage, restoration, and reconstruction; and

WHEREAS, the University of Hawaii is working diligently to obtain financial assistance from the federal, state, and private sector to cover the costs of this immense undertaking; and

WHEREAS, the calculated estimation of the damage to the Manoa campus infrastructure is between $80,000,000 – $100,000,000 and some of the devastation destroyed includes irreplaceable historical documents which can never be replaced; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2005, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaii is requested to report on the status of the flood damage done to the University of Hawaii in connection to the flood of October 30, 2004, including, but not limited to final damages, responses, future plans, and final costs; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaii is requested to report on the status of the flood damage to the Legislature no later than twenty days before the convening of the Regular Session of 2006; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Chairperson of the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaii, President of the University of Hawaii, and the Chancellor of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

UH; REPORT; FLOOD DAMAGE