Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation and Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 1833 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to authorize the issuance of general obligation bonds and appropriate funds to revise current tsunami inundation maps from a one-dimensional format to a clearer two-dimensional format.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the State Department of Defense, Oahu Civil Defense Agency, and Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc.

Tsunamis are Hawaii's number one natural disaster killer and a year-round threat. Hawaii's densely populated and developed coastlines are at significant risk of inundation from a tsunami. In early 2004, the state civil defense initiated multi-year contracts with the University of Hawaii and the Department of Land and Natural Resources to update tsunami evacuation maps using the latest two dimensional tsunami inundation modeling technology, targeting complex coastlines, bays, harbors, and marinas.

This measure would enable Hawaii residents and visitors to be provided with the awareness and appropriate guidance needed to react in the face of a tsunami event. In view of the recent hurricane in the Indian Ocean, your Committee believes it imperative that the State is adequately prepared to deal with this disaster.

At current levels of federal funding ($153,000 annually) completion of the project for complex coastlines would take five to ten years. Updating maps for the remaining populated coastlines throughout Hawaii would take an additional ten to fifteen years. The appropriation provided by this measure would serve to accelerate the update of Hawaii's tsunami evacuation maps.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation and Government Operations that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1833 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.