Danny De Gracia: Hawaii Residents Need Training And Education To Prepare For Nuclear Attack
We shouldn’t wait for a disaster to happen. The Hawaii government needs to better prepare people with training, public service announcements and education campaigns.
Danny de Gracia is a resident of Waipahu, a political scientist and an ordained minister.
Danny holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and minor in Public Administration from UT San Antonio, 2001; a Master of Arts in聽 Political Science (concentration International Organizations) and minor in Humanities from Texas State University, 2002.
He received his聽Doctor of Theology from Andersonville Theological Seminary in 2013 and Doctor of Ministry in 2014.
Danny received his Ordination from United Fellowship of Christ Ministries International, (Non-Denominational Christian), in 2002.
Danny is also a member of the Waipahu Neighborhood Board, a position he’s held since 2023. His opinions are strictly his own.
As Gov. David Ige leaves office, some critics will continue to jab at him for the 2018 North Korean missile alert false alarm in which he said he forgot his social media passwords and couldn鈥檛 tell locals in a timely manner that the warning was in error.
Laugh at our outgoing governor all you like, but the sheer panic and chaos among locals that happened during the 2018 false alarm says less about Ige and more about how, in our post-Cold War world, many people just wouldn’t know what to do in the event of a nuclear attack.
This is an issue that we need to be talking about and preparing for, especially since in recent weeks we have seen over Ukraine and in the Pacific.
While nobody has suggested that Hawaii faces an imminent threat, these are unpredictable times that we are living in, and traditional international norms, as well as that we have come to rely upon for decades, are no longer predictable.
The question you must ask yourself and your family is if you were, at a moment鈥檚 notice, given a warning that Hawaii was under nuclear attack, would you know where to go, or know what to do? Sadly, the end of the Cold War has made it so most people today know very little about survival tactics 鈥 after all, the last time Oahu faced an imminent threat was in 1968 when a in nearby waters.
Getting a vague text message that says 鈥渟eek shelter鈥 isn鈥檛 very helpful, since people may not know what counts as a safe shelter, and those who are caught in the open may not know what to do if shelter isn鈥檛 anywhere nearby. (Pro Tip: Whatever you do, please don鈥檛 ever put your children down a sewer manhole, and don鈥檛 do a TikTok or Instagram live about it. That鈥檚 both stupid and narcissistically tacky.)
To be fair, Hawaii’s government and even the University of Hawaii have on what to do in the event of an attack, but the information is presented in a very obnoxious and inconvenient format that most wouldn鈥檛 understand.
I sincerely doubt that in the event of a nuclear attack locals will go online in search of the attack matrix or , so what is paramount is training people in advance of a crisis so they are already knowledgeable when and if an attack comes.
What We Need To Get Ready
A nuclear weapon鈥檚 immediate danger to humans comes in the form of heat, blast, radiation and fallout effects, some of which 鈥 timing and luck aside 鈥 with advance preparation.
Ideally, Hawaii state and county governments need to start working on a public service announcement and education campaign to bring locals to at least a modicum of awareness of how to prepare and survive a potential nuclear strike on the islands.
The first thing we need to do is identify and map for the general public every single potential hardened structure that could provide some level of blast protection and shelter from fallout. That data should then be put in an app or published in a brochure for people to know and memorize what is closest to their homes and worksites.
A few buildings around downtown Honolulu still have old yellow and black trefoil 鈥淔allout Shelter鈥 signs indicating them as potential hiding places in event of attack, but how many people know where these buildings are?
The second thing that people need is some kind of television, radio, and digital/social media campaign that regularly on what to do in the event of a nuclear attack, similar to the way we do hurricane preparedness messages.
I鈥檓 not suggesting that we start digging or hoard , but people could benefit from knowing a few helpful things. Example: How much cover is needed to protect from a nuclear flash? Where is the safest place to be in a house if a blast is about to occur? How do you distinguish the difference between a stress response and radiation sickness? These are all things we鈥檇 better start learning, and fast.
There is also, for the Hawaii government, a need for training and preparing for continuity of government in the event of an attack. Our state and county governments need to drill for nuclear emergencies, and perhaps even the next Legislature should consider purchasing a Boeing 737 or similar small- to medium-sized aircraft that can be used by local authorities as an 鈥渁irborne command post鈥 to safely orbit the islands while directing rescue or recovery operations.
We need to think ahead and not wait for a disaster to get our act together. We are living in worrisome times, but effective preparation is the antidote for fear and chaos.
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Danny de Gracia is a resident of Waipahu, a political scientist and an ordained minister.
Danny holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and minor in Public Administration from UT San Antonio, 2001; a Master of Arts in聽 Political Science (concentration International Organizations) and minor in Humanities from Texas State University, 2002.
He received his聽Doctor of Theology from Andersonville Theological Seminary in 2013 and Doctor of Ministry in 2014.
Danny received his Ordination from United Fellowship of Christ Ministries International, (Non-Denominational Christian), in 2002.
Danny is also a member of the Waipahu Neighborhood Board, a position he’s held since 2023. His opinions are strictly his own.
How about having a president who will pick up the phone, call Putin, and tell him that if he sets off nukes in an unprovoked attack, that both he and Russia will be obliterated.
WildJim·
2 years ago
Better idea: Hawaii should teach the world Aloha so we don't need nuclear weapons. This may sound trite but it's at least as effective as "preparation" for an island state that will be completely cut off in the event of an attack.
six·
2 years ago
This opinion is a sensationalist take on nuclear threats that borders on fear mongering. For example, the author refers to Russia's recent nuclear threats as a rationale for more preparation as if the threats were credible. Additionally, the framing suggests that Hawaii could be a target of those threats, which contradicts basically every informed opinion on the issue. The author cites North Korea's nuclear tests as further reason to prepare. But again, there is little to no evidence that North Korea intends to launch a nuclear strike against anyone, much less against Hawaii. And finally, it is ridiculous to claim that the problem with the 2018 false missile alert was that people didn't know how to prepare. People panicked because they have been falsely led to believe that a missile strike is a reasonable possibility. This article only further contributes to the problem by inflating the risk of a nuclear strike.Further preparations of the kind discussed in the article will simply exacerbate these problems and generate more unwarranted fear.
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