Posted on: Monday, August 30, 2004
Statewide network will improve emergency response
| • | Graphic: Antenna sites for new statewide emergency communication system |
By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser Staff Writer
The state is poised to install a $26 million microwave antenna system that will improve emergency communications statewide and prepare Hawai'i to better handle everything from a natural disaster to a terrorist attack and the more common boater in distress.
The system — known as Anuenue, or rainbow — will use broadband technology and antennas erected in strategic locations across the Islands. For the first time, emergency responders will be able to communicate with one another via a dedicated system without going through a commercial system that could be damaged or interrupted.
Anuenue will replace a 20-year-old system that became so unreliable that government agencies decommissioned it.
"Many state, county and federal first-responders will be able to use this system to communicate between the Islands," said Russ Saito, state comptroller. "Now, they don't communicate between themselves."
Each agency can communicate on its own frequency, but to talk among the various emergency responders requires an outside connection, Saito said.
While the new system is not a response to poor communication systems identified in post-Sept. 11 reviews of Hawai'i's preparedness to handle a terrorist or other such incident, Anuenue's strong bandwidth capability will address such shortcomings and allow authorities to receive and send audio and video, said U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Tom Sullivan.
Starting next year, microwave antennas will be installed around the Islands, one each on Kaua'i, Maui and Moloka'i, four on the Big Island and seven on O'ahu: at Sand Island, Kalaeloa, Mauna Kapu, Mount Ka'ala, Wahiawa, Koko Head and Round Top.
The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2006.
Work has already begun at several locations, including Sand Island, Sullivan said.
The antenna at Koko Head is pending a letter of agreement from the city, said Saito.
The 70-foot microwave tower designed for Koko Head has raised some concern about visual blight from groups such as the Sierra Club.
"We'd hate to see some of our favorite landmarks start looking like a NASA facility," said Jeff Mikulina, executive director of the Sierra Club in Hawai'i. "But we'll keep an eye out for it."
However, officials said the antenna will not be visible from the road, and the design has been endorsed by the Hawai'i Kai Neighborhood Board and the Friends of Hanauma Bay.
Even people with concerns about such environmental considerations are withholding judgment because the antennas are necessary for emergency communications, including Homeland Security forces, Saito said.
Koko Head is a great place for antennas or microwave dishes because it juts out toward the southern part of the island chain, Saito said. Already there are a number of towers and poles on Koko Head. The proposed seven-story tower will be no taller than a telephone pole and will replace five inactive utility poles, Saito said.
Anuenue will be built to keep working in winds up to 155 mph, Sullivan said.
The Coast Guard will use Anuenue to improve its handling of boater distress calls, which are a big issue in Hawai'i. Last year the Coast Guard handled 264 search and rescue cases statewide, Sullivan said.
Anuenue dovetails with a nationwide project called Rescue 21, which provides enhancements that will allow the position of distress calls to be pinpointed, Sullivan said.
Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com or 395-8831.
