Persistent questions remain unanswered about the state's plan to communicate with residents in the event of another devastating natural disaster such as the Oct. 15 quakes, say critics who complained bitterly about what seemed like an information vacuum during the 24-hour outage following the quakes.

At the start, O'ahu residents were upset about the time it took for state Civil Defense to allay fears of a possible tsunami from the quake. Once those fears were set aside, the next question took precedence:

"When is the electricity going to come back on?"

It took two hours for Hawaiian Electric Co. to communicate with the public about why the power was out in the first place.

While state Civil Defense and HECO have taken steps to prevent communications breakdowns during future blackouts, there still remains the question of how to get the information out in a timely way.

Doug Carlson, a former HECO spokesman, said a list of remedial actions the media took after the earthquakes was impressive, but said that's not all it will take.

"I wonder whether staffs have adapted an emergency mindset that would prevent what happened last year," he said.

But Chuck Cotton, general manager of Clear Channel Communications — which owns KSSK, one of the state's emergency broadcast stations — defends the way information went out, at least from the broadcast end.

"We're very reliant on our sources for information," Cotton said. "As soon as we were able to gather that information, then we started telling people what was going on."

In the event that such an event should happen again, though, the information will theoretically get to the station more quickly. Both state Civil Defense and HECO have established dedicated lines to KSSK, and O'ahu Civil Defense now has the ability to break into radio and TV broadcasts. That's in response to the agency's failure to get a message out on its own last year.

On top of that, Clear Channel's staff has been given new training, has been provided landlines in their homes in case of cell phone failure and key staffers have been given access to a high-priority system for their cell phones.

"We've assessed what we did. We always try to improve. We're going to work hard to do a better job," Cotton said.

For its part, HECO has made its own internal improvements to make sure that media outlets have information to share.

It took two hours after the blackout began before HECO could get through to the radio station. The utility has diversified its phone service providers so they don't face total outages.

"I think that will make a big difference in our ability to share information regularly and earlier," said Lynne Unemori, HECO's vice president of corporate communications.

HECO has also said it will do what it can to bring media outlets up faster, provided it won't jeopardize the electrical grid.

"We want to move as quick as we can, but we want to make sure we do so as carefully as possible without crashing the system and having to start over again," Unemori said.

Many broadcast and media outlets have made sure to bring in more backup generators and fuel, but while they might have power, radio still has the widest reach.

No one at Oceanic Time Warner Cable returned calls yesterday, but officials have previously said phone and Internet services take priority over its cable television — and those improvements are years down the road.

State Civil Defense is looking into alternative means of communications — such as text messaging — to deliver emergency messages, but radio remains a priority.

The criteria for emergency alerts has been loosened to allow Civil Defense to let people know whether or not an earthquake has generated a tsunami, and emergency messages have been given to broadcast stations to translate into foreign languages, as well as American Sign Language.

"We're going to get on the air right away," said state Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Robert Lee.

In addition, he pointed out that the blackout persuaded many people to go with landlines rather than digital or cordless phones, in case of cell phone failure.

There is also a direct link between HECO and the primary Civil Defense headquarters, and separate lines between state Civil Defense and media outlets.

In addition, the state has made it easier for the media to get information quickly, by giving them a workspace with state Civil Defense headquarters in Diamond Head.

Carlson, however, wants the public to get a chance to chime in on these plans before the next emergency, since many of the plans came from the Governor's Comprehensive Communications Committee, made primarily of government, media and utility representatives.

He complains that the public has not had an opportunity to participate. "This committee was a committee of insiders," Carlson said. "The process still has a weak link until the public has a chance to ask questions."

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.