Emergency Notifications in the Hawai'i County

It is important for all Kohala Ranch residents to sign up for emergency alerts (Nixle/Everbridge e.g., for text on your phone and email).

Note that the Nixle/Everbridge notification system used by the Hawai’i County Civil Defense and County agencies is an opt-in system. This is different from the automatic blasting of all cellular phones in the area that FEMA and other federal agencies can use In case of major emergency (and amber alert). The FEMA alert was not activated in the Mauna Loa eruption, presumably because there was no immediate threat.

Police has direct access to the Nixle/Everbridge system (explanation on the Police site) and is posting regular notifications, e.g., for road closures.

The Fire Departement does not have yet the ability to directly post alert and has to go through Civil Defense and notifications in recent large fires have been sparse. Our understanding is that the County is working on correcting this problem and our KRCA Fire Protection Committee and the island Firewise communities are involved in the discussion.