Big Island ARRL News, 13 April 2017, 15:50 hrs, UTC, Post #169.
Source:
http://dod.hawaii.gov/hiema/main/north-korea-threat-to-hawaii/
Accessed on 13 April 2017, 15:50 hrs, UTC.
Please click link to read the full story as published in the “Honolulu Star-Advertiser”, 13 April 2017.
Comment:
Thanks to Lloyd Cabral (KH6LC) for sending this article to me.
Considering the increased pace of North Korea ballistic missile tests and the possibility of these missiles being armed with nuclear or chemical warheads, it may be prudent to prepare ourselves for an attack from the xenophobic North Korean regime.
This memo from Hawaii Emergency Management officials outlines the sobering reality we in Hawaii are facing should North Korea takes steps to launch a ballistic missile our way.
In light of this threat, the antimissile testing program at Barking Sands Beach, Kauai may have to become a permanent fixture in our islands.
Here’s the gist of the message:
“President Donald Trump, who met last week with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Florida, has warned that the United States might take unilateral action against North Korea unless China does more to rein in its pugnacious neighbor. He did not mention a pre-emptive first strike per se.
Such a first strike presumably would take out the fixed launch sites at Sohae and Tonghae, but North Korea is also believed to have road-mobile launchers that could survive to retaliate — if they actually work.
With North Korea emerging as a new threat, state Emergency Management Administrator Vern Miyagi said it’s time to update the previous plans.
“If you were to ask me what is the status of North Korea, and is (a missile attack) a high probability, no, it’s a low probability,” said Miyagi, a retired Army two-star general who served at the Pacific Command as senior adviser for military support to civil authorities operations and Reserve and National Guard affairs.
“But then, so, we have to keep a lookout for that (threat). That’s why we’re talking about updating the plan. It’s an awakening. Maybe we should get involved with” fallout shelters again and identify where still-usable shelters are located, he said.
Fallout protection exists to some degree in any building, but it is most effective in heavy concrete buildings and underground structures, he said.
The agency does monthly tests with the Pacific Command using secure communications, Miyagi said. The advice in the event of a missile attack is still to duck and cover and “get into a substantial building,” he said.
“The bottom line in our plan right now is close coordination with Pacific Command, the military side, so that we understand what’s happening, and we can prepare for it with what we have — and what we have right now is very thin,” Miyagi said.”
A sobering thought, indeed, especially for those of us serving as ARES volunteers.
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Aloha es 73 de
Russell Roberts (KH6JRM)
Public Information Coordinator
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