Administration Rushes Storm Aid to Hawaii

The Bush Administration acted quickly Saturday to dispatch federal troops and disaster assistance to the Hawaiian islands struck by Hurricane Iniki, a response notably more swift than the one that followed Hurricane Andrew last month.

President Bush declared most of Hawaii a federal disaster area Saturday at the request of Gov. John Waihee and ordered the military to provide whatever disaster relief is needed. Two weeks ago, the Administration was criticized for waiting 3 1/2 days to decide to provide federal relief for southern Florida after Andrew ripped through the state.

The Pentagon responded Saturday by creating Joint Task Force Garden Isle--a reference to the hardest-hit island of Kauai--and by dispatching ships and planes full of equipment and disaster relief personnel to the islands. Several thousand active-duty troops stationed in the state were placed on alert awaiting deployment.

Bush sent Wallace E. Stickney, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Patricia Saiki, chief of the Small Business Administration and a native of Hawaii, to assess the islands’ needs and coordinate the federal response, White House spokeswoman Laura Melillo said. Stickney named A. Roy Kite of FEMA’s regional office in San Francisco to coordinate federal operations in Hawaii, and a regional operations center was established at the Presidio Army base in San Francisco.

Bush has no plans to travel to the lightly populated area to view the damage, White House officials said. He spent Saturday at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md.

The President’s decision made federal aid immediately available to the islands of Oahu, Maui, Hawaii, Kauai, Niihau, Lanai and Kahoolawe. Reflecting the Administration’s sensitivity to past criticism, FEMA officials had been sent to the state Friday and were on the scene when the storm hit.

As dawn broke over the islands Saturday, Army and Marine helicopters lifted off Oahu to take disaster-assessment teams from the state and federal governments to the sites of the worst damage.

A dozen smaller military transport planes and a behemoth C-5 cargo plane, loaded with 188,000 pounds of equipment, landed in Oahu late Saturday morning carrying communications gear, vehicles and military logistics specialists from points up and down the West Coast. The smaller planes are expected to haul needed equipment on to Kauai.

Included in the cargo were 1.2 million Meals, Ready to Eat, or MREs, the military field rations that recently have been used to feed hungry and homeless disaster victims in Florida and abroad.

Planes from Norton Air Force Base near San Bernardino on Saturday carried two 37-person civilian medical assistance teams, as well as search-and-rescue teams from the Los Angeles County Fire Department and Menlo Park, Calif.

Only a handful of active-duty military troops so far have been sent to Hawaii. They include communications technicians and logistics specialists. But the Pentagon said members of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade and the Army’s 25th Infantry Division--in all, several thousand active-duty military troops based in Hawaii--have been put on alert in case their assistance is needed.

Navy ships--including the helicopter carrier Belleau Wood--awaited orders to steam to Kauai to provide backup generator power, manpower, medical aid or purified water. A leased vessel laden with Marine combat gear waited in the waters off Kauai for orders to unload its mobile generators, kitchens, trucks and field hospitals.

Stickney was expected to relay the islands’ needs to military officials after assessing the damage.

By Saturday morning, according to Melillo, Gov. Waihee had not requested federal activation of Hawaii National Guard troops. Waihee has, however, called up 530 National Guardsmen under his own state powers.

Officials said the Pentagon’s rapid response stems in part from a long relationship between Hawaii officials and the military, which has a powerful and expanding presence in the state. About 40,000 troops are stationed at eight major military installations on the islands.

In recent months, state officials and military planners from the military’s Pacific Command have refined and tested plans coordinating military and state efforts in the wake of a disaster. Brig. Gen. Frank Akers, the assistant division commander for the Army’s 25th Infantry Division, based at Schofield Barracks on Oahu, was named commander of Joint Task Force Garden Isle.

” . . . Since we began to see this one coming, we knew we’d need to protect our own assets there, as well as help out in disaster relief. We have anticipated we would be asked for a number of things,” said Marine Lt. Col. Kerry Gershaneck, a Pentagon spokesman.

The Administration’s rapid response to the storm appeared designed to defuse the criticism that stung Bush, who is in a tough reelection campaign, and disaster relief officials after Hurricane Andrew.

During remarks in California while on the way to Hawaii on Saturday, Stickney denied that his agency has done anything different in response to Hurricane Iniki than it did in the wake of Andrew.

But lower-level FEMA officials suggested otherwise. Barbara Hendrie, a spokeswoman for Hawaii’s Office of Civil Defense, said Bush decided to declare a federal disaster in Hawaii based on “some educated preliminary estimates that we gave the White House,” rather than waiting for the state to make a formal request.

FEMA’s decision to send disaster assessment teams into Hawaii before the storm also appeared to be unusual. “We decided to second-guess the state a little bit and started getting things going that way,” Bruce Baughman, director of FEMA’s emergency support team, told the Reuters news agency. “Based on our experience with Andrew, we knew what the state would need,” he added.

The latest disaster could stretch the resources of the beleaguered agency, which is already dealing with two storms that hit within days of each other in late August--Hurricane Andrew and Typhoon Omar, which devastated Guam.

Contributing to this story was Times staff writer Richard C. Paddock at Travis Air Force Base, Calif.

The Rescue Package

President Bush’s decision to declare Hawaii a disaster area triggers release of immediate emergency aid in the form of food, shelter, medical supplies, communications and transportation. It also makes available many types of long-term federal government assistance, including: For Individuals

* Rent payments for up to 18 months of temporary housing.

* Grants for minor repairs to make residences livable.

* Grants for as much as $11,500 to meet needs not covered by other federal aid programs.

* Unemployment payments for workers who temporarily lost jobs but do not qualify for state benefits.

* Loans at interest rates of 4% to 8% to cover uninsured losses up to $20,000 for personal property, $100,000 for primary residences and $500,000 for businesses.

* Loans of up to $500,000 for farmers, ranchers and aquaculture operators to cover production and property losses.

For Local Governments

* Payment of 75% of approved costs of repairing damaged public facilities, such as roads, bridges, utilities, buildings, schools and recreational areas, and for some private nonprofit organizations engaged in public service.

* Payment of 75% of eligible costs for removing debris from public areas and for emergency measures taken to save lives and protect property and public health.

Source: Times wire services