Re: Your Inquiry About the Necessity of Our Emergency Drills

Let me start off by thanking you Shelby for voicing your concerns about Tanager Lane’s quarterly emergency drills. I appreciate your questions almost as much as I appreciate you CCing everyone in the association. We can always count on you asking about procedures and rules already put in place, just in case someone is a little slow on the uptake, or has a hard time comprehending what their obligations are. I am a little confused as to why you didn’t bring it up when I delivered the list of your monthly HOA violations, but as usual the list was quite long, so perhaps it slipped your mind. In any event, the short answer to your question is, Yes, we really need to hold surprise emergency drills in the association every three months. Yes we do!

Practice makes perfect Shelby. I appreciate your concern that, “The last drill took place at 3am. The sirens terrified the kids and Frank couldn’t get back to sleep.” If I could bend the laws of nature, I would certainly schedule fires, hurricanes, and earthquakes at a more reasonable hour, one that better fits with your families sleep schedule. However, I’m too busy most days trying to make sure that Tanager Lane remains safe, and has the highest property values of any neighborhood on the island. It’s a tough job, especially when I have to explain things over and over again.

Times have changed, and recent events prove that anything can happen. We need to be prepared Shelby, certainly better prepared than you were for the Labor Day party this past weekend. I know it was unusually warm, but you ran out of cold drinks in the first hour, despite my warnings about the lack of ice when I arrived. If you had held emergency ice drills with your family, perhaps the party wouldn’t have been such a disappointment.

The past few years have seen many possible dangers that we need to be ready for, if we want our properties to remain the most sought after in Lahaina. We’ve had: record setting hurricanes destroy Front Street, massive explosions that put people in the hospital, and caused property damage. Do you remember the protest floatilla? What if all those people decided to drunkenly wander into the neighborhood, while a house was being shown? Sure, the wall probably would have kept most of them out, but we’ve never tested it against an angry horde before.

I know that you feel, “…using real emergency response vehicles, and actors is a waste of our HOA dues,” but we need to make these drills as realistic as possible, because some day, the danger might be real. The preparedness company that I have contracted is the finest of its kind, working with numerous municipalities and even Veilcorp. Their specialists not only mix up the kind of faux emergencies, but they track the response times of each home in the neighborhood, and present the findings in detailed reports every quarter.

I’m sure you’ve seen where your family ranks, and that’s what I want to get through to you. I know that you have a sort of “open and free” parenting philosophy, but we need everyone’s response in an emergency to be second nature, even our kids. I want your children to be preparedness superstars. I don’t want them to struggle in an emergency, like they do in sports and school.

I understand that you’re having trouble grasping the big picture here, but frankly the Tanager Lane bylaws and regulation documents don’t have a “what does Shelby think?” provision. Perhaps you are unaware that flooding alone costs Hawaiian homeowners over $12 billion a year. Perhaps you don’t know that having a well rehearsed emergency plan can save lives, and head off possible property damage. Perhaps you haven’t heard that the state agrees with me, and is installing an island-wide alert system for the very reasons we hold these drills. Perhaps you are, once again, in over your head Shelby.