Teams from the Honolulu Crisis Outreach Response and Engagement program are still going out to help unsheltered people following the Kona storm.
City officials said CORE transported more than 40 people to shelters between Thursday and Saturday.
Jim Ireland, director of the Honolulu Emergency Services Department, said this storm was more severe than the last one a few weeks ago.
He said that the CORE team was canvassing the entire island to warn homeless people to head to shelter.
“We gave them options,” Ireland said. “But a lot of people didn't take us up on that, but a lot of people did.”
In the past several storms, most people experiencing homelessness chose to stay put. Homeless people are more vulnerable to weather conditions because they often live in low-lying areas, such as under bridges and on beaches.
The CORE team worked 24/7, breaking the teams down to 12-hour shifts. Ireland said shifts are normally eight hours.
“Everybody came to work, all hands on deck,” he said.
Most of the people they transported to shelter in Waiʻanae were U.S veterans. They also assisted emergency responders in evacuating the Otake Camp in Waialua due to the flash flood warning.
The CORE program has grown in the last six years. Created in 2021, the program started with three EMTs and a hand-me-down city ambulance with 300,000 miles, according to Ireland.
Now about 35 people are working in CORE, including nurse practitioners, emergency medical technicians, community health workers and supervisors.
