The ongoing fire in Central Oʻahu and the Maui fires in August have put a new focus on emergency evacuation routes for drier, leeward communities.
Kolekole Pass has been the only mountain route connecting the Waiʻanae Coast and Central Oʻahu. It links Schofield Barracks and Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam's Lualualei Annex in Nānākuli; it became off-limits to civilians in 2011.
An existing memorandum of understanding technically only allows emergency vehicles to use Kolekole Pass.
The military held a community event last week for stakeholders to talk about access, and the chain of command to open the road.
Honolulu Councilmember Andria Tupola said the military indicated it would not stand in the way if local officials needed to use Kolekole Pass as a civilian escape route during a major emergency.
"I felt like it was the first time that I had really heard them be more open to civilian access. And no doubt the change in the conversation happened because of Maui," Tupola told HPR. "What happened in Maui, they had to evacuate civilians — not bring in and bring out emergency vehicles."
Tupola said she also raised awareness of the need for access into the leeward communities — ingress and egress. She cited various instances of people using Kolekole Pass in the 2000s because roads into Waiʻanae were completely blocked.
"I would say that not only has the military acknowledged that they're going to be helpful, but they've also acknowledged that they're going to move expeditiously to assist," she added.
She said Congress needs to approve funding for the upkeep of the road, but that may be challenging because it goes through a former Navy facility that now has little more than two radio towers in the valley.
"It's going to be a pretty hard ask to say, 'Hey, we need these appropriations to this vacant military base because the community needs this road to be annually taken care of, and not only in times of emergency.' Because when the emergency happens and we're using the memorandum of understanding, that's not the time to figure out if the road is passable or not,” Tupola said.
Tupola represents Leeward Oʻahu, including areas from Kapolei to Mākaha.
This interview aired on The Conversation on Oct. 31, 2023. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1. Sophia McCullough adapted this story for the web.
