Storms that trigger flash flooding pose a threat not just to nearby homes and businesses but also to those who are houseless.
The alerts trigger homeless outreach workers to spring into action.
Laura Thielen is the executive director of Partners In Care. Her organization spent the week leading up to Hurricane Lala creating shelters in schools, contacting houseless communities via gifted phones, and sweeping the streets to get encampments into safe and secure buildings.
HPR chatted with Thielen about how the public can care for people experiencing homelessness during environmental disasters like the Kona lows, Hurricane Lala, and the other tropical storms coming their way.
Thielen said their outreach workers are constantly going out during hazardous weather events and are given messaging from the National Weather Service to get the word out.
“It's a whole bunch of different things going on when you look at an encampment where there's more than a couple people living together, that is actually a community of people, and they really take care of each other,” she said. “So if there's someone that is unaware of what's going on and people know they don't have a phone and haven't talked to anyone, they'll go out and reach out to them themselves because they want to make sure that their brothers and sisters on the streets and all of our neighbors are as safe as possible.”
Thielen added that since Lala, their outreach workers have been out scanning different areas and connecting with people to see if they lost anything or if they wanted to consider moving into a shelter.
They are prioritizing making sure anyone with wounds is treated quickly, providing food and non-perishables, and continuing to offer shelter and programs for people experiencing homelessness.
Partners In Care offers resources for help here.
This story aired on The Conversation on Aug. 26, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m.
