Story and photo by

Ryan Wilson
Communications Coordinator, Navy Housing Forest City Residential Management, Inc.

Forest City is thanking its residents for their calm response to the tsunami warning on Feb. 27, even as Hospital Point and Pacific Missile Range Facility ( PMRF), Barking Sands, Kauai were evacuated.

Residents in those neighborhoods were told to leave their homes in the hours leading up to the scheduled arrival of the tsunami as a precautionary measure. Hospital Point residents went to the Bloch Arena and PMRF residents were evacuated to Waimea Canyon State Park.

In both situations, residents responded calmly and did not panic.

"It was a scary time for everyone leading up to the tsunami, but our residents responded appropriately to the situation," said Charles Herron, Hospital Point resident services manager "They understood the tsunami could be dangerous. But they also knew that they could easily avoid a potentially life-threatening situation by making the right decisions and following the guidance of emergency officials."

Over on Kauai, Randy Brown, PMRF resident services manager, and Judy Durand, resident relations specialist, evacuated with PMRF residents to Waimea Canyon State Park. A resident barbecue was planned for that Saturday and was cancelled. But Brown and Durand took the opportunity to grill up some hot dogs and pass out sodas for residents during the day.

"Once we made sure everyone was safe, we decided to have an impromptu barbecue. We had the hot dogs, the grill and the sodas so it just made sense," said Brown. "Our motto is, 'Exceptional service is our standard.' That's especially important when our residents have been evacuated."

Forest City sent out an emergency notification email to all residents with information from the Navy and Forest City about the warning and evacuations. That information was also posted on the front page of the Forest City website.

"We need our residents to know exactly what's happening," said Kari Diaz, general manager. "Emergency events like a tsunami are always unpredictable, but if you have the information and you know how to react, you'll be able to reduce the danger significantly. In this situation, we think our residents responded perfectly and we are so grateful to them for their help."