Dept. of Transportation Monthly Newsletter
Connecting the DOTs...
April 2020
Harbors Division Successfully Completes Humanitarian Mission By: Derek Chow Deputy Director
Commercial harbors are Hawai‘i’s lifeline to the world. Over 98 percent of all goods imported into Hawaii are shipped through Hawai‘i’s commercial harbors. Past disasters have highlighted the importance of keeping all commercial harbors operational as not only normal shipment of goods must continue, but any emergency supplies needed to sustain and rebuild Hawai‘i’s communities will come through the commercial harbors. Keeping Hawai‘i’s commercial harbors operational during the current COVID-19 crisis is no different from other crisis or disaster, except this is of contagious nature. The DOT Harbors Division employees are considered emergen-
cy essential and critical to maintaining operations at the 9 commercial harbors on Kauai, Oahu, Maui, Lana‘i, Moloka‘i, and Big Island. In turn, operational harbors allow the maritime industry, especially the shipping companies, to continue to source Hawai‘i with much needed perishable and non-perishable goods. Even though some store shelves are bare, and some goods are difficult to find, these goods continue to come in on a regular basis. This past March, Honolulu Harbor was used for humanitarian relief when cruise ships needed to repatriate their passengers to their homes rather than keep them at sea with nowhere to disembark. The March 14, 2020 self-imposed 30-day suspension of cruise operations caught many cruise ships already at sea with their full load See NORWEGIAN JEWEL on page 12
