Harbors

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of passengers. While regularly scheduled cruise ships cancelled their call to Hawai‘i’s harbors, the Maasdam (operated by Holland America) and Norwegian Jewel (operated by Norwegian Cruise Lines) made a special request to come to Hawaii so they could place their passengers on flights home before borders were closed and resupply and refuel the ship for her homeport journey and wait out the COVID-19 induced suspension.

The Maasdam, with her 850 passengers, came into Honolulu Harbor on March 20 and was able to disembark a dozen Hawaii residents and a Canadian woman who needed acute medical care at a local hospital. The remaining passengers and crew stayed on the ship and headed for their final destination in San Diego.

On March 22, the Norwegian Jewel, with her almost 2,000 passengers and dealing with engine problems, arrived into Honolulu Harbor and spent 3 days disembarking passengers. Hawai‘i residents were taken directly to their homes by chartered vehicles if on Oahu and by chartered small aircraft to Maui, Kauai and Big Island. Passengers going to the mainland, Europe, Canada, South America and elsewhere were placed on chartered planes. While this was an expensive undertaking for NCL, they were committed to repatriate their passengers to their homes.

In any successful operation, there is a great team. Thank you’s and appreciations were received from the Australian Consul-General, New Zealand Consul-General, and numerous passengers and family. DOT partners on this mission included the US Coast Guard, US Customs and Border Protection, Harbors Division Incident Commander and Oahu District, Airports Division, Harbors Police, State AG Investigation Division, DLNR DOCARE, State Sheriffs Division, Honolulu Police Department, American Medical Response, and Hawai‘i Stevedores Inc. Aloha nui ‘Ohana,

A law enforcement ‘ohana, in my humble opinion, is a collective effort to address a major crisis. What just concluded was a collective effort by law enforcement to address a major health crisis- COVID-19. Law enforcement involvement was an exercise in precautionary measures to contain a threat to Oahu’s communities and to our Hawai’i- COVID-19. Our law enforcement ‘ohana worked as one to handle an extremely sensitive situation with compassion, which gave the passengers/visitors affected a sense of comfort, and allowed our Oahu communities, our Hawai’i, to have confidence that we would protect them by not permitting the virus to permeate. We were able to achieve this as a law enforcement ‘ohana.

Mahalo piha Lieutenant, Sergeants, Officers, as your leadership and the participation of our Officers contributed to a successful operation. This major mission required extensive planning and precise execution by Harbor Police personnel. Because of your mana’o and the involvement of our respective ‘ohana, we were able to extend aloha and malama many.

Mahalo nui for caring and coming to kokua.

Ke Akua pu,

Mark M. “Dutch” Hanohano

Chief of Enforcement and Facility Security State of Hawaii Department of Transportation Harbors Division Oahu District Harbor Police and Facility Security Unit (HAR-OE)