April is Tsunami Awareness Month and the city has put out life-saving preparedness messages in more than a dozen languages. This year – thanks to the ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i experts in Kamehameha’s Ho‘okahua Cultural Vibrancy Group – the message is now available in Hawaiian.

“We saw it as a good opportunity for advancement of ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi,” said Keoni Kelekolio, KS director of Hawaiian Language Advancement. “The information was already available here in Hawaiʻi in several other languages, but not in Hawaiian. The more we get Hawaiian language into the mainstream, the more normal it becomes.”

So what should you do if you sense a tsunami? According to the International Tsunami Information Center you should:

Ma ka lonoa ‘ili (Feel)
Ma ka lonoa maka (See)
Ma ka lonoa pepeiao (Hear)
E Holo! (Run!)

Download tsunami preparedness flyers in Hawaiian and English for details.

In addition to the translations, KS Senior Legal Counsel Nāhoa Lucas (third from the right) shared his expertise on student and enterprise safety with a team of government and natural disaster experts, leading up to Tsunami Awareness Month.

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