Dam threats in Hawaii underassessed

Karen Blakeman, staff writer with The Honolulu Advertiser, used National Inventory of Dams data from IRE and NICAR for a story about the deadly failure of a privately owned dam on the Hawaii island of Kaua’i. Two bodies have been found and five others are missing. Blakeman reported that state safety inspections of dams across Hawaii are woefully behind schedule and the threats dams pose to people have been underassessed. “Federal records on dams in Hawai’i show very few have emergency action plans.” (Editor’s Note: IRE and NICAR offer the National Inventory of Dams to journalists.)