Room 309 at the Hawaii State Capitol is a popular place to be this morning! About 100 people have packed a joint city-state legislative hearing on the Oct. 27 tsunami.

Lots of questions from lawmakers about sirens, tsunami evacuation zone signage (or lack thereof) and traffic.

We’re hearing from representatives from HPD, HFD, Honolulu Department of Emergency Management and Hawaii Civil Defense. 

Sen. Will Espero asks: “How do we reduce the crazy congestion on H1 during the evacuation? Except for the rail?” The crowd laughs. 

Just about everyone’s agreement that there needs to be better public education about where the tsunami evacuation zones are.

Peter Hirai, deputy director of Honolulu’s Department of Emergency Management notes that the city’s just gotten a coastal storms grant it’ll use to develop an iPhone app that has a map telling people whether they’re in an evacuation zone, where the nearest refuge center is and what kind of disaster planning every family ought to do well before an actual crisis.