Performance of the Kawaihae Harbor Port Facility Resulting from the October 2006 Earthquake

Damages to Kawaihae Harbor from the 2006 Kiholo Bay, Hawaii earthquake revealed aspects of both resiliency and vulnerability in small to medium size American ports. This paper presents an overview of the FEMA hazard mitigation study at Kawaihae Harbor and associated mitigation guidance developed for Pacific Island Ports. It describes the emergency operations, damages, developing the site response ground motions, evaluation of liquefaction and a performance assessment of the three primary piers and waterfront structures. The study is intended to aid the goal of timely and effective emergency response measures and restoration of services with limited locally available resources and low-cost mitigation measures. The FEMA recommendations are useful for evaluating seismic hazard mitigation at port facilities in American territories in the Pacific and the rest of the country, where ports have been constructed with similar design criteria and are subject to similar risks.