Fleets of free buses evacuate Hawai'i people to safety

Yet another excellent reason for free transport:

A larger mass transit system to evacuate massive crowds of people during a civil emergency.

Hawai'i has free island-wide bus services on all scheduled routes.

As you can see in this report - the free buses were mobilized to quickly clear people to higher ground as the Chile tsunami approached.

Compare this to the total chaos as thousands tried to flee Katrina in their cars & clogged the New Orleans 'freeways'.

FareFreeNZ editor

Hawaii begins evacuation as tsunami nears

• From correspondents in Honolulu
• From: AFP
• February 28, 2010 3:38AM

• RESIDENTS in coastal areas of Hawaii were being told to evacuate as the Pacific island chain braced for a tsunami following the huge 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile, officials said.

Tsunami sirens were due to sound at 6am local time Saturday (3am Sunday AEDT) to alert residents of the possibility of destructive waves, forecast to reach the islands by 11.19am Saturday local time (7.19am Sunday AEDT) , according to emergency management officials.

"If you live anywhere in the evacuation zone, you have to evacuate," John Cummings, Oahu Emergency Management Department spokesman, told local media.

"We're going to treat this as a destructive-type tsunami."

It is the first time Hawaii has experienced voluntary tsunami evacuation since 1994. Emergency services have fleets of public buses to provide free transport for anyone needing to leave evacuation zones.