For months now, the West Maui Taxpayers Association (WMTA) has been working with the Maui Emergency Management Agency, Pacific Disaster Center and the State Emergency Management Agency to develop a customized disaster plan designed to meet West Maui’s specific needs.

The next meeting, “This is Not a Drill,” on Wednesday, Feb. 28, at 5:30 p.m. at the West Maui Senior Center should be interesting.

General Bruce Oliveira, community programs director at the Hawaii State Department of Defense, will lead the meeting on the topic of developing a community emergency plan.

Oliveira was scheduled to speak last month, but he was tied up due to his urgent responsibilities as leading official in the internal investigation of Hawaii’s false missile alert.

Disaster response agencies identified the need for an emergency plan due to the region’s isolation from Maui Memorial Medical Center and Kahului Airport due to frequent road closures, fires and flooding.

The meeting is free and open to the public. More information on disaster preparedness can be found at www.westmaui.org.

WMTA invites everyone “to join us and be a part of the solution to plans that may well be the reason why lives will be saved when disasters strike.”