Homeowners built the state's $185 million hurricane relief fund by paying a surcharge added to their hurricane insurance premiums. It's an asset that helped to stabilize the insurance marketplace that locally was upheaved in the aftermath of Hurricane Iniki, the 1992 storm that devastated Kaua'i and the Wai'anae Coast.

It's still an asset today and the state should preserve at least enough of the fund to ensure Hawai'i has the contingency plan it needs to recover from a future storm.

The close approach of Hurricane Felicia serves as a stark reminder of the Islands' vulnerability, a worry that had faded since Iniki has receded to the background.

The fund was created in 1993 after private insurance carriers, overburdened by post-Iniki claims, left the market or restricted renewals and new hurricane insurance policies.

This set off a cascade of problems for property owners unable to meet requirements for insurance under financing and mortgage regulations. A wave of foreclosures is not something that any economy wants to sustain, as the repercussions of the current financial crisis have demonstrated so clearly.

Managers of the state fund stepped into the insurance void and headed off disaster by writing new policies. J.P. Schmidt, state insurance commissioner, said that the private companies, seeing the state fund as a safety net, felt secure enough to re-enter the market.

The private carriers now have the reserve they need to see them through losses incurred in the next storm; but the fund is needed to keep properties covered for the hurricane after that.

In a fiscal crisis, it should be possible to tap the fund to some extent. State funds can be leveraged to provide more coverage through purchasing reinsurance or other means.

Policymakers need to set a minimum balance that would suffice to keep the fund viable for an emergency; above that point, it's reasonable to tap the fund for other uses.

But the fund was built to provide security — a reason that's every bit as compelling today as it was in 1993.