In Hawaii things are complicated by all the valleys and mountains, tall buildings and other obstructions, but just because repeaters are down, it does not mean your VHF station or HT is useless. Conducting nets on simplex is a bit trickier than on a powerful repeater, but it is a critical skill for emergency operations. The basic simplex net control techniques are easy to understand if you apply common sense. The Howling Curse of Beeper Intermod Intermod is the biggest problem in areas like Honolulu. HT's are notorious for being susceptible.
Various filters exist to help.
Some mobile rigs such as the Yaesu FT-2500 have very good front ends with tuned sections and have a good intermod resistance, vastly superior to the average Kenwood Handheld for instance. But even these rigs benefit from a heavy duty bandpass filter like the DCI unit for base station use with a good outdoor antenna. The problem is that if you install a better antenna than just the factory supplied rubber duckie, you often overwhelm your HT with intermod, unless you also add some kind of filter. One excellent filter is made by DCI , a Canadian Company. It is chunky but it works like a champ to make VHF operation possible and pleasant in even the worst areas.