Are we ready for our next hurricane?

[Palolo Joe]

Re: Remembering the lessons from 'Iniki

The other sad conclusion is that each and every person has to be responsible for his/her own personal survival for at least 3-4 days before any government assistance might be available.

Which isn't anything new. Past hurricanes both here and on the mainland taught us a long time ago that we need to be ready for a couple of days on our own.

The bigger issue is making sure all Hawaii residents are prepared for the next hurricane. Most of them know what they should be doing, but that doesn't translate into going out and getting the necessary items in order to actually be prepared.

[pzarquon]

Re: Remembering the lessons from 'Iniki

Most of them know what they should be doing, but that doesn't translate into going out and getting the necessary items in order to actually be prepared.

Sure we do. We just do it the night before the storm makes landfall, swamping Longs and practically coming to blows at the toilet paper display.

[Miulang]

Re: Remembering the lessons from 'Iniki

Sure we do. We just do it the night before the storm makes landfall, swamping Longs and practically coming to blows at the toilet paper display.

But Ryan, wouldn't it be more reassuring to know with confidence that you have all your emergency stuff ready to go instead of being one of those "stream of consciousness" procrastinators who has to swamp Longs and fight for the toilet paper, cans of Spam and rice, or wait in long lines at the gas station immediately before the event? Or maybe people feel that way because you probably would get advance warning of most natural disasters that might befall Hawai'i (except maybe for a tremendous undersea earthquake near Hawai'i which triggers a tsunami, like in Asia last year), so you would have time to meander out for supplies.

The major disaster we have to worry about up here is earthquakes, and we don't get any warning when those might hit, so we have to be prepared ahead of time.

Miulang

[Palolo Joe]

Re: Are we ready for our next hurricane?

Calm down... I think he simply forgot the obligatory "just kidding" emoticon.

[helen]

Re: Are we ready for our next hurricane?

Certain things have a shelf life, like batteries. So when the hurricane season starts, stock up, when it ends, use them. Same thing could be said for the canned goods and bottled water.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Are we ready for our next hurricane?

Just be like me...I plan on two major camping trips every year so I normally stock up on canned goods and camping gear for a week of roughing it.

If a hurricane hits at least I have my gear for me and my family to survive on. Two essentials I have in my camping gear is my Coleman double burner propane stove and my Coleman double mantle propane lantern.

Keep powdered milk in the pantry to keep the kids happy with their Captain Crunch cereal while the world blows up around you.

Instead of batteries for a radio (that may not pick up a radio station downed from lack of electricity), I keep a hand-crank radio/flashlight handy.

But if you do some major camping, you're halfway prepared with the hardware needed to survive the after effects of a natural disaster. In my pantry I have those extra large ziplock bags that can hold pillows in them. If you gotta grab and run because a tsunami is bearing down on your home, these bags are essential to throwing stuff in and running like hell.

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: Are we ready for our next hurricane?

I read somewhere that Mormons are expected by their church to keep a large stock of food and water. Is this true? I heard it was in preparation for the End Times, or maybe it's a holdover from the 19th century frontier days, but whatever the reason, it's still a good idea in case of a hurricane too.

Edit: I guess I read it right:

“We continue to encourage members to store sufficient food, clothing, and where possible fuel for at least one year."

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Are we ready for our next hurricane?

I read somewhere that Mormons are expected by their church to keep a large stock of food and water. Is this true? I heard it was in preparation for the End Times, or maybe it's a holdover from the 19th century frontier days, but whatever the reason, it's still a good idea in case of a hurricane too.

Hey Glen are you telling us it's a good idea to be Mormons in the wake of a hurricane? At least we won't have to worry about rising gas prices because we'll have our trusty Schwinn's to bike around in.

One thing about being in an area with no county waterlines is that I have about 10,000 gallons of water and proper filtering in my my catchment tanks.

As for large stock of food, yeah my pantry is always stocked to the gills because I have such a large family (lots of kids).

I guess I'm ready...not a Mormon...maybe I better check it out on sound advice from you

[Miulang]

Re: Are we ready for our next hurricane?

Regarding Mormons and their teaching that they need to be prepared for the Apocalypse (and any "minor" devastation between now and then)...

Up in Idaho (there are a lot of LDS up there), when the Salmon River overflowed and broke through dams and flooded towns in the 1980's, the Mormons were the only ones who had enough food and water stocked up to live decently through the rebuilding of their towns. They even had enough that they were able to share with their non-LDS neighbors.

Some of their secular beliefs do boggle the mind, but in the case of disaster preparedness, we can all learn from them. And they're not as crazy as them thar survivalists, who basically do the same thing with storing up large quantities of food and water, in preparation for the times when the ATF agents will try to storm their compounds.
Miulang

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Are we ready for our next hurricane?

Sounds a bit Wako (as in Texas) to me.

[Miulang]

Re: Are we ready for our next hurricane?

Sounds a bit Wako (as in Texas) to me.

Eh Craig, when you were stationed at Mountain Home, weren't there a lot of townies who were members of the LDS church? I know the word "town" is relative in this case ...how many buildings did the town center have? Everytime we drove past there on the interstate, it looked like Mountain Home, ID was one lonely little diner up on a hill...

Miulang

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Are we ready for our next hurricane?

Yeah that diner was a truck stop that served up some of the greasiest eggs on the planet and boy were they fabulous (even with soda...Hi Helen)

But the interstate you went on cut thru the back side of Mountain home after passing the diner so you never saw the town itself, just the backside of the homes in the outer sector of that small town. Had you took the off ramp to the town you'd have passed Radio Shack and a Red Barn restaurant before entering the town itself.

Mountain Home was a very small town. It had one barber shop. As a matter of fact one day I was sitting on the bench outside the barber shop on the sidewalk talking to the town Sheriff about Bass fishing!

Watch an old episode of Mayberry RFD and you'll get a good idea of what Mountain Home is like. That town was so boring the biggest thing to do on a Friday evening was to go to Safeway and challenge anyone hanging around the Asteroids video game next to the exit for the evening's high score. I got so bored I joined the Mountain Home Sagebrush Shufflers, doing a lot of round dancing (similar to square dancing) and took up macramae (true story).

We did have a fairly decent LDS crowd there but that group was more north than Mountain Home. We did have a lot of Arian Nation skinheads which made my stay there a very memorable one...they hated everyone but themselves. I had to knock some sense in some of them once or twice a month or so. I would tell them, "Hey we were on the same side during WWII dammit!"

[Walkoff Balk]

Sam Neill says the 'Jurassic Park" cast 'came very close' to dying when a Category 4 hurricane struck (yahoo.com)

Real Mother Nature tops any Hollywood's special effects.

[Walkoff Balk]

Hawaii could see above-average hurricane season | Honolulu Star-Advertiser (staradvertiser.com)

Be prepared.

[Walkoff Balk]

Calvin is on track toward Hawaii island as weak tropical storm | Honolulu Star-Advertiser (staradvertiser.com)

Be prepared just in case.