Storm preparation/buying tips

[helen]

Re: Storm Preparation/buying tips~

Picked up liquid Tide, masking tape, some C batteries and 2 gallon jug. I might pick up a second 2 gallon jug tomorrow, use these jugs for non-drinking water storage.

[Vanguard]

Re: Storm Preparation/buying tips~

Optimally, how does one prepare for a hurricane insurance-wise?

This bit of news that came to light after Katrina was disturbing to me;

http://www.usatoday.com/money/indust...ate-farm_x.htm

Haggling over water and wind. Did these people simply choose the wrong insurance agency? Would getting the very best home insurance + flood insurance be the best thing to do?

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Storm preparation/buying tips

I have Hurricane insurance. In Hawaii it's wise for any homeowner to have that and Earthquake insurance as well.

Make sure your homeowners insurance covers flooding as hurricane insurance probably won't cover rising water...falling water they'll cover but water coming up they won't even if it's from the same source...so...get flood insurance as well.

One of my co-workers just bought a new car the other day and State Farm insurance told him they would refuse to insure his car until after Flossie passes.

WHAT? Now that is real CHICKEN SH*T. I told him to call AIG.

[GeckoGeek]

Re: Storm Preparation/buying tips~

Haggling over water and wind. Did these people simply choose the wrong insurance agency?

I think the article explained it. They were insured against wind damage, but not flood. In that case, how the home got destroyed become important.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Storm preparation/buying tips

I wished there was a single house insurance that covers any type of damage to the house as long as the homeowner didn't intentionally cause it.

[Miulang]

Re: Hurricane Information...

Interesting info about computers, hard drives and what can happen to them in a hurricane from a survivor of Iniki.

Miulang

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Hurricane Information...

And to think I always thought hard drives were sealed units.

[Pomai]

Re: Storm Preparation/buying tips: Return Policies

At the Hilo Home Depot, all the cheap 4x8 plyboard sheets were sold out. What makes me think in a couple of days we'll see those sheets come back as returns with nail holes in em

Just curious, has anyone noticed any modified store policies for emergency preparedness-related items?

Such as...

NO RETURNS OR EXCHANGES ON (open or unopened):
Bottled Water
Canned Foods
Toilet Paper
Flashlights
Batteries
Plywood
Sand bags
Masking Tape
Power Generators
Coolers
etc.

???

After the storm passes, there will be those who otherwise don't really have room or want to stockpile such items around their home or apartments and might try to return them. Especially date-sensitive items like disposable batteries, or bulky items like cases of bottled of water or multiple packs of toilet paper.

Really, they should hold on to these things at least until the end of November when Hurricane season ends.

We are. After that, we'll probably end up consuming it for daily use.

[helen]

Re: Hurricane Information...

That letter to the editor is incorrect on a few things.

1. Hurricanes are higher pressure systems (remember the eye or calm part is the lower pressure part of a hurricane)
2. I can believe the external electronics (which is exposed) of a disk drive being disabled by salt but not inside the sealed disk platters.
3. I can believe the media surface of floppies and Zip disk being harmed by salt since those are not sealed.

I am guessing that this person is assuming that a computer tower and the internal hard drive inside of that tower is the same thing.

Then again computers in the early 1990s were around the 10Mbyte range, way different from today's hard drives.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Storm preparation/buying tips

I overheard one sales associate tell a customer who jokingly told him that if the storm passes he'll returnt he plywood that we wouldn't take it back with nail holes in them.

Whether it's true or not I don't think it's a nice thing to return items after it's been used for it's intended purpose.

We see a lot of returns everyday, sometimes we have to use our descretion and take each return on a case by case basis. One guy actually returned all of his concrete form pins (square metal stakes used to set up the wooden concrete forms) after he finished his concrete pour. At least try to remove the dirt and splattered concrete before attempting this.

He bitched and yelled to the point where we finally just took it back just to shut this bastard up. As he left I told another co-worker that God has a place for assholes like that. I made sure he heard that remark too.

Now I can see if you bought it, put it in your garage and kept it dry and returned it the next day unused. But some people buy a generator, take it camping then return it Monday saying it didn't work for them and get their money back. Why in the world we have a rental department is beyond me. Why rent when you can buy and return for free. I don't know how some people can wake up in the morning and look at themselves in the mirror and believe they did nothing wrong and go thruout the day with no guilty feelings.

After working retail for three years I've come to the conclusion that Hell will be a crowded place.

[Lei Liko]

Re: Storm preparation/buying tips

Our kit's been well stocked since the great power outage of 2006 so luckily all we had to pick up was water and a few miscellaneous items from the store.

While my mom was loading the cases of water in her cart, I went and got 4 bottles of wine. 2 reds, 2 white -- just in case my preferred grape taste changed in the event Flossie hit. Aaaaand my carton of cigarettes. I got a lot of stares as walked through the aisles and had a chuckle when a guy saw my 'necessities' and proceeded to do the same thing.

[acousticlady]

Re: Storm preparation/buying tips

I haven't chimed in on the whole hurricane discussion, but trust me, it's not that I haven't been aware or haven't cared. As to prep - I grew up in hurricane alley. It's been drummed into my head - always be prepared (my Dad must have been a boy scout). Seriously though. I am always ready for a hurricane. And I'm always aware of storm conditions. Never trust a storm. I been through enough storms to know. Don't trust em till they're gone. When this is all over I'll tell you the story of the 1-2-3 punch of Francis, Jean and Charlie.

I will add that when I was little all hurricanes were named after girls. I once asked why and was told it was because hurricanes, like girls are unpredictable.

[helen]

Re: Storm preparation/buying tips

Long's Drugs at Ala Moana still have their stock of batteries, in fact there were overflowing with packs of 6 to 8 AA batteries by Duracell that had some sort of earphone like device in the package.

Picked up a better portable radio at Radio Shack tonight. They too have batteries in stock.

[Star of Gladness]

Re: Storm preparation/buying tips

After working retail for three years I've come to the conclusion that Hell will be a crowded place.

do you think there will be a line to get in?

[GeckoGeek]

Re: Hurricane Information...

It is correct that "sealed" hard drives do have vents. But they have filters. I'm not sure as I buy the rest of the story. I don't know about salt, but perhaps there is a point about the humidity being forced into the unit because of the sudden pressure change.

In terms of computer design, Iniki was a very long time ago. I did maintain a computer system over there. That computer survived just fine. But it was one of industrial strength design. Something like 500MB. (It was part of a mini/super mini computer) Not like the usual 30MB found in PCs of the day.