Storm preparation/buying tips

[Karen]

Re: Storm Preparation/buying tips~

Sue, I bought a bathtub stopper today, too. Had one but it slowly leaks. Oh wow, so body mint really works! Thanks cuz I have wondered but never knew. Now I am wondering if I use it and eat two fat cloves of raw garlic several days in a row, if it can even work for that. sure will be a fun experiment to try.

I got myself a crank flashlight today. we have crank radios and they have a weak LED light, so figured a better one made sense.

Garbage cans that don't stink, large 3or or so gallon ones are great for storing water in to use to flush the toilet. I found some on sale a few years back and so that's taken care of.

Bottle coffee isn't cheap so I have instant coffee and the powdered creamer. I think I can handle anything as long as I have my caffeine.

Bought cans of our favorite chunky soups today, and plenty of tuna. The dog and cats have extra food, and we have extra baby wipes, and will gas the car Monday or tuesday. the yard's mowed, but I feel like I'll get an urge to do things I"m forgetting when Monday arrives.

I bought one case of bottled water and will get more. I can't remember when I bought even my newer cases, but they won't be wasted cuz once the water's off it's amazing how many uses we realize we had for water. It will all get used.

Great ideas, thanks, y'all.

[tutusue]

Re: Storm Preparation/buying tips~

Forgot to mention...I scanned important docs (SS card, birth certificate, brief medical history, drivers license), burned 'em on a CD and vacuum sealed the CD in plastic with my Foodsaver! It stays in the hurricane kit. If it ends up floating down Ala Moana the finder will have a field day with stealing my identity!

[SusieMisajon]

Re: Storm Preparation/buying tips~

Not just for pandemics...

http://www.hawaiithreads.com/showthr...light=pandemic

[tutusue]

Re: Storm Preparation/buying tips~

Now, how did my morning, sluggish brain know, prior to reading your reply, that you'd reference your beloved pandemic, Susie?

[mel]

Re: Storm Preparation/buying tips~

Forgot to mention...I scanned important docs (SS card, birth certificate, brief medical history, drivers license), burned 'em on a CD and vacuum sealed the CD in plastic with my Foodsaver! It stays in the hurricane kit. If it ends up floating down Ala Moana the finder will have a field day with stealing my identity!

If you have a gmail account or something like that you can email those scans to yourself as an attachment and its stored on a server far, far away from Hawaii.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Storm Preparation/buying tips~

A small container of unscented Clorox...
16 drops to a gallon of water...let sit for 30 min...will make tainted water drinkable albeit with a slight bleach taste. I'd rather taste bleach than get sick! I was looking into buying water purification tablets but the majority of what I read said bleach is...the best...the cheapest...the most effective.

Oh, and I bought a bunch of space blankets for $1.99 each at Sports Authority.

In my survival class in the military we were taught to use only three drops per gallon. One way to get clean water with Clorox is to use your drip coffee maker. Pour the chlorinated water thru a coffee filter to take out the sediment and let it drip into your carafe. Better yet keep a few new carbon filters available from pet stores. Put your coffee filter in the basket first then put the charcoal activated carbon filter on top then pour the chlorinated water thru it letting the purified water (minus the chlorine and sediement) drip into the carafe.

I keep several large (the biggest I could find at Walmart) tarps and tiedown ropes in the shed. If a hurricane hits and takes off your roof or parts of it and your house is still intact including your expensive furniture and Plasma TV set but exposed to the elements from a gaping hole in your ceiling, a large tarp covering the opening will help keep your things you cherish dry. If the hole is too large you can then use those tarps to cover most items within your home.

I also keep a strong power inverter handy with a long extension and a powerful wet/dry vacuum handy. When there's no power and your carpet is soaking wet from a gaping hole, you can power up your vacuum thru your car's battery and inverter to suck up the muck before it drys and molds up your home.

Surviving the storm is one thing, cleaning up is the bastard of storms.

[SusieMisajon]

Re: Storm Preparation/buying tips~

Now, how did my morning, sluggish brain know, prior to reading your reply, that you'd reference your beloved pandemic, Susie?

Because you love me.

[Karen]

Re: Storm Preparation/buying tips~

Tarps! dang I bet we don't even own two, or only that. I have six rolls of duct tape but thanks! tarps, we need more of them.

[tutusue]

Re: Storm Preparation/buying tips~

If you have a gmail account or something like that you can email those scans to yourself as an attachment and its stored on a server far, far away from Hawaii.

Oh, good idea. I can do that with my maxemail account!

[adrian]

Re: Storm Preparation/buying tips~

Trust me, you don't want to be working retail when there is a warning or watch. It's just crazy at Costco, Sams, and the Grocery stores. I've seen 3 pallets of bottled water go out in less than 2 1/2 hours.

Trust me, I didn't want to work during the 4th of July week.

I wonder if Walmart still has those bottled waters for cheap?

[adrian]

Re: Storm Preparation/buying tips~

If you have a gmail account or something like that you can email those scans to yourself as an attachment and its stored on a server far, far away from Hawaii.

Maybe the people (me included) who has domains can help by turning our unused space to host people's important stuff.

[Karen]

Re: Storm Preparation/buying tips~

Could people send such personal things to you even if they didn't know you, and have confidence that they'd have privacy? I bet you are a wonderful person, but when people don't know a person, they just don't. How would that work? It sure is thoughtful and generous of you, but man are we all scared of the dang identity theft problem, ya know?

Hotmail and gmail do offer huge amounts of space these days, even for free. I have eight pages of saved emails in one box and it says I'm using a really small amount of my alotted space.

[Palolo Joe]

Re: Storm Preparation/buying tips~

Never mind.

[lavagal]

Re: Storm Preparation/buying tips~

Wasn't East Honolulu one of the last areas to come back on? I think the top of Waialae Nui ridge was *the* last...the following day. Parts of Kakaako didn't light up until after 11p whereas Makaha was up and running about 8 hours earlier. I drove from Portlock to Kakaako around 10p and it was pitch black all the way to Kahala. From Kahala to Kakaako the lights were partially on. There seemed to be no rhyme nor reason to when the electricity returned altho' there probably was was within HECO!

I remember when the lights came on...about 11:45 p.m. the whole house lit up, and I must have jumped two feet off of my bed in response! the peace had ended. I walked around and adjusted all the digitals and shut out the lights before going back to sleep.

[helen]

Re: Storm Preparation/buying tips~

Picked up canned food today at Sam's Club. So I am pretty much set in that area. It didn't seem any different at either Sam's Club or Wal-Mart this afternoon.