Are You Prepared?
By Braddah Lance
Howzit Howzit!
Well it's an overcast gloomy kine of Feel Good Friday and it kinda takes da thunda away from it being a Friday.
But nevah da less, it's about eight hours - and counting - from pau hana time and we all can't wait to go home and do nothing. 
One thing you can do this weekend though is to check your basic bare essentials in case of hurricane or emergency like batteries, flashlights and canned goods. Hurricane season has started off with a bang and already up to "Fabio" (currently a tropical storm) so it looks like we'll be a bit more interested in da weather reports for da next few months.
Don't wait till it hits, at da very least just have a "kit" ready and you won't have to make a mad dash if/wen you might be caught off guard.
We got a stockpile to last World War III even moreso cause Da Baby stay in our lives so we get choke goods in our cupboard along with empty containers to fill wit watah, batteries up da wazoo and always get one stash of charcoal for da grill. We also freeze a few liter watah bottles and leave 'em in da freezah so if da powah goes out we throw 'em in da fridge side to help keep things cold and then you also get cold watah fo' drink once it starts melting. 
Da only thing we no stockpile is toilet papah but I told Da Wife we get plenty newspapahs and leaves in da yard. 
Do you have kit prepared and if so, wat you got inside? Or are you one of those dat wait for da sirens before you head down? Do you remembah wat you was doing in any of da hurricanes we've had? Have you been affected by one? Wat was da craziest thing you saw or heard about it? I still remembah hearing people going to surf wen a hurricane alert was sent out and I vaguely remembah Hurrican Iwa (oops, earlier I said Iniki) as my Dad's shop was a mess and I was wondering if our home was still going to stand aftah it passed through.
So go check 'em, go check 'em, go check 'em go and no be da ones bum rushing da stores and causing traffic eh.
Shoots!
k-den
*** And yes, I have read your posts as well but just haven't gotten a chance to reply.... which I will do very soon. 
Wassup Wit Dat!
July 13th, 2012 at 8:56 am
1st, in a long time!
Yup, prepared for earthquakes.
July 13th, 2012 at 9:01 am
They recommend prepare for 3 days. Uh-uh . . . ready for 5-7 days with canned foods, medicines, water, batteries, flashlights, etc. all packed in a water-proof container. Also ready but not packed: charcoal, fuel, generator, and 1st aid kits. General knowledge: up-to-date CPR/1st Aid certification.
July 13th, 2012 at 9:04 am
Howzit BL!
I tink we stay ok wit the guuds for one emergency.
July 13th, 2012 at 9:15 am
,,,yes and no, got sum stuf but otha stuf no. wife incharge, me to lazy. kno we got gallons of watah in jugs in underground parking cabinet. maybee 6 years old, so by now stale and rancid. live 3 story condo in CAlifornia, with underground parking, we live on 2nd floor, plenty shake last time big quake occur. Got bag under bed with walking shoes. etc.
July 13th, 2012 at 9:17 am
Happy FGF everyone!
We have about 5 days with of dry/canned foods but no bottled water. Got everything else though... thinking about buying a small back-up generator but expensive and I have to read up on how to hook the buggah up.
With hurricane Iwa, I was 12 yrs old so I was home with mom and dad.
Hurricane Iniki, now that's a different story. I was out in the ocean off of Waianae with my brother trying to catch some marlins. The prices at the auction house was good the prior days so wanted to sneak in a couple of hours before the hurricane hit.
July 13th, 2012 at 9:36 am
We are ready, we have MRE's, flashlight w/ new batteries, extra clothes, beers, snax the whole works! Every year we go thru a fam bam meeting of where to go and what to do with our dogs. Better safe than sorry!
Happy Aloha Friday World!
July 13th, 2012 at 9:38 am
toilet paypah...check
Spam...check
bottled wahtah...check
battrees...check
propane in da grill...check
Ona side note: I was 25 wen Iniki hit and I went to Kauai with my dad on one of the first flight into Kauai wit da civil defense and army engineers. To view the damage on theisland was mind numbing. We wen fix my unkos roof and my grammas garage wen fall ova. Strange seeing wan house fall ova and wan next to it suffering litto or no damage at all.
July 13th, 2012 at 9:40 am
I neva eat so many MRE's in my life but so it goes wen git plenty gov'ment cheese too.
July 13th, 2012 at 10:46 am
I have enough TP to last a few weeks
Yep I ready too. Just gotta get my generator from son-in-law. Borrow no return
July 13th, 2012 at 2:45 pm
I stay all good just wen get one full keg
July 14th, 2012 at 1:00 am
Yup. I have an amateur radio license and a battery-operated ham radio w/antenna; can talk town-side w/ no trouble. Volunteer for Dept. of Emergency Management, so I get the warnings early enough so can tell my neighbors & friends what to expect, etc. Comes in real handy if you don't wanna feed your neighbors cuz they aren't prepared.
Was in Ewa back in '82 - Hawaii Kai side. Nuts moving from town to HKai with the wind, traffic & all! Missed Iniki, but had friends who lived through it on Kauai. Ewa scared the bejebus outta me, so heck yeah I'm prepared now! All kine canned beans & veggies, 2 Mr. Hotman portable stoves w/a case of fuel cans; porta-potty (plastic 5 gal bucket, trash bags) & lotsa TP... Fo'GET the newspaper & leaves, lol! Also got me a couple of those Costco food buckets - the kine with 200 meals that lasts like 20 years or something. Not sure I'd wanna eat it if it was that old, but hey better than nothin'!
I have a toolkit, plenty batteries & flashlight(s); battery booster pack to run my ham radio & for 12 volt lighting, battery-operated transistor radio, and large tarps/duct tape, too, incase of leaks, broken windows, etc. Never can have enough duct tape! I also have LANDLINE with corded handset & DSL so can go online even though the power's out. Not sayin' that would be the case should we have a knock-down, drag-out hurricane run through the Windward side, but for HECO disruptions, works for me.
I also keep water bottles in the freezer & move them down to the fridge when the power goes off, but I doubt I'd drink it unless there was no water anywhere. Plastic bottles we use aren't really made to last forever; chemical leaching is a worry. Still better than no water, but I'm making sure I have plenty! Got several of those 5 gal. Menehune bottles stashed. Most folks don't realize that you need at least 1 gal of water per person, per day (drinking, cooking, etc.)
We have been warned over & over again that there are not enough shelters on the island for everyone, so if you're not prepared you're possibly going to be a burden to someone who is, so be prepared! Also, we should have enough food & water for 7 days, minimum. For more information, please check out http://www1.honolulu.gov/dem/survkit.htm & http://www.scd.hawaii.gov/preparedness.html
For a good website, try Nixle: http://local.nixle.com/county/hi/honolulu/
Many agencies contribute to this site, including the Dept. of Emergency Management.
Mahaloz for the much-needed talk on preparedness, Braddah Lance!
July 14th, 2012 at 1:03 am
OOPs I typed 'Ewa' instead of "Iwa"
July 14th, 2012 at 11:11 am
I have TP, batteries, radio, flashlight, lantern, plenny socks (cuz gotta wear athletic shoes if the neighborhood get all bus' yah?), blankets, ... still gotta have more in the prepared box.
I would always go to my brother's house and he has the equivalent of a prepared bomb shelter's worth of stuff. LOL We'll never starve.
Kidding aside, can only pray I will be okay.