With the recent storm events or any other events of personal signicance

What have you learned?
Will change? Asap? As money permits? As time permits? Want to learn more about?  Other or related

I need a better way to collect and store water. Also add a battery system to my PV.

Honda eu2000, catchment system, and above all else,  a dome home.  We keep dodging bullets.  What happens if a category 4 or 5 come through?

I need a better way to collect and store water. Also add a battery system to my PV.

One can never have enough 5 gal. buckets/covers. Hookup with someone in the restaurant/drive in business. They got food grade buckets. Painting contractors have tons of buckets if you look in their baseyard.

My wife has far too much loose crap on the back lanai.

Easy to lug Honda eu2000 remains one of the best things I ever bought.  Carried it out back and ran the big fridge for a good while.  Never kicked out of the "eco" low speed mode.

Better management of extension cords.

.

I learned that people are still dumb and that maybe we deserve to get smashed by a natural disaster to thin the population of people who are incapable of possessing basic common sense.

For instance: some people I spoke to had ZERO stored water, no first aid, no emergency energy/cooking capabilities, no emergency gas, no emergency food (aside from canned corn),  no contingency plan,  and when asked what they would do in the event of a serious threat, "We will just drive to so-and-so's house."

what's also gonna be fun is that all the people that overspent their budgets on propane, stoves, water, TP, ramen, canned goods, generators, etc are going to be flooding the stores trying to return everything

Maybe a good time to buy a generator after the storm when people try to recuperate their expenses.

what's also gonna be fun is that all the people that overspent their budgets on propane, stoves, water, TP, ramen, canned goods, generators, etc are going to be flooding the stores trying to return everything

IOW, too stupid to realize there will be more storms, or earthquakes that knock out the cheesy Oahu power grid again.

The word "Island" has many implications, being isolated is only one of them, but one that fools seem to forget when there are supermarkets all over the place.

Routinely check and maintain supplies-
2/6 walkie/talkie radios antennaes found broken
Not enough batteries AAA for walkie/talkies
Buy more duct tape and keep a part from normal usage stuff. GF was using emergency stash for idiotic stuff day to day
Consolidate everything better. I have a small cart for events, but still had to dig for other things and I would've missed things in a rush
Develop check lists and playbook for events. Hurricanes. Tropical storms. Civil unrest. Earthquakes. Shelter in place or other. Actions for different levels. Water. Food. House duties. Security. Etc. 3min and 30min evacuation lists.


Think one of my tenets jacked my gasone butane stove. Got to buy another with a large supply of backup. Had table propane grill though.

I want to get 2 rucks and 2 hand carts and add a crate to them. Always have loaded with minimums and checklists attached of to grabs in extended evacuations.

Buy Bob water bladders. Been meaning to these past few months but haven't, loaded it on Amazon a few times but deleted do to numerous 5G bottles. Had a hard time locating all bottles.

Maybe a good time to buy a generator after the storm when people try to recuperate their expenses.

I heard my neighbor running his Yamaha genny this morning. Was a lilttle louder than my Honda. Not sure how fuel efficient it is tho.

I've had my Honda for several years now. Yesterday was the first time I brought it out for an emergency. I use it every now and then off the back of the truck to run power tools.

Ultimately I think I still need work on my
Consolidation of supplies. Ability to access them asap. Vs they're spread over house.

Need more supplies
More dried goods. Beans. Rice. In buckets For long term. Maintain minimum supply of sardines and tuna.
Bob. And more 5G containers consolidated not spread in several spots.
Written Action plans. Family doesn't know what to do without me and I can't know or recall all, as well as both gf and I will likely be recalled or on shift.
Rucks with carts.
Weapon and security checks as written checkpoints.

To dos
Practice cooking in similar situations.
Consolidate goods and various go bags. Have checklist for "to grab "I had cart for many of my goods but not all which took time and effort. Need ability to go in 3minutes.

Better flash lights and better organization. Though everything was setup before the nonexistent power outage and ready to go - it could have been easier to deploy.

Everyone has great ideas for prepping here. I noticed a lot is focused on food and weapons. I haven't seen too much on securing the home.  Once the roof blows off, everything in the home is pretty much done. All the stockpiling at home won't do much good if a wall blows out. a tree crushes the house, or the roof blows off. There's a need to secure the house. Lumber...lots of lumber. Screws, nails, and rope. I favor those ratchet tie downs. You can secure something down real quick with those. I can fit about 2 dozen in a 5 gal. bucket when stored.

Good idea on securing home.
I need more rope. I had 2rolls of utility rope.
To charge the screw gun. Wood screws. Cheap tarps.

I also wondered on security. Motion sensor battery operated LED lights were a thought for perimeter awareness. Light line and old cans w rocks in them work in the movies on non gusty days.

Seeing all the downed trees a chainsaw, sharpener and fuel would be a good one to have in the vehicle. I already had several gloves and small folding handshake... but trying to get thru multiple trunks several feet across would be unreal.

I have 16 security cameras outside with 24 IR led lamps each. The range on the night vision is about 25 feet. I was watching everything going on outside from my desk. The power went out at about 11pm. My UPS backup (500 va) lasted about 2 1/2 hours running a 32" LED monitor, the DVR, and all the cameras. I'll get a 1000 va to replace it and maybe use the 500 as a source for the monitor only. It may be able to last most of the night.

I have 16 security cameras outside with 24 IR led lamps each. The range on the night vision is about 25 feet. I was watching everything going on outside from my desk. The power went out at about 11pm. My UPS backup (500 va) lasted about 2 1/2 hours running a 32" LED monitor, the DVR, and all the cameras. I'll get a 1000 va to replace it and maybe use the 500 as a source for the monitor only. It may be able to last most of the night.

Depending on who makes your UPS, sometimes you can buy a "piggy back" unit to augment the UPS battery.  It's like attaching 2 more batteries to the first UPS for 3 times the up-time/capacity.

Here's an example:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0047E5B90/?tag=2ahawaii-20

If you have a compatible UPS already that's working, you can spend about the same for these "extension" batteries and triple the power availability.

 

Thanks mauidog. I'll be looking it up when I get through all the other top priority stuff here. I used to have APC, but I had one that blew (literally) when it took a surge. The APC  CS didn't get a replacement back to me for 2 weeks after the initial call. I'm using a Tripp Lite 1000va from Costco for the computer. I left it on right through the whole storm to see how it handled. Had countless surge alarms and power dropouts all the way up to the main outage. 

Great idea ! Thanks again, mauidog !     

My yard floods in heavy rain.  It's only happened once, but it's happened once.  I want to get a couple of folding tables just so I can get all my floor-level storage off the ground.  I managed it with some extensive shuffling and selective saving, but it would have been SO much easier just to pop up two tables!