HONOLULU (KHON2) — Hurricane Kiko continues to move towards the Central Pacific, and while there’s still a lot of unknown surrounding it, you can still get ahead on preparing both for Kiko and for the rest of storm season.
The difference between Kiko and last month’s tsunami warning is that there’s more than a few hours to get ready.
“Right now, you can really be more prepared because there’s time,” said Jennifer Walter, Deputy Director of the Department of Emergency Management. “So things like making sure your car is full of gas, there’s time to do that, to get to the store.”
Yesterday, KHON spoke with officials on supplies and planning for evacuation routes. Today, more was shared on preparing your homes, from both the inside and out.
“Look around the outside of your home, or if you live in a condo, on the Lanai, what do you have there that’s going to become a missile in a high wind event?” said Walter. “So flower pots, maybe you have a carport near your house with surfboards, things like that.”
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“You’re supposed to protect the envelope of the house, so that means the windows,” said Dennis Hwang, member of the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program, and co-author of “Homeowner’s Handbook”, when asked for recommendations on preparation. “A lot of times, we see people who have their roofs leaking. They have flat, they have plastic sheeting. Sheeting in advance and that could help prevent flooding damage inside the house here.”
Now is also the chance to head over to your local hardware store, and stock up on supplies that could come in handy before the storm.
“We carry everything from flashlights, lanterns, to battery backup light bulbs. Water bulbs are really good for cups because they actually can help you store all the water in a tub,” said City Mill Honolulu merchant Iris Wilhelm-Norseth. “We carry plywood that you can put over windows to make sure that it doesn’t break. Tarps are always good to make sure you cover things so they don’t get wet.”
But in order to really get ahead of the game, going into the store now is the best option. Wilhelm-Norseth mentions that supplies tend to go quickly before a storm.
“Last thing you want to do is be running into a store when everybody else is running into the store and trying to grab whatever they have left, because all the stores only have a limited amount of stock,” said Wilhelm-Norseth.