It’s NOT going to work.
Reading and digesting the news reports:
CASH ONLY. No check, no credit/debit cards.
Cold, hard cash was the only thing accepted.
Widespread reports of price gouging.
Stores were rationing supplies, and limiting the number of people in the stores at one time for security reasons.
LONG lines outside, waiting to get in.
Bottled water and D batteries were the first to go. Followed Propane, Ice, C batteries, and charcoal were all sold out within 2 hours.
Many fights over line-cutting at gasoline stations. The lines stretched for 1 mile at a Shell station in Honolulu that was running on generator power.
Most stations had only a 24 hour supply of fuel before the next scheduled delivery which was now in question.
interesting thoughts. I keep the tank of my car at least 3/4 full for that purpose.. don’t drive much, it’s like a big storage tank of gas. Haven’t read much about it..
I hope it isn’t too hard for them to get resupplied, Hawaii is hard to supply as it is given it’s geography (ie islands in middle of ocean) and I understand that is reason it is very expensive even under normal conditions.
at least no one was killed.
Any fluwikians from Hawaii or in Hawaii?
I find the standing in line for food at five hours after earthquake odd. Maybe they were tourists?
I have been visiting Fluwikie since the beginning of the year and I am eternally grateful for all of the wonderful ideas presented here. I never intended on posting, not my style, but because of everyone’s generosity here in sharing knowledge, the latest “crisis” was a non-event for me.
First, BG is right, cash is king. I left the house around 8 this morning to go to the practice range. I realized that I had a couple of bucks in my wallet and would stop at the ATM, before realizing that they wouldn’t be working. First lesson learned: Keep an envelope stashed in the back of drawer or your mattress with some extra cash.
I took a back route, wasn’t much traffic until I hit the main road and then it was gridlock, no traffic lights working. I drove for a couple of miles, people were polite, so it wasn’t stressful, just slow going. Passed a 7–11 and a super market, both of which were complete zoos. Second lesson learned: I realized that I didn’t need to be out and didn’t want to be out, so I turned around and headed home.
After coming home, the first order of business was to fill up some buckets with water. Fortunately, though the electricity wasn’t working, the water was. I didn’t expect it to be, but got lucky. I had bought four 55 gallon drums that had contained vinegar and a bunch of 5 gallon pails that had previously contained soy sauce on the cheap as my water supply. However, I never bothered to clean any of them out. Third lesson learned: It’s good to prepare, just make sure you do it completely. This was a good walk through.
The wife and I cooked some spam and rice (Dead give away that we’re from Hawaii) on the gas burner that I purchased a couple of months ago. Also have 6 propane tanks, full, so there was no waiting in lines. Later in the afternoon, had some huli huli chicken with rice, more on this later. Fourth lesson learned: As much as I love my solar oven and use it almost every day, it doesn’t work in the rain. It’s good to have a plan B.
The huli huli chicken came out of a mason jar which I processed a couple of months ago using a pressure cooker. There were stories about restaurants being closed and people looking for food. There was no better feeling than to look at our preps and try to decide if we were going to eat beef stew, Korean short ribs, barbecued spare ribs, kalua pig, all of which were in mason jars. We did not have to open our 2 refrigerators and 10 hours later when the electricity came on, everything was still cold. If the electricity was going to be out for more than a couple days, the remaining meats in the freezer would be barbecued, then put in jars for the pressure cooker. Fifth lesson learned: I learned the lesson, buy a pressure cooker, it’s one of the best investments you’ll make.
I think most people take for granted the entertainment value of TV and the computer until they have to do without. The wife and I played cards for a while but that only lasts for so long. Yes, we did have more time to talk story and got to take a nap. Sixth lesson learned: Go out and buy some used books, board games such as chess, checkers, backgammon, etc. Stash them away for times like these.
We did have a battery operated radio to keep in touch with what was going on. Our neighbor’s seven year old son had a crank radio, which I was meaning to buy. Seventh lesson learned: Smart seven year old.
The neighbors are all great. We visited and talked story. The social network is great, this is the one thing that would scare me about a pandemic, it would be eliminated or at best, minimized. Eighth lesson learned: Enjoy it while you can.
On a scale of 1 to 10, with a pandemic being a 10, this was less than a 1. It was an inconvience and we suffered minimally. Things like sickness, impure water or social unrest never came into play. But each and every one of your thoughts came into play with the things that we did to prepare for this event. For this we are thankful. People like Tom DVM, Monotreme, Dennis C, Pugmom and all the others, have taken us to new levels of understanding and whether the pandemic plays out or not, it has made us better people because of the thought process.
Mahalo & Aloha
The pictures/video looked like folks waiting in line for cigs and booze (my judgement I know)
Thanks for posting, Hawn Kid :-)
Feel free to get the Hawaii Preppers thread going again.
I hope Leavitt or someone will remind people they need to be preparing against a pandemic year. This could be a “teachable moment” or month.
Hawn Kid, your post would start a good article for local newspapers. :-)
Another problem - evidently the entire power grid went down as a precaution, but it will take days to get it back up and running. And that’s not because of substantial damage or sick workers - just turning it off. It takes days to fire it back up again.
Leo7 I’m guessing that the folks in line were indeed tourists. I was tacken aback by those pictures at first, then I realised these were tourists away from home. Still, its a thought provoking example of our on-demand society.
I’m glad everyone is ok there. We’ve been to Hawaii 2 times and loved it. Thanks for posting Hawn Kid. It helps me to know that the prepping is not a waste of time. One never knows when we may need some of these supplies.
Hawn Kid – at 03:32 The huli huli chicken came out of a mason jar which I processed a couple of months ago using a pressure cooker.
Recipe. Must have recipe. :) Care to share? It sounds yummy.
Hawn Kid, I’m interested in all the meats you have in Mason jars. If you would educate us on your process, I for one, would be very grateful.
And, for posting not being your style, you are very eloquent, and your post was very helpful. Thanks!
I read that they were allowing only one person at a time into food and convenience stores. I guess to keep people from grabbing or squabbling or pilferage. I also read of tourists in hotel sitting around the lobbies with grocery bags full.. Evidently, without restaurants or eating facilities open for business ,they stocked up. 50 federal officials are en route to the Big Island to assess damage and begin recovery work.
I’m not so sure all these folks were tourists. Two hours after Rita passed last year, the local HEB grocery store had a line wrapped around the store - no electricty. However, they were allow 10 at a time into the store. Cash only!
Hurricaners and I suppose earthquakers KNOW to get in and get out early once the stores open. Bread, canned meats, soups, etc. go wayyyyy too soon. It was nearly 2 weeks before local grocery stores in the Houston area were back to normal. And Rita didn’t do much damage here!
HawnKid- I would also be very interested in your canned meat recipes- glad you were able to weather the situation in a fair amount of comfort. I’m glad you mentioned the games- there are a few things I’ve been meaning to pick up - not games, but craft supplies and models to build- best get them into the closet before the real winter gets here. Hope what happened in Buffalo isn’t a sneak preview of the rest of the winter.
Kid thanks for the first hand comments.
Very valuable information.
From what I saw on the news clips it was NOT tourists in Oahu that were in line for supplies.
Some very valuable take-away lessons for the rest of us.
Especially those that think they can rely on last minute preparations.
And you’ve also made me hungry for huli huli !!!!!
How do you can it ? In a brine or ????
Thanks for posting, Hawn Kid! I second Bird Guano’s assessment of very valuable information.
My son’s ex lives in Honoluhu. I haven’t heard how she’s doing but I’ve read that their power is out as well so I’m not surprised.
That’s me up there ^^^^. I assumed the automatic name filler-outer would fill in the full ID but apparently I was wrong.
Texas Rose – at 14:05 your computer cookies were cleaned — it wipes out the name & you have to re-enter it.
Heh-it filled in half the name. I wonder if that means the computer thinks I’m just half here?
I’m in earth quake country myself (SF Bay Area) —
I consider stocking up NOW as Just-In-Time (JIT) for Equakes or PanFlu ..
I consider stocking up WHEN/JUST AFTER THE INCIDENT OCCURS as Not-In-Time…
Experience is what you get, when you don’t get what you want …
Evidently Hawii never gets quakes that big, so I suspect not many people had lots of supplies on hand. Add the tourists on top of it and you’ll get long lines.
Annonx2 - great post. Belongs in the quotes thread! I lived in the Bay Area and never had supplies, despite some close calls. Took many years later, world events, hurricanes, and especially having children to learn the error of my ways. Won’t ever happen again.
Forgot the most important - Hawn I’m glad you didn’t suffer too much damage and your attitude is GREAT! And your supplies sound YUMMY! Please share more often - you’d be a great addition!
To: Edna Mode. Tink, Cinda, BG & LauraB
I’ll put the recipes together tonight and post under the pressure cooker section. Keep in mind, I never use a measuring cup or spoon, don’t wear a watch either, but I’ll try to come up with some proportions, an inexact science. But the pressure cooking side is almost always the same, follow the Ball blue book, pack hot with hot broth and most are cooked at 10 lbs pressure for 90 minutes for the quart jars.
It would be expected for the tourists to be unprepared, most hotel rooms don’t have much in the way of stoves or refrigerators. We live 20 miles from Waikiki. When I turned around and headed back home, it was smooth sailing as no one was trying to get back in. But it was bumper to bumper cars trying to get out, like some one rang an evacuation bell. These were the local people buying basics like water, propane, beer, things that should be common enough to store on a shelf in the garage. It occurred to me that the reason none of these people prepare is that they are too busy with daily life, work, family, events, to stop to prepare. The best they can do is react.
We usually have a major hurricane every 10 years or so, I believe we had Hurricane Iwa in 1982, then Iniki in 1992. As such, we are overdue for another one. Everyone knows it. My guess is that less than 5% of the population is prepared for it.
Bacause almost everything is shipped in from the mainland, our food distribution is extremely fragile. Knowing this, we have a years worth of food and prepping was simple: make a list, whatever was on sale, buy the maximum, buy the bulk food from Costco. We would use this food eventually, so it wasn’t rocket science. All that was needed to get us started was the awareness that it could happen. I was fortunate enought to stumble upon Fluwikie and why I have many kudos to people like Goju for spreading the word, AnnB for so digently doing the news summary, which is the word, it has to be a lot of work.
One thing that I am convince of from yesterday, when it hits, there will be no time to prep. I had hoped, through the graciousness of MadamSpinner and her nephew in Indonesia, that we may have some fore warning and we may. But I can’t count on it anymore, because I believe that when it hits, it will be too late. If yesterday is any indication, there will be panic, and it will be like russian roulette to go out, not knowing if the person next to you has already been infected. There’s no need to take great risks by going out in those conditions, just calmly prepare today so that we’re ready for it. I don’t go out in hurricanes either.
Aloha
Speaking of Quakes…has anyone mentioned what the New Madrid fault line could do to this country? I worked for a utility and we had a meeting (early 1990s) on the restoration of services if it goes. There are many gas and telephone line crossings over the Old Miss that will be tough to repair.
Hawn Kid
Thank you so much for sharing and, as you say, it was thoughts of a pandemic that got you prepping but the threat of so many natural disasters is always there, yet we think we can prep tomorrow.
I live in earthquake-prone NZ and have been a prepper for about 10 years now so preps for a pandemic was a case of extending what I already had plus looking to the special needs that come with SIP and still having four safe walls around you. I guess this is why I also do not shake my head so much at people who won’t prep for an ‘unknown’ event - they cannot prep for earthquakes and hurricanes etc that they know will happen (you know what I mean I am sure).
Thanks for your kind words about doing the News Summary - I see that as a little thing I can do to help others - and your contribution is exactly the same - every person who contributes is helping others - just by giving ideas or sharing experiences.
Actually, I thought Hawaii might be a great location for the Flu Wiki reunion but you will have to turn off the shaking machine if we are going to do that ;-)
Funny story regarding the shaking machine yesterday. When the first tremor hit, the bed shook a little and my wife asked “what was that?” Our pitbull happened to be right up against the bed scratching, so I told her it was the dog. A few minutes later, my wife was in the bathroom and the second tremor hit. The bed, which I was laying on, was bouncing all over the place and the walls were shaking, for about 10 seconds. After it stopped and we got over the initial shock, I told her “ I don’t think that wasn’t the dog that time.”
Mahalo for the upcomming recipes.
Excuse me, “I don’t think that WAS the dog that time”. If you tell a joke, make sure you proof the punchline.
BG, the recipes are posted under the Pressure Cooker II section.
Aloha
Hawn kid, thanks for the reports from the scene and what you learned. There is nothing like hearing firsthand. You have just more than paid back what you got from Fluwikie I think.
Bridge Lifter – at 23:43, there are sure many reasons people should be prepared for anything - we have become too complacent. Need more science and critical thinking and first-things-first?
Sense of humor and a year of food? sounds like a good survivor combination, Hawn Kid. I hope Mother Nature takes it easy on you and yours. (My “hope”, but, your preps and plan is what will work for you!)