06-19-2026, 12:55 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-19-2026, 02:49 AM by Rob Tucker.)
Thanks for reminding me- One of the downsides of this cheap generator is that it doesn't have a fuel shutoff valve. I've never seen one without it before. Normally I shut the fuel valve and the loads off and let the generator run dry so there isn't any gas left in the carb. Oh well, can't have everything.
We put plywood up on our front windows before Iselle. Why only the front? That's as far as we could get, and it was the storm-facing side. Some of the pieces were cut and labeled for future use. After the storm we put them in storage and haven't used them since. I think I stole a sheet of plywood for some other project but most of it still sits there all these years later. One of the side effects of having even half the windows boarded up was how hot and humid the house got. I couldn't wait to take them down after the storm. As I was hanging the plywood, I thought that if this was going to be a regular thing, I would permanently install threaded studs. It would make hanging the plywood really easy because a single person could just match the holes in the plywood with the studs on the house and anchor them with wing nuts. No tools or assistant needed. Removal would also be a lot easier. I don't remember the thickness of the plywood- Home Depot had moved stacks of plywood specifically for this purpose to the entry so people could grab as many as they needed and check out quickly without going deep into the store, as well as staging employees to help load and move things along.
Of course we already had a generator and plenty of 5 gallon gas cans, but those sold out quickly. HD also brought all their 1 gallon gas cans to the front of the store as they were the only size left. Also moved to the front were cases of water, flashlights, tarps, rope, batteries, and just about every other storm-related paraphernalia one could think of. They clearly had a pre-storm action plan.
Here's a hint for all the procrastinators: Nobody on the Kona side was buying anything before the storm. The stores there had plenty of generators, gas cans, you name it. Costco had brought down a bunch of generators onto the floor for easy grab and go and nobody was buying them. So if you wait too long to prepare, the Kona stores might be able to save you since most of the storms track to our side of the island and there is an almost religious belief that the mountains will save everybody else in the state.
We were astounded at how ill prepared people were for the storm considering that we had several days of warning. It's like most people stuck their head in the blue rock and believed it couldn't happen. People didn't know how to get water from their tanks with no power, they had no refrigeration, their food spoiled, and they didn't stock up on basic necessities. They didn't even go to the ATM to get cash and some local stores couldn't take plastic or checks for a few days. We helped a lot of neighbors out with food, water, and other items.
There are a lot of prep lists for things like hurricanes and other natural disasters so I'm not going to post them here, but here are a few things that aren't commonly on the lists that we found useful when otherwise all prepped and ready to go: Make sure all the laundry is done and the house and dishes are clean. If you're rationing electricity and/or water you don't need a bunch of deferred chores that require it. Make ice. Even if you have a generator you're not going to want to run it 24 hours a day. We froze some large juice containers full of water and they helped keep the fridge cold at night when the generator was off. Use drinkable water in case you need to drink it later. Ice was also nice just to have something cold to drink. Not just for comfort, but to ward off heat injuries. After Iselle it was unusually hot and humid and I was doing a lot of hard labor outside patching fences and a million other things etc and having something ice cold to drink made a big difference on how long I could go without a substantial break. Take all your crap to the transfer station. It might be closed or inaccessible after the storm and you'll be creating piles of debris etc, you don't want a pre-existing pile of crap to also deal with. Make sure your chainsaw works and you have enough oil and spare sharp chains. After Iselle people were burning through chains faster than they could get them sharpened. If you don't already have them, stock up on strong cable ties. They are great for quick fence repairs and a million other things. If you have livestock, mark some of them with something conspicuous with your phone number on it. They tend to stick together so you don't have to mark them all, but fences are going to come down and livestock might wander off. Mark the friendly ones. People won't be able to get close enough to the shy ones to read your number. Plan on wired internet being unavailable for an extended period (days or weeks). If you don't have a wireless option (cellular or Starlink) you'll be unconnected. Back in the Iselle days, wireless was the only internet option for a lot of Puna on a good day, so some people are actually less resilient for an internet outage now than they were then. And most importantly, plan on being trapped at your house. It's great to go to the ATM and have cash before the storm, but that doesn't help if you can't get to the store because there's 5 miles of roads clogged with trees and downed power lines between you and the highway.
We put plywood up on our front windows before Iselle. Why only the front? That's as far as we could get, and it was the storm-facing side. Some of the pieces were cut and labeled for future use. After the storm we put them in storage and haven't used them since. I think I stole a sheet of plywood for some other project but most of it still sits there all these years later. One of the side effects of having even half the windows boarded up was how hot and humid the house got. I couldn't wait to take them down after the storm. As I was hanging the plywood, I thought that if this was going to be a regular thing, I would permanently install threaded studs. It would make hanging the plywood really easy because a single person could just match the holes in the plywood with the studs on the house and anchor them with wing nuts. No tools or assistant needed. Removal would also be a lot easier. I don't remember the thickness of the plywood- Home Depot had moved stacks of plywood specifically for this purpose to the entry so people could grab as many as they needed and check out quickly without going deep into the store, as well as staging employees to help load and move things along.
Of course we already had a generator and plenty of 5 gallon gas cans, but those sold out quickly. HD also brought all their 1 gallon gas cans to the front of the store as they were the only size left. Also moved to the front were cases of water, flashlights, tarps, rope, batteries, and just about every other storm-related paraphernalia one could think of. They clearly had a pre-storm action plan.
Here's a hint for all the procrastinators: Nobody on the Kona side was buying anything before the storm. The stores there had plenty of generators, gas cans, you name it. Costco had brought down a bunch of generators onto the floor for easy grab and go and nobody was buying them. So if you wait too long to prepare, the Kona stores might be able to save you since most of the storms track to our side of the island and there is an almost religious belief that the mountains will save everybody else in the state.
We were astounded at how ill prepared people were for the storm considering that we had several days of warning. It's like most people stuck their head in the blue rock and believed it couldn't happen. People didn't know how to get water from their tanks with no power, they had no refrigeration, their food spoiled, and they didn't stock up on basic necessities. They didn't even go to the ATM to get cash and some local stores couldn't take plastic or checks for a few days. We helped a lot of neighbors out with food, water, and other items.
There are a lot of prep lists for things like hurricanes and other natural disasters so I'm not going to post them here, but here are a few things that aren't commonly on the lists that we found useful when otherwise all prepped and ready to go: Make sure all the laundry is done and the house and dishes are clean. If you're rationing electricity and/or water you don't need a bunch of deferred chores that require it. Make ice. Even if you have a generator you're not going to want to run it 24 hours a day. We froze some large juice containers full of water and they helped keep the fridge cold at night when the generator was off. Use drinkable water in case you need to drink it later. Ice was also nice just to have something cold to drink. Not just for comfort, but to ward off heat injuries. After Iselle it was unusually hot and humid and I was doing a lot of hard labor outside patching fences and a million other things etc and having something ice cold to drink made a big difference on how long I could go without a substantial break. Take all your crap to the transfer station. It might be closed or inaccessible after the storm and you'll be creating piles of debris etc, you don't want a pre-existing pile of crap to also deal with. Make sure your chainsaw works and you have enough oil and spare sharp chains. After Iselle people were burning through chains faster than they could get them sharpened. If you don't already have them, stock up on strong cable ties. They are great for quick fence repairs and a million other things. If you have livestock, mark some of them with something conspicuous with your phone number on it. They tend to stick together so you don't have to mark them all, but fences are going to come down and livestock might wander off. Mark the friendly ones. People won't be able to get close enough to the shy ones to read your number. Plan on wired internet being unavailable for an extended period (days or weeks). If you don't have a wireless option (cellular or Starlink) you'll be unconnected. Back in the Iselle days, wireless was the only internet option for a lot of Puna on a good day, so some people are actually less resilient for an internet outage now than they were then. And most importantly, plan on being trapped at your house. It's great to go to the ATM and have cash before the storm, but that doesn't help if you can't get to the store because there's 5 miles of roads clogged with trees and downed power lines between you and the highway.