Hawai'i urged to prepare for hurricane season
By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer
The National Weather Service expects six to seven tropical cyclones in the Central Pacific this hurricane season, and the storms could include hurricanes which might affect Hawai'i.
What can you do now to reduce risk to your home in a hurricane? • Install storm or hurricane shutters at windows, glass doors, openings. • Add hurricane clips, other fasteners, to tie entire structure to foundation. • Check roof, lanai, carport overhangs and consider cable tie-down systems. • Stockpile pre-drilled plywood sheets to cover openings. Source: Social Science Research Institute, University of Hawai'i.
When a storm is on the way • Monitor news. • Have a two-week supply of water, food, medicines. • Stock up on batteries, a portable radio, flashlights, first aid supplies, cash. • Secure outdoor furniture, tools, garbage cans, potted plants. • Know danger zones, evacuation routes, shelter locations. Source: National Weather Service, Honolulu.
The outlook for this year is higher than the average of 4 1/2 tropical cyclones per season in the region over the past 41 years, storms which typically included one hurricane, two tropical storms and 1 1/21 tropical depressions each year.
Preparing to get through a storm
Weather Service officials said yesterday that their message for Hawai'i residents before the start of the June 1 to Nov. 30 hurricane season is to be prepared, regardless of the number of the storms expected.
"It only takes one storm to cause devastating effects," warning coordination meteorologist Tom Heffner said.
Ellen Ching of Kaua'i knows the problem all too well.
Ten years ago, she watched as Hurricane 'Iniki ripped the roof off her home, pushed sliding glass doors into the house and pulverized jalousie windows into a blizzard of powdered glass.
At the height of the storm that hit 80 percent of the houses on Kaua'i, Ching was cowering in a bathtub in a guest bathroom, pulling blankets and towels down around her.
Ching, executive director of ARC of Kaua'i, an organization serving developmentally disabled children, recalled her 'Iniki terror during a press conference at the Weather Service's Honolulu Forecast Office at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.
It was 1992 when Iniki swerved into Kaua'i and caused an estimated $2 billion worth of damage.
Even then, Ching said, Kaua'i residents seemed more prepared than others in Hawai'i for such storms, although Ching had to talk her 76-year-old father down out of a tree he was trimming, and couldn't stop her husband from setting off on a trip to O'ahu that September day.
"I am filling all the tubs with water and taking down anything that could be a flying projectile," she remembered, "and in my mind there is this Wizard of Oz vision of my husband's car flying off the highway."
The first half of the storm was "a little bit hairy," and then the eye of the storm brought a lull for about 30 minutes, Ching said. "Then the second half came. It started with a huge gust, and huge clapping noises — all the cabinet doors were flapping back and forth until they were blown off their hinges, and the wall unit flew off the wall."
"I was afraid of getting buried," Ching said of hiding in the tub. "I could hear our roof lifting off. I hit the deck and, sure enough, three-quarters of our roof was blown off.
"Our message from Kaua'i to the rest of the state is get with it."
Reach Walter Wright at wwright@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8054.
