Before the storm hits.Be ready.
We’ve walked into a lot of flooded living rooms. The families who came through best weren’t lucky. They had a plan, a bag by the door and a neighbor’s number. Here’s what to do now so you’re not calling us later.
Hurricaneseason is June to November.
Hawaiʻi’s emergency managers ask every household to be able to stand on its own for 14 days. That’s not drama. It’s how long it can take for ports and roads to reopen after a direct hit.
BeforeHave a plan.
- Build a 14-day kit: water (1 gallon per person per day), food that needs no cooking, meds, cash, a hand-crank or battery radio.
- Know if you’re in an evacuation or storm-surge zone. Decide now where you’ll go and who you’ll ride out with.
- Photograph every room and your important documents. Put copies in the cloud and in a zip bag.
- Fill the gas tank and the propane. Charge power banks and solar batteries. Trim trees now, not the night before.
- Agree on an out-of-state contact everyone texts. Local lines jam; long distance often gets through.
DuringStay alive.
- Follow HI-EMA and your county alerts, not social media rumors.
- If told to evacuate, go early. Roads close before the wind arrives.
- Stay inside, away from windows, in the smallest interior room.
- Never run a generator indoors or in the garage.
- Treat every downed line as live.
AfterGet help, give help.
- Check on neighbors, especially kūpuna and anyone living alone.
- Photograph damage before you clean up. Insurance and FEMA will ask.
- Report damage to your county emergency management agency (numbers below).
- Need hands, a truck or supplies? Tell us. We read every request.
On Kauaʻi after Lowell the first problem wasn’t the houses, it was the driveways: downed trees tangled in power lines, so nobody could get in or out. Families with a chainsaw, a plan and a neighbor who knew how to use both were back on their feet days before everyone else.
Flood & heavy rainthe water comes at night.
Kona Lows and stalled fronts can drop a foot of rain in hours. Streams that were ankle-deep at dinner can be through the house by midnight. Most flood damage in Hawaiʻi happens to people who never thought they were in a flood zone.
BeforeHave a plan.
- Know your stream and your lowest door. If water has ever reached the yard, it will reach the house.
- Renters: get renters insurance and ask specifically about flood. Most policies exclude it. Photograph your belongings today.
- Keep documents, meds and a change of clothes in a go-bag by the door. Put irreplaceable things up high.
- Clear gutters and drains around the house before the season. Know how to shut off power at the panel.
- Plan a route to higher ground on foot. Flash floods arrive faster than you can load a car.
DuringStay alive.
- Turn around, don’t drown. Six inches of moving water knocks you down; a foot floats a car.
- If water is rising inside, get out and up. Don’t wait to save belongings.
- Shut off the power at the breaker if you can reach it dry. Never stand in water near outlets.
- Keep kids and pets in arms’ reach. Currents in a yard are stronger than they look.
- Call 911 if trapped. Signal from the highest point you can reach.
AfterGet help, give help.
- Don’t go back in until the water is gone and the power is confirmed off.
- Photograph everything before you throw it out. Keep a list.
- Mud and drywall grow mold in 48 hours. Pull wet material fast and open the house up.
- File with FEMA if a declaration is made, even if you doubt you qualify.
- Need a crew? Tell us. Mud-outs are what we do.
In the March 2026 Kona Low on the North Shore, the families who lost the most were renters. The landlord’s policy covered the building. Nothing covered their furniture, their clothes, their kids’ beds. Thirty minutes of photos and a renters policy would have changed that.
Wildfireminutes, not hours.
Lahaina taught the whole state the same lesson: a wind-driven grass fire can cross a town faster than an evacuation order can reach it. If you can see smoke and feel wind, you may already be late.
BeforeHave a plan.
- Keep 30 feet around the house clear of dry grass and brush. Clean leaves off the roof and out of gutters.
- Decide two ways out of your neighborhood and drive both. Know where the dead ends are.
- Pack the car go-bag now: documents, meds, pet carriers, chargers, cash, a change of clothes.
- Keep the car at half a tank or more during red flag warnings.
- Sign up for county alerts and keep a battery radio. Cell towers burn too.
DuringStay alive.
- Leave as soon as you feel unsafe. Don’t wait for an order.
- Close windows and doors behind you to slow the fire. Leave lights on so firefighters can see the house.
- Drive with headlights on, windows up, away from the wind. If trapped, a cleared parking lot or beach beats a road lined with brush.
- Breathe through a wet cloth. Stay low in smoke.
- If you can’t leave, get into a large body of water or a cleared area and call 911 with your location.
AfterGet help, give help.
- Don’t return until officials open the area. Hot spots and ash pits hide for days.
- Wear an N95 and gloves. Ash from burned homes is toxic.
- Photograph the lot before anyone clears it.
- Register with FEMA and the Red Cross the first day. Keep every receipt.
- Cash and gift cards help displaced families most in the first weeks. Here’s why.
After the Lahaina fire, the most useful thing we delivered wasn’t supplies. It was gift cards. People who had lost everything needed to choose for themselves, and the local churches already knew who needed what. Back the people who are already there.
Tsunamiif the ground shakes, go.
A tsunami from a local earthquake can reach the shore in minutes, before any siren. One from across the Pacific gives hours. Either way the rule is the same: know your zone and your way uphill.
BeforeHave a plan.
- Look up your evacuation zone in the front of the phone book or on your county’s map. Know where the zone line is near home, work and school.
- Walk the route to high ground. On foot. Roads jam.
- Keep a small go-bag where you sleep: shoes, flashlight, meds, water.
- Learn the siren: a steady three-minute tone on the first business day of each month is the test. Any other time, act.
- Boat owners: have a plan for deep water or for leaving the boat.
DuringStay alive.
- Strong shaking that lasts 20 seconds or more near the coast: don’t wait for a warning. Move inland and uphill now.
- If the ocean pulls back and exposes the reef, run. That’s the first wave coming.
- Get to high ground or at least the fourth floor of a concrete building.
- Stay there. The first wave is rarely the biggest; waves can keep coming for hours.
- Listen to the radio for the all-clear. Sirens don’t mean it’s over.
AfterGet help, give help.
- Stay away from the shore until officials say it’s safe.
- Avoid flooded roads and anything touching downed lines.
- Check on neighbors who couldn’t move fast.
- Photograph damage before you clean up. Insurance and FEMA will ask.
- Report damage to your county emergency management agency (numbers below).
Earthquakedrop, cover, hold on.
Hawaiʻi Island shakes regularly and the whole chain can feel a big one. The quake itself is usually survivable. What follows (tsunami, landslides, fires from broken gas lines) is where people get hurt.
BeforeHave a plan.
- Strap water heaters and tall furniture to the wall. Move heavy things off high shelves over beds.
- Know how to shut off gas and water, and keep the wrench by the valve.
- Keep shoes and a flashlight under the bed. Broken glass is the most common injury.
- Practice drop, cover and hold on with the kids until it’s automatic.
- Same 14-day kit as a hurricane. Same out-of-state contact.
DuringStay alive.
- Drop to your hands and knees, cover your head and neck under a sturdy table, hold on until it stops.
- Indoors: stay inside. Outdoors: move away from buildings, trees and lines. Driving: pull over, stay in the car.
- Don’t run for a doorway. It’s a myth.
- Near the coast and it shook hard for 20+ seconds? See tsunami. Go uphill.
- Expect aftershocks. Each one can bring down what the first one loosened.
AfterGet help, give help.
- Smell gas? Open windows, get out, shut off the main if you can, call the utility from outside.
- Check for injuries first, then structural damage. Don’t re-enter a cracked building.
- Check on neighbors, especially kūpuna and anyone living alone.
- Photograph damage before you clean up. Insurance and FEMA will ask.
- Report damage to your county emergency management agency (numbers below).
Power outagethe one that always happens.
Every storm above comes with this one. On an island, a long outage means no gas pumps, no ATMs, no refrigeration and no cell service once the tower batteries die. Plan for it on its own.
BeforeHave a plan.
- Buy a power station or solar battery sized to run a fridge and charge phones. Test it twice a year.
- Keep a car charger, a battery radio, headlamps and more batteries than you think.
- Know your medical needs: insulin, oxygen, CPAP. Talk to your doctor about an outage plan.
- Keep cash. Cards stop working when the power does.
- Freeze water jugs now. They keep the freezer cold and become drinking water.
DuringStay alive.
- Report the outage to your utility (numbers below), then stay off the phone so lines stay open.
- Keep the fridge closed. Four hours for the fridge, 48 for a full freezer.
- Generators outside only, 20 feet from windows. Carbon monoxide kills quietly.
- Unplug electronics so the surge when power returns doesn’t fry them.
- Check on neighbors on oxygen or dialysis.
AfterGet help, give help.
- Throw out anything above 40°F for more than 2 hours. When in doubt, throw it out.
- Restock the kit before the next storm, not after.
- Lost food or meds and can’t replace them? Tell us.
The go-bag.One per person. Packed today.
If you only do one thing on this page, do this. A bag by the door means you leave in two minutes instead of twenty, and twenty is how long it takes a street to flood.
Water & food
- 3 days of water (1 gal/person/day); 14 at home
- Food that needs no cooking
- Manual can opener
- Baby formula, pet food
Health
- 7 days of medications, written list of doses
- Glasses, hearing aid batteries
- First-aid kit, N95 masks
- Hand sanitizer, wipes, toilet paper
Power & light
- Phone power bank, charged
- Headlamp + flashlight + batteries
- Battery or hand-crank radio
- Car charger, solar panel if you have one
Papers & cash
- ID, insurance cards, deed or lease, meds list (copies in a zip bag + in the cloud)
- Cash in small bills
- Photos of every room and valuables
- Written list of phone numbers
Clothes & shelter
- Change of clothes, sturdy shoes
- Rain poncho, work gloves
- Blanket or sleeping bag
- Tarp and duct tape
Keiki & kūpuna
- Diapers, wipes, comfort item
- Mobility aids, spare oxygen plan
- A card with name, meds and contacts in each child’s bag
Pets
- Carrier, leash, food, meds
- Vaccination record
- Photo of you with your pet
Tools
- Multi-tool, utility knife
- Wrench for the gas valve
- Whistle to signal for help
- Fire extinguisher at home
Where will you meet if you can’t get home? Who picks up the kids if the roads close? Who checks on Grandma? Who’s your out-of-state contact everyone texts instead of calling? Write it on a card. Put one in every bag. Ten minutes at the kitchen table now is worth more than any gear.
Help & hotlines.Put these on the fridge.
Government and official help first. Life-threatening emergency: 911, always. For everything else, 211 is the one number that knows every program in the state.
Numbers checked October 2026. Agencies change them; if one doesn’t work, dial 211. More nonprofits by need are coming to this list.