������Ƶ

I pride myself on being well-prepared for a crisis. My husband would say I’m too well-prepared. Water purification tablets, according to him, are not essential for most weekend trips.

He might be right about the tablets, but as I’ve explained to him, growing up on an island teaches you to be ready for most disasters. At least, it should.

When I started this column, I intended to talk about my family’s awesome emergency plan, which I was very proud of when it was put into action during the false missile alert debacle of 2018. I was driving through Waipio Gentry when the siren blared through my phone with the message, “Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill.”

I took a U-turn toward my niece’s ballet school and called my mom. Within a minute, she and my sister were already taking action. We had discussed all possible disasters, including this one, a week earlier.

At the time, my family like others saw the reports about heightened tensions with North Korea, and I had learned enough from a briefing I’d attended at the Capitol that I knew we had less than 20 minutes to get into a brick building. So, I ran through the doors of the ballet school along with everyone else, rushing to collect their panicking kids, many of whom received the alert during class. I plucked my niece out of the group, and we headed to our family meeting spot – Walmart Mililani. 

Both of us tend toward silence when stressed, so the car was quiet until her shaky voice asked, “Is it North Korea?” 

I tried to reassure her while nervously checking the clock. We were creeping up on 15 minutes.

When we got to Walmart, we found our family and neighbors and quickly discovered it was a false alarm. I exchanged relieved smiles with constituents gathered with us in the center of the store. “I guess we all figured out Walmart has food and water, huh?” one man joked.

That evening, my family and I patted ourselves on the back for having a plan and putting it into action with minimal discussion. It was a good test run.

Or so I thought.

In 2018, I spent a significant amount of time visiting schools in my district and talking through their emergency plans. We had a couple of town hall discussions and even sent out a mailer with a family plan for people to fill in. When we weren’t in session, these were the things that occupied my time.

Last week, when the fire broke out above Mililani Mauka, my family and I were talking through that plan again. “I don’t think much has changed,” my mom said. “We all know we need to meet at the flagpole at the high school.”

My sister and I looked at each other. “I thought it was the clock tower by the movies,” she said. I nodded.

“No, it was definitely the flagpole,” my niece chimed in.

So much for our excellent preparation. It was a good reminder of why Hawaii’s  recommends making a family plan as a yearly activity.

HIEMA has a  that can help guide the discussion and ensure you get everything important, like meeting places, down on paper. This stuff might be in your head, but talking through it with your whole family will keep everyone on the same page and help reduce kids’ anxiety when they see fires and other disasters on the news. 

If you have school-aged children, learn more about their  too.

When I visited our local schools, I was impressed with their plans and felt reassured knowing that they’d already thought through many potential disasters, including a nuclear threat. Different emergencies call for different responses, and by asking ahead of time, you can avoid tying up phone lines and reduce your own uncertainty in each situation.

Engaging your kids in putting together a  and a  can also give them a greater sense of agency. I’ve been part of one too many “there’s a hurricane coming” Costco frenzies in the past. Now, I do my best to get our go-bags and other emergency supplies ahead of time so I can avoid combing the shelves of City Mill the day before a storm, praying to find the last available flashlight in the state.

The most cumbersome “must-do” on my list each year is to gather food for two weeks. It’s expensive. It takes up space. And it’s hard to keep people from eating the food once it’s in the house. Nevertheless, we’re the most isolated population center in the world, so keeping stocked up is pretty important.

The Hawaii Foodbank offers  that can help keep costs down. Rather than buying freeze-dried meals, look for inexpensive foods you will want to eat. My family usually has a couple of boxes of ramen, very large jars of peanut butter, and many cans of green beans on hand for this purpose. Again, thank you, Costco.

Lastly, if you want to go over and beyond me – the prepper, consider organizing your neighborhood association or community club for a . With a minimum of 10 people, the Hawaii Red Cross will teach your team to respond to emergency situations in your community.

In a disaster, neighbors will likely be each other’s closest means of support. Training together might be the best way to ease everyone’s nerves as storms, fires, earthquakes, and everything else that has the world on edge.

But don’t take my word for it. HIEMAhas all the  you need to stay prepared, as well as links to county-specific agencies where you can . Just remember, make sure your whole family knows what the plan actually is.