Mainland checklists say 72 hours. Hawaiʻi's official
standard is fourteen days, because almost everything on these
shelves arrived by ship, and after a direct hit the ports, airports and power
grid recover before the stores do. After
Iniki, parts of Kauai waited
weeks for power. The good news: a 14-day kit is mostly things you already
buy, held two weeks deep.
Water
14 gallons per person — one gallon per day, for drinking, cooking and hygiene
Food and medicine
14 days for every household member, pets included
The five elements
water · food · medicine · power · information HIEMA's frame for the whole kit
Water and food
Water, 14 gallons per person — bottled, or food-safe
containers filled before the storm. Fill the bathtub too, for flushing and
washing, not drinking.
Food that needs no refrigeration — canned meats, fruits
and vegetables, rice, crackers, nut butters, granola bars. Two weeks per
person, things you actually eat, rotated through the pantry.
A manual can opener — the classic gap in an otherwise
complete kit.
A camp stove or grill with fuel — used outdoors only,
never in the house or on the lanai.
Medicine, power, information, paper
Prescriptions, 14 days ahead — plus a basic first-aid
kit, spare glasses, and anything a baby or a kupuna in the house depends
on.
Battery bank(s) and flashlights — one light per person;
headlamps beat candles, which start fires in wind-damaged houses.
A battery or hand-crank radio — NOAA Weather Radio
carries CPHC advisories when the power and cell network
do not.
Cash in small bills — card terminals die with the
power.
Documents in a dry bag — IDs, insurance policies, photos
of every room for the claim you hope never to file.
Pet food, carriers and vaccination records — shelters
that take pets ask for the records.
The condo and apartment version
Most of Oʻahu cannot board up a freestanding house, and does not need
to. The apartment kit differs in a few specific ways:
Pick the refuge room now — the smallest interior space
with no windows: a bathroom, a walk-in closet, a hallway.
Clear the lanai completely — furniture, plants,
surfboards. In hurricane wind everything on a lanai is ammunition aimed at
your neighbours' windows.
Plan for dead elevators — power goes, and stays gone
longer than the storm. Count the stairs against your water supply's
weight, and fill containers early rather than hauling later.
No generator, no exceptions — indoors or on a lanai, a
generator is carbon monoxide in a sealed box. Battery banks are the
high-rise answer.
Know the building's plan — where the water shutoff is,
whether the building keeps power for the pumps, where neighbours who might
need help live.
When to have it done
Before June. The season peaks in August and September —
89 percent of every closest pass since 1950 came in July,
August or September — and a watch
gives you about 48 hours, which is enough time to fill water containers, not
to find bottled water in a store that four hundred thousand other households
just visited. The shape of the season
is measured from this archive.
Watches, warnings and evacuation orders come only from the Central Pacific Hurricane Center and your county. This page explains the system; it is not part of it.
Sources
The 14-day standard, water quantity and kit elements:
Hawaiʻi Emergency Management Agency, 2-Weeks Ready
in Hawaiʻi. Season shape: this archive. Checked against the official
pages on 14 August 2026.