*Earthquake in Hawaii*
Motivation For Preparing
By: MrsToad
03 May 2009

On the morning of October 15, 2006, there was an earthquake in the Hawaiian Islands.

Very little damage was sustained on the Island of Oahu, but the power was cut off to most of the island for at least 24 hours, and in most cases closer to 48 hours.

My husband and I were living in Hawaii at this time, and had not yet begun our prepping lifestyle.

Needless to say, we had no backup form of energy, no generator, or solar panels. I was hard pressed to even find a flash light. I had a few candles, but could not find matches or lighters. The day was wasted because we did not have a source of light. Another issue with not having a backup source of energy was all of the food we lost in the refrigerator. Food costs in Hawaii are through the roof, and I would estimate that we lost between $300 and $400 worth of food. I could have bought a generator with that money.

Because of damage sustained on the Big Island, and the amount of calls being made, our cell phones did not work for about 24 hours. We had no way to get in touch with our family on the mainland to let them know that we were okay.

While this was, at most, a major inconvenience and waste of money, it was a learning lesson. If we had a backup source of energy, we could have run the refrigerator and saved having to throw out hundreds of dollars worth of food. If we had a plan in place for when the power went out, we would not have had to sit in the dark all day. If we had an alternate means of communication, we could have gotten in touch with our families right away to save them from worrying.

Save yourself money and frustration by planning ahead.
MrsToad



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