I previously chronicled my flooding and loss of power insecurities which led me to purchase a Sump Pump and Home Power Station. You can read that post here.

After the 3 Kona Lows that ended in April, Hawaii was hit by Tropical Storm Lala on August 14 and Hurricane Lowell on September 7. Lala affected Oahu’s electric grid more than Lowell, and Lowell severely affected Kauai but didn’t affect Oahu infrastructure as much.

Lala knocked out our home’s power for 4.5 hrs, and Spectrum internet/cable was out for a day and a half. I plugged our standard top/bottom freezer/fridge into the Bluetti 200PL power station I had purchased earlier, and didn’t use the microwave oven. With just the fridge plugged in, the power station was on track to last 20 hrs. When power was resumed, I plugged the fridge back into the home outlet and recharged the Bluetti.

Friends just a couple miles away didn’t have power for more than 2 days, and folks on the Windward and Westside waited even long to have power restored. Those that didn’t move their fridge food out to a cooler or someone else’s fridge, had to throw their food out.

There was a run on generators and power stations after Lala hit. Anything restocked was then purchased after Lowell knocked out power to most of the homes on Kauai.

Costco is currently out of power stations in-the-stores and Costco Online doesn’t ship to Hawaii.

Tina, Holoholo Oama Psychologist and Chef, who lives on Oahu’s Eastside was forward thinking and purchased an EcoFlow Delta 3 power station while they still had ’em in Costco before Lala. So she was able to power their fridge for the 1.5 days (with a recharge in between) they didn’t have power, and got through the humid periods by running battery powered Ryobi fans. I use DeWalt fans since I have DeWalt tools, and they really help make the power outages more bearable.

Unfortunately Tina’s tv got fried during one of the many power surges during the storms. She has since plugged all her appliances susceptible to surges in a properly rated surge protector. I followed her lead and did the same to mine after our 18 yr old tv suddenly died a few weeks after the last outage.

So what’s the my takeaway so far:

• Make sure your sensitive appliances (most “smart” appliances are sensitive, as well as anything that holds residue power) are on a surge protector.
• After the power has been out for 2 hrs, move your perishables from the fridge to a cooler unless you have backup power for the fridge.
• If you have a generator or power station, connect your fridge to it within 4 hrs.
• Have a few battery powered fans on hand to move the humid air around, especially while you sleep.
• Kauai is showing us the worst case scenario of not having power for days, so have enough food, including “emergency” food, to last at least a week. A friend, Brent, recommended a great brand of freeze dried food, Mountain House, where you just add hot water to the pouch. I was skeptical but was really impressed with how the different flavors tasted. The meals aren’t cheap, about $11 a pouch on Amazon, but they taste like regular food. No wonder they can offer a 30 year taste guarantee!