Hurricane Season, the Leeward Way

Hurricane season in the central Pacific runs June 1 through November 30, which means we’re deep in it right now. And this year deserves our attention: NOAA’s outlook for the 2026 central Pacific season calls for above-normal activity — 5 to 13 tropical cyclones predicted, against a near-normal season of 4 or 5, with a 70 percent chance the season ends up above normal.

Most hurricane-prep articles are written for people who can drive somewhere else when things go bad. That’s not us. From Ewa Beach to Makaha, our side of the island has its own geography, its own risks, and its own way of taking care of each other. Here’s the leeward version.

Fourteen days, not three

Mainland checklists say three days of supplies. Hawaii’s official guidance — from the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (ready.hawaii.gov) and the City and County of Honolulu Department of Emergency Management — says 14 days. The reason is simple: everything we eat, drink, and run our households on comes across a harbor. If a major storm damages ports and roads, there is no driving to an unaffected state. We wait for the barges.

The state’s kit guidance, in plain terms:

Water: one gallon per person, per day, for 14 days. It’s a lot. Start now, a case at a time.
Food: non-perishable, ready to eat — canned meals, soups, rice you can cook on a camp stove. Don’t forget a manual can opener.
Medications: two weeks’ worth, plus copies of prescriptions and dosages.
Documents: IDs, insurance info, property titles, healthcare directives — sealed in a plastic bag.
Cash in small bills, a battery or solar radio, flashlights, extra batteries, first aid, hygiene supplies.
Pets: their own food and water, plus a crate or carrier.

Nobody has to buy all that in one Costco run. Add a little every payday, and rotate the food so nothing expires — the weekly markets on our coast (schedules on our events page and homepage widget) make it easy to keep the fresh side of the pantry moving while the canned side sits ready.

Know your house before the storm knows it

The City’s Department of Emergency Management is refreshingly blunt about this. If you live in an older single-wall home built before 1995 that hasn’t been retrofitted for hurricane winds — and a lot of us on this coast do — the guidance is to plan on evacuating. If your home was built after 1994 or has been retrofitted, with protected windows and an interior room that has no windows and no exterior walls, sheltering in place may be the safer play.

Know the vocabulary, too: a hurricane watch means storm conditions are expected within 48 hours; a warning means within 36. On a coast where the highway jams on a normal Tuesday, those windows are when decisions get made — not when the wind starts.

Where would you actually go?

Here’s something a lot of neighbors don’t realize: there is no standing list of open hurricane shelters. The City maintains a map of potential shelter sites at honolulu.gov/hurricaneevac, but not every site opens for every storm — the sites that open get announced as a storm approaches, through local media and official channels. Sign up for the City’s mass notification system at hnlalert.gov so those announcements reach your phone.

Two more things about shelters that matter:

They are nearly bare. Shelters provide a safer roof, not supplies. You bring your own food, water, medications, and bedding — which is another argument for having that kit packed and portable.
Pets are allowed at the City’s shelter locations, but they must be leashed or in a carrier, and you supply everything they need.

The City is also clear that shelters and Hurricane Refuge Areas are a last resort. The first choice is the pre-identified home of a friend or family member in a stronger building — so have that conversation with your ohana before a watch goes up, not during one.

One road in, one road out

Everyone from Nanakuli to Makaha knows this in their bones: Farrington Highway is the only public road in and out of the Waianae Coast, for a community of tens of thousands of people. One stalled car can pin the whole coast; a real evacuation is another matter entirely.

There has been movement since Lahaina. State and military officials say Kolekole Pass can now serve as an emergency exit route, and the state has been upgrading the Waianae Coast Emergency Access Road — the roughly five-mile Paakea Road corridor running parallel to Farrington between Nanakuli and Waianae. But both are emergency routes that officials activate; neither is a door we can open ourselves. The practical takeaway: keep the gas tank comfortably full during season, and when evacuation is on the table, leave early — at the watch, not the warning.

The other leeward hazard: brush fires

The same dry summers that make our beaches beautiful cure the grass on our hillsides into fuel, and hurricane season overlaps almost exactly with fire season. The U.S. Forest Service classifies Waianae among the communities at much higher wildfire risk than most of the country — the comparisons to Lahaina’s geography are uncomfortable and fair, and a July 2025 fire came close enough that officials prepared to activate the Kolekole route.

The prep overlaps almost entirely with hurricane prep: the same go-bag, the same alerts, the same leave-early instinct. Add the fire-specific pieces — clear dry brush back from the house, and treat every roadside spark like the emergency it can become.

Make it a neighborhood thing

Preparedness on the west side has never been an individual sport. Check on the kupuna on your street — a 14-day kit is heavy, and someone may need help hauling water. Restock the fresh side of the pantry at the Saturday morning Makeke Waianae at Waianae Mall or the Tuesday Makeke at the Waianae Coast health center while you rotate your stores. And if you’re stocking up from local shops, our directory at /directory/ is built to keep that money on this side of the island.

The season runs through November 30. Fourteen gallons per person, a family plan, hnlalert.gov on your phone, and a full tank. That’s the leeward way: ready early, so we can look out for everybody else.

Sources

NWS Central Pacific Hurricane Center, “2026 Central Pacific Hurricane Season Outlook” — https://www.weather.gov/hfo/hurricaneOutlook2026
Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (ready.hawaii.gov), Emergency Preparedness brochure (14-day kit guidance) — https://dod.hawaii.gov/hiema/files/2023/01/SCD_PrepareBrochure_09-REV-2023-0718.pdf
City & County of Honolulu Department of Emergency Management, “Build a Kit” — https://www.honolulu.gov/dem/build-a-kit/
City & County of Honolulu Department of Emergency Management, “Hurricane” — https://www.honolulu.gov/dem/hurricane/
City & County of Honolulu Department of Emergency Management, “Emergency Shelters” — https://www.honolulu.gov/dem/shelter/
City & County of Honolulu Department of Emergency Management (HNL Alert signup) — https://www.honolulu.gov/dem/
Honolulu Civil Beat, “After Lahaina, Waianae Coast Residents Might Finally Get a Key Evacuation Route” (Mar 2024) — https://civilbeat.org/2024/03/after-lahaina-waianae-coast-residents-might-finally-get-a-key-evacuation-route/
Hawaii Public Radio, “Kolekole Pass ready to use as an emergency exit for Waianae Coast communities” (Apr 2025) — https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/local-news/2025-04-14/kolekole-pass-emergency-exit-route-out-of-waianae-coast
Hawaii Public Radio, “Alternate emergency road in Waianae set to reopen spring 2025” (Jul 2024) — https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/local-news/2024-07-18/waianae-emergency-access-road-reopen
Spectrum News Hawaii / AP, “Could this Hawaii community be the next Lahaina?” (Jul 2025) — https://spectrumlocalnews.com/hi/hawaii/news/2025/07/16/could-this-hawaii-community-be-the-next-lahaina–some-residents-fear-a-similar-wildfire-fate