Hurricane Douglas Arrives

I had turned on the television when I returned from my sunrise walk and watched the breaking news live coverage of Hurricane Douglas as it moved northerly of the islands. This morning the first effects of Hurricane Douglas were felt on Hawaiʻi Island, mainly rain and not much wind. Douglas passed about 80 miles north of Hawaiʻi Island. As things progressed, Douglas passed about 45 miles north of Maui and about 35 miles north of Molokaʻi.


I really like one of Guy Hagi's graphics; it showed the extent of the hurricane level winds as well as the tropical storm level winds. For Hurricane Douglas winds at hurricane levels extended about 30 miles out from the eye; tropical storm level winds extended about 105 miles.


The emergency management folks recommend 1 gallon of water per person per day for 14 days for drinking & washing; that means 56 gallons for us. I also add 1 gallon per day for the cats; for a total of 70 gallons for our household for drinking and washing. This morning I finished off filling the rest of the empty containers; we now have about 21 gallons of drinking water. We also have about 15 gallons of almond milk, soy milk, cranberry juice, coconut water, sparkling cider, various wines, bottled water, and Boost & Breeze supplements for drinking. This gives us 36 gallons for drinking and cooking; which is the right ratio. This doesn't include the water I stored in 2017; I think there is about 15 gallons from then for us to use for washing. We can collect rainwater for the remaining 20 gallons. I don't think the people running to Walmart just before the hurricane arrives know how much water they really need to be buying.


When I left the house this morning it was just a really light misting coming down. By the time I reached the parking lot it was a nice drizzle; I waited in the car about 10 minutes before it stopped. I was able to make it all the way around the circle before it started to drizzle again; I decided to cut my walk short and head home. I did not see anyone else walking today.

Twenty-seven minutes before sunrise on Waiʻalae.

Rain seventeen minutes before sunrise.

Rain ten minutes before sunrise.

Six minutes after sunrise on Maunalani.

Rain twenty-two minutes after sunrise.

All my electronics were fully charged up this morning. The last thing I needed to do was replace my old, broken LifeProof Frē case with the new one that arrived while I was on Hawaiʻi Island. But 1st I needed to do the water test; it passed! Now I will be able to take photos out in the weather without my phone getting wet.

Fully charged Anker PowerCore 26800.

Fully charged hot spot.

Fully charged laptop.

New LifeProof Frē case.

Before.

After.

L to R: old case, new case. Yes, I was using blue tape to hold charging door on.

Yesterday I started testing whether the air conditioning in the study and my bedroom could keep the east end of the house cool when we need to shut the windows. It worked really well to keep the doors for the study & bedroom open and set up a small fan in the hall way to blow cool air along through the family room towards the kitchen. I'm glad I did; Guy Hagi said we would likely see muggy, kona weather as the hurricane passed an area. Although Hurricane Douglas arrived here after dark when it was cooler, it was noticeably muggy outside, while it was cooler inside in the family room.


I had plugged the Crosstrek in as soon as I returned from my walk; it was fully charged around 10:30. After I unplugged it, I did one last walk around the outside of the house to make sure we had everything secured.

Topping off the battery.

Plants moved to back patio.

Rubbish cans, etc., hanging out in the back patio.

The Potential Most Favorite Roommate made barbecued chicken for dinner tonight. I contributed cole slaw and cauliflower risotto.



Like I did with Hurricane Lane in 2018, I took a series of photos of the weather from a set point and about an hour apart; I used the frame of the window by the sliding door and looked out in to the cat run. From there I can also see the sky to the southeast as well as the rain dripping off of the eaves. Hurricane Douglas passed about 45 miles north of the windward coast and about 25 miles north of the north shore; we saw hardly anything.

6:54 am.

7:52 am.

8:06 am.

9:00 am.

10:00 am.

11:00 am; it starts to drizzle. The sirens go off; giving 3 hours advanced warning of impending landfall.

12 noon.

12:15 pm. What a difference a few minutes makes!

1:00 pm.

2:07 pm; Douglas did not arrive here. It slowed down over Maui; new ETA 8 pm.

3:14 pm.

4:03 pm.

5:01 pm.

7:00 pm. Getting harder to see out the window.

7:30 pm. Last sign of the sky from this window.

There were only 64 new COVID-19 cases today; with the data correction it brings the total known cases up to 1683. Most new cases were on O'ahu. There were no new deaths but there were a couple new hospitalizations.






Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Tilman!