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Why Hawaii Might Be The Worst Place To Live If The SHTF

How should Hawaiians be preparing for major disasters, like nuclear war or an EMP? It’s a question that isn’t brought up very often in the prepper community, but it should be.

As North Korea’s missile program continues to advance by leaps and bounds, and as the regime’s threats to the US become more aggressive, there’s growing concern that states like Hawaii and Alaska could be targeted with nuclear weapons someday.

It’s an understandable fear, considering the fact that these states are so much closer to North Korea. It’s not clear if the famously isolated nation will ever be able to target the mainland, but it seems very likely that they could at least strike a state like Hawaii in the near future.

That’s why Hawaii’s Emergency Management Agency recently released a statement that informs residents of the state on what they should do in case they come under nuclear attack.

Citizens of Hawaii are advised to look out for emergency sirens, alerts, wireless notifications, or flashes of “brilliant white light” that will indicate that a nuclear detonation is incoming or underway. 

From there, the agency instructs citizens to get indoors, stay indoors, and stay tuned via radio as “cell phone, television, radio and internet services will be severely disrupted or unavailable.” Instead, expect only local radio stations to survive and function. 

If indoors, citizens should avoid windows. If driving, citizens should pull off the road to allow emergency vehicles access to population centers. Once inside, Hawaiians should not leave home until instructed to or for two full weeks, as dangerous nuclear fallout could sicken or kill them. 

The guide also informs Hawaiian residents that water and electrical utilities will likely be disrupted and that they should remain sheltered for up to two weeks. After that, they may be able to leave their homes to search for “food, water, and medical care.”

All of which brings up an important question. How should Hawaiians be preparing for major disasters, like nuclear war or an EMP? It’s a question that isn’t brought up very often in the prepper community, but it should be. The islands are home to nearly 1.5 million people, most of whom reside on Oahu, a densely populated island that is half the size of Rhode Island.

The people living there would have problems that would be daunting to most preppers living in the mainland. If you were stuck in a major city during an event that destroyed society, you would at least have a chance at escaping on foot. Hawaiians don’t have that option. If they were cut off from the outside world, they would have nowhere to flee to. They would be stuck on an island chain that has to import the vast majority of its food, and pretty much all of its fuel. So Hawaiians need all of the weapons, tools, and supplies that most preppers need, but they need more of it. Here’s a short list of what Hawaiian preppers need to consider:

  • They need to stock up on a lot of food. After a major disaster, it could be much harder for the US government to provide relief efforts to islands that are thousands of miles away from the mainland. That difficulty would be multiplied if Oahu’s harbors were damaged in any way.
  • Fuel would be scarce for the same reasons why food would be hard to come by. Hawaii is pretty much 100% dependent on imported oil. It would be wise for Preppers in this state to buy solar panels and stock up on propane.
  • Water would be another major issue. Hawaiians rely almost entirely on underground aquifers for their water needs, which probably aren’t too easy for most urban dwellers to reach. There are a few rivers, but they aren’t very substantial. While most preppers know that they should have some kind of water filtration device, it would be a good idea for Hawaiian preppers to have a water desalination kit, as well as a rainwater collection system.
  • Anyone with a sailboat would have a huge advantage. They could catch fish, or flee from densely populated places like Oahu, and head toward some of the other islands. Unfortunately, this wouldn’t be a very affordable option for most Hawaiians.
  • Of course, the biggest challenge that most Hawaiians in Oahu would have to worry about is space. Hawaii has the most expensive real estate in any state, so most people don’t have sizeable homes. So while Hawaiians would need to stock up on more supplies than people living in the mainland, they have less space to work with.

Here is a list of 100 items that disappear first in a disaster

In the event of a massive disaster, Hawaii could be cut off from the rest of the world for a very long time. The people there would be left to their own devices in a place that simply cannot sustain their population, and there would be no way for most people to bug out. And to top it all off, most people don’t have enough living space to properly prep for that scenario. It would be a nightmare.

Though most people think of luxury and relaxation when the subject of Hawaii comes up, in reality, the people living there may have the most difficult time preparing for the possibility of social collapse. Maybe that’s why the prepping community doesn’t talk about this state very often.

This article was originally published at Ready Nutrition™ on July 31st, 2017