September is National Preparedness Month. Are you ready? Hurricane season runs from June 1 through Nov. 30. Throughout the season, an average of three tropical storms and two hurricanes occur in Hawaii. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announces a below-normal 2022 Central Pacific hurricane season with two to four tropical cyclones predicted this year.

Although forecasters predict less tropical storms than normal, emergency management officials urge residents to make a family plan and to prepare an emergency kit in case of a potential storm.

“One of the most important pieces of advice to prepare for hurricane season is to start now,” said Will Luna, emergency management manager for Navy Region Hawaii. “Oftentimes you see people don’t take hurricane preparation seriously until the hurricane is upon us. It’s better to have an emergency preparedness kit all filled out so you don’t need to worry about fighting the crowd to get supplies.”

One of the most common habits that people often run into is complacency. Warren Ferguson, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam emergency management manager emphasizes the importance to prepare.

“When you’re living in Hawaii with blue skies and wonderful temperature, it is easy to forget about the things that can potentially go wrong, it is very common for people to get complacent,” said Ferguson. “One of the things that I continue to stress to people is to plan ahead – make a plan, build a kit and stay informed during hurricane season.”

“One of the biggest issues we have is that we are on an island, 95% of our supplies come in from the mainland through the Port of Honolulu,” added Ferguson. If during a hurricane that port was taken out or deemed unusable, we could potentially wait for a long time before we get our supplies reestablished, so it’s important in Hawaii for everyone to have a 14-day supply of food and water ahead of time to be prepared.”

The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency website at ready.hawaii.gov provides a plethora of information to get ready such as knowing the nearest hurricane shelters, a boater’s hurricane safety manual, and building a kit.

“Another good thing is to do a lot of research in terms of preparation. There are a lot of good websites, most notably Ready.gov that provides a lot of information such as how to make a plan, how to build your kit and how to understand the different TCCOR (Threat Condition of Readiness) terms on what they mean,” said Luna.

What is TCCOR? TCCOR is a system that is used on military installations to help prepare for destructive weather from a Tropical cyclone.

There are five stages of TCCOR, according to Ready.navy.mil:

– TCCOR 5: Indicates that we are in hurricane season. This is not the absence of threat; it just indicates that any storm/hurricane is greater than 72 hours away.

– TCCOR 4: Indicates that a possible threat of destructive winds will occur in 72 hours.

– TCCOR 3: Destructive winds of force are possible within 48 hours.

– TCCOR 2: Destructive winds of force indicated are anticipated within 24 hours.

– TCCOR 1: Destructive winds of force indicated are occurring or anticipated within 12 hours.

For a complete list on what to include in your emergency preparedness kit, visit the Hawaii Emergency Management website at ready.hawaii.gov.