Popular handbook helps residents prepare for natural hazards
HONOLULU – While families continue to shelter in place in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of keeping your home safe remains a priority.
The newly updated Homeowner’s Handbook To Prepare For Natural Hazards, Fourth Edition, published by the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program and available free of charge, provides detailed information on how to prepare your family and your home for a hurricane or other natural hazards.
For families, key tips for emergency supplies, evacuation planning and ways to reduce the impacts from climate change (including heat, drought, infectious disease, wildfires and sea-level rise) are now included.
For the home, the handbook outlines new retrofit best practices for single-wall and double-wall houses, roofs, windows, post and pier foundations, garage doors and much more.
The handbook has now gone through ten print runs and has been modified for 12 states and countries. Almost 2,500 houses have been retrofitted in Hawaii since the first printing in 2007.
“We would like to thank the 35 government and private partners that supported the handbook – many from the very beginning. We are extremely appreciative of their contributions that have helped the community,” said Darren T. Lerner, director of Hawaii Sea Grant.
Copies of the new handbook can be downloaded online, and printed copies will be available and accessible at the Hawaii Sea Grant office when UH Manoa resumes normal operations.
Reserve a copy today by contacting Hawaii Sea Grant at seagrant@hawaii.edu or (808) 956-7031.