LIHU'E, Kaua'i — Even 13 years after Hurricane 'Iniki rampaged through Kaua'i, veterans of that storm still get a visceral reaction when they hear about disasters such as Hurricane Katrina.

"It's just like a sock in the gut. I immediately go and look at what's going on in the Eastern Pacific," said Summer Harrison of Po'ipu, who like many longtime Kaua'i residents has grown familiar with storms that track from the Eastern Pacific into the Central Pacific and the waters around Hawai'i.

As Harrison works on plans for building her own home, she thinks about impact-resistant glass and other features that reflect a concern for being safe in a storm. When she plans her life, disaster preparedness is always an issue.

"I worry about these things. I do every time there is a hurricane," she said. "I have ever since 'Iniki."

Kaua'i residents have reason to be cautious. They've been hit by strong hurricanes three times in the last 50 years: Hurricane Dot in 1959, Hurricane 'Iwa in 1982 and Hurricane 'Iniki on Sept. 11, 1992. The last storm caused an estimated $2.6 billion in damage and was directly or indirectly blamed for a half-dozen deaths.

If there is a message from 'Iniki survivors to people elsewhere who are potentially in the path of disaster, it's personal readiness and maintaining a sense of community.

Whether it was a familiarity with storms, or the rural character of the community, outsiders were impressed with the island's response.

"Our hurricane (insurance) adjusters showed up straight from (Hurricane) Andrew in Florida, and they said, 'Here, nobody's waiting and wringing their hands. You're just feeding each other and making do,' " said Millie Wellington of 'Ele'ele.

Woodworker Ray Nitta recalled the same thing.

"People here just took the initiative to help themselves. People weren't waiting for outside help. They got up on the roofs and helped each other make repairs," he said.

Nitta credited this to the need for rural communities to handle things for themselves, even under the best of circumstances. He said his first thought after hearing of the devastation Hurricane Katrina caused was to compare the urban and rural response.

"My reaction was that I'm glad I'm here rather than in a huge city like New Orleans or Honolulu or Chicago. I think that if this had happened in the Midwest, people would be able to take care of themselves better.

"Living in the city, I think you lose touch with whatever survival skills we, sort of, instinctively have," Nitta said.

Kaua'i residents got out their gas campstoves and began cooking up the food from the freezers, since it was clear it would be weeks — and, in many cases, it turned out to be months — before power was restored. Many families doubled or tripled up, cooking together as neighbors. They used candles, Coleman lanterns or battery-powered lights. Bathtubs filled with water before the storm were decanted into whatever containers were available. People slept in whatever rooms were still dry or could be made dry with the judicious application of plastic sheets, canvas and the ubiquitous blue tarp.

Federal Emergency Management Agency director James Lee Witt, when he flew over Kaua'i several days after the storm, is said to have remarked: "Where did they get all those blue tarps?"

It's that kind of community. People simply have them.

Wailua resident Mel Ventura, who was raised in a West Kaua'i plantation camp, said it's partly just a function of having lived far from a supply source. Making stuff work without the factory-specification parts was an everyday thing.

"The old-timers stocked nuts and bolts and things they could use to fix diesel engines. They improvised and cannibalized," Ventura said.

One of the things Katrina victims are learning now, which Kaua'i residents have learned repeatedly, is that help is inevitably slower in coming than you'd like.

"It amazes me how isolated we were. We had to wait for days for help," Wellington said.

More than a decade after the last big storm hit, residents are still ready. When a hurricane alert is issued, stores report brisk sales on batteries, toilet paper, rice and other staples. But the last-minute shopping tends not to be a panic, suggesting that many people are simply supplementing their existing hurricane supplies, rather than building them up from nothing.

Lihu'e resident Jeanne Childs said her family's hurricane kit includes a gas lantern, flashlights, batteries, candles and matches, paper towels, a campfire coffeepot and a first-aid kit.

"If we get a warning, I have to remember to fill up with gas, fill the bathtub with water and check the batteries," she said.

Childs said her sense is that hurricane veterans are vigilant, but not fearful.

"We're small, we're rural and we've been through it before. It's not scary. I could imagine being in a city and having this happen. That would be scary," she said.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.