Hurricane

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ancona

Praying Mantis
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So we have a hurricane of pretty good size and significant strength meandering around in bathtub warm waters right now, just off the coast from me right now. Supposedly, this monster will pile drive itself right in to NYC on Sunday morning. This should be interesting, as it might be able to maintain a lot of its strength since waters are pretty warm all the way along its path, which is pretty much along the Gulf Stream.

As a survivor of several monster storms, I wouldn't wish this prick on anyone, so if this thing is headed your way, don't be an idiot and try to "ride it out" if you are on the coast or in flood prone areas, get the fuck out of there. Property can be replaced people. Stuff is exactly that, stuff. We lost everything we owned in Andrew, and we lost it again when Charley, Frances and Jeanne came through our area in a perfect conflagration one year. We moved north to escape what we thought was a bad area for storms only to get hammered again.

When we came back down from Jacksonville [where we ran to get away from the hurricanes] our house was destroyed by a huge oak tree and the howling winds that carried all manner of water, branches and shit in to our house, but we were alive. You have insurance for a reason. Your family cannot be replaced, your big screen TV can.
 
Good to hear you have sense enough to evacuate to higher ground if you aren't already there. I get so tired of seeing people wading through waist deep muck water cause they didn't want to leave and saying stupid stuff like "we couldn't leave cuz we gots a cat wif diabeetus!" or some other crazy crap.. I won't do what a lot of people always say to those of us that live up north when it blizzards and say you have it coming for living there, cause no matter where you live, something crappy happens, whether it's hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis, floods, fires, etc.
 
On the Texas coast here. I've made the call to evacuate and the the call to ride it out at various times. Ike was a beast, but it didn't rape the land like Andrew did in Florida. We mostly get flood damage/problems here. NYC doesn't get hit hard by hurricanes very often. I think they aren't really prepared for dealing with it. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that many of the problems in dealing with flood waters made evident during Sandy were not significantly addressed.

If you don't live in a strong community, I'd advise evacuating. Even if you don't suffer much damage, flood waters and lack of power can put you smack in the Lord of the Flies twilight zone. The veneer of civilization is thin and situations like this can punch through it. We saw that in New Orleans with Katrina.
 

I've read in some of the survival forums about the same problems after sandy. Some of the people on there who were preppers quickly found out that they became centers of attention when running a generator, and even if being nice and sharing it only made matters worse. When they would ask people to replace some of the gas they were using they would scream stuff like "if I could go get gas, I wouldn't need your stupid generator!" Others had small ones that they would "loan" to people for a few hours only to find when they wanted it back the person would tell them they'd bring it back when they were done now kindly go fuck themselves, or in another case a guy loaned it to a neighbor he considered a friend, who loaned it to a brother in law, who loaned it to a neighbor, and I think you can guess where that all ended up. That's one of the nice things where I live, most people (at least those that have always lived here, not the oil field trash that has blown in) are basically preppers without really considering themselves preppers, plus there still is a lot of the North Dakota nice where people tend to help people, despite the skyrocketing crime due to the oil boom.
 
Here in our neighborhood most of us have generators so we're pretty well set for power outages. I have a whole-house set up with a 500 gallon underground propane tank as well. I'm through with the little 5,000 watt bullshit lawnmower sounding gensets with extension cords running through the house and so is Mrs. Ancona. The whole set up only cost me a few grand, and it was around twelve hundred to fill up the propane. We can last three weeks on a tank, so as long as we keep it low profile, I think we'll be OK. We won't be loaning anything, letting people in for a hot shower, giving away food, water, allowing overnights to sleep in air conditioning or any other comfort. If you didn't learn from all the other times we got hammered, then you are simply too dumb to chew gum.
 
I've been considering getting one of the mid-size propane/natural gas generators, say in the 6.5kw-10kw range and having a panel installed and run a line out to my detached garage and have it in the garage and vent the fumes (heard they produce very little exhaust anyway) out of a furnace style exhaust so it will just look like a normal furnace exhaust. That way it won't be sitting outside for everyone to see, it will be much quieter inside the garage. Then all I have to do is switch it over on the panel and hit a button to start it. The only thing is I don't want to add a big cylinder, or get it hooked up to the utilities gas line and I'm not real fond of keeping more 40-100 pound cylinders than I already have around either. I'd like to be able to have it where I can fill the bottles I have from my line running into the house. One more of those "one of these days" projects I guess.
 



Being raised w/out electricity or running water here is your warning.

When the power goes out, for more than a day, do NOT run your generator.
DO NOT after 3 days cook scent laden food, essentially anything cooked with heat.

Humans will flock to what they know, like moths to the lamp. If they know you are prepared they will be there anyway. Those are the ones who know you or you flapped lip to.

The one who hear or smell your assets, proverbial killer bees, swarm in to the scent and consume like locusts. Set aside fabricated expectations of others social knowledge during crisis. Loose lips sink ships.

Nice neighbors 5 days without normal-ish food consumptions, velociraptors.
Go ahead and be nice, kind, caring, and hungry, cold, waterless, and with the majority expended due to survival incompetence.

Nice is such. I would rather help those who can help themselves and others. Not those who only carry mirrors. Wait until the ground is littered with 'em.
Then the remainders will have clearer vision.

Go visit third world on a motorcycle with backpack to get a clue.
Hint: those who do not contribute, do not exist.
 
11C1P, the 11KW gen-sets are pretty cheap and can be had for around 1,800 bones. Lowes has the 100 pound cylinders, but you can get a 500 gallon cylinder buried in the yard and just forget about the thing. I get min e filled [topped off really] once a year. I use the barbeque off of it and the generator, so it doesn't use much. The gen-set cycles a few times a year, and with two or three power outages a year I maybe use eighty gallons of fuel, sometimes a hundred. I will tell you this though, there is nothing more comforting than sitting in the house during a violent storm and knowing that you are the only one for miles that has full power in the house.

The wife will thank you over and over, every time the power goes out you will get that smile and hug from her when the generator kicks in and she remains comfortable and warm.
 
During Ike, pretty much every street in our neighborhood that had 2-3 homes still occupied had at least one generator running.
 
Man this thing is really chewing up the Bahamas. Thirty foot waves scrubbing those rocks like an eraser. I sure hope those folks survive the night. The storm is eating up the eastern side of the chain, but wind and surf extend pretty much across the entire group. The wave sets are more than ten feet high across the whole region. We're scheduled to have twelve foot swells at Patrick Air Force Base [the beach side] tomorrow and the same at Cocoa Beach Pier. The surfers are going nuts.
 
Well, I'm still dry and have power and clean water, but Hurricane Harvey has already dropped a year's worth of rainfall on us in just three days (literally - 42+ inches of rainfall already). Lot's of flooding all around us, but we're hanging in there.
 
Thats a lot of rain in a very short time Bug.
I was somewhat amused to hear that the rainfall record for a days rain had just been broken and it was now 17 inches, breaking the previous record of 15 inches which had been set ....... the previous day.

It would seem that you are not alone -

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/08/floods-kill-1200-india-nepal-bangladesh-170826230610924.html


In neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, at least 88 people were killed when floods swamped nearly half of the vast state of 220 million people.
Click to expand...
 
It's surreal to see some of the pictures of areas that were hard hit.



Fortunately, the sun is shining again where I live and flood waters are starting to drain/recede. Local stores are starting to re-open and city services are starting to resume. The roads are opening up and things are starting to return to normal (well, for those who didn't get flooded out of their homes).
 
So now the next one is supposed to be even bigger & will almost certainly hit the U.S. somewhere. Isn't even still fairly early in the hurricane season? This isn't looking like a good year for the gulf coast states. Of course for those looking to invest, building supply co.'s & oil will probably spike.
 
Yeah and I wouldn't be surprised if insurance companies and possibly banks companies face some significant financial distress. It just sounds like Irma is going to hit Florida similar to the way Andrew did some years ago.
 
Banks in the distressed areas will face some big hits when they repossess vacant properties that had a house when the mortgages were issued. A lot of those people will have no choice but to walk away.
 

Ancona's opening quote has me hoping he's ok .........
Hes a survivor and under no illusions about what these events can do to property.

Has anyone heard from him lately ?
 
It's been over a year and a half since I last communicated with Ancona. He was, in his words, "in a dark place" mentally as he was trying to resolve some personal issues. I hope he and his family are doing well.
 
I'm doing better now. Cancer is gone for now, but that shit is insidious, so I'm ever watchful.

We just got fucking monkey hammered by a hurricane here on the Space Coast, and I lost eleven trees in my yard, got about eight inches of standing water in the house and had some light structural damage to the laundry room roof. Others were not so lucky. All in all, it cost around three grand to clean up, so not too bad, except for the fact that one tree landed square on top of my whole house generator, taking it out for the count, which sucked a giant banana.

My buddy in the Keys lost his whole house as well as his rental property, his boat, his two cars and all four dogs drowned. They got out during the storm and he never saw them again. He had eight to nine foot storm surge water surrounding his house with fifteen and sixteen foot waves on top of that. He barely survived. Personally I think he was an idiot for not bailing out in the first place.
 
Good to see you back & doing well. :wave: Sorry to hear about the storm damage. Was the generator inside a garage or shed? I guess it's one of those learning experiences if nothing else, maybe to build a kind of cage around it, which of course will also ensure nothing falls on it cause it's protected.
 
It was on an elevated [18"] slab in a metal sort of box that it came with. Just bad luck I guess.
 
Hey Ancona

Great to hear from you !

I mean really great to hear from you !!!



A lot of people in Blighty are now using CBD and THC oil and creams to get rid of cancer. The THC as a cream rubbed on externally so you dont have to get all tripped out.

Its a kind of bottom up revolution with illegal growers kicking back bits of less saleable crop to the oil extractors. The law seem to be pretty tolerant of it all.

During your silence here I have seen one friend totally cured when he really should be dead and another who, while curious about cannabis / hemp oils, opted for death by chemo. I am currently watching progress with interest for other friends.

And our little 12 year old terrier dog was diagnosed with two tumors back in March and the vet kinda saying 'get your affairs in order fella' you aint got long and treatment is pointless. So he's been on CBD oil ever since and is doing pretty well for an ancient dog.
We took him back to the vet a couple of weeks back just to annoy him ( the vet )

And my personal view of what triggers cancer ( cos we all have pre cancerous cells lurking ) is compromised immune system and stress .........

So quality food and drink inputs, a few more rants, to get rid of any anger and some CBD oil daily would be my recommendation (-:
 
We're going to have a shit ton of rain this weekend that will cause our canal at the end of our road to flood again, just like it did during the hurricane, and this past weekend. I got three inches in the house on Sunday, and with the canal two and a half feet higher today than it was on Friday last, we're going to see a hell of a lot more water this weekend, maybe as much as six inches. I'm getting ready to start building an ark.

The county got the big idea to put part of that canal in to a double pipe a few years back, creating a bottleneck at a critical point, where a smaller canal dumps in to our big one, which fucks up the whole system and causes major overflow.

Now when we get major rains, there's nowhere for the water to go.
 
Well damn. Do you have flood insurance?
 
No flood insurance, just hurricane. And that has a big deductible. I have to pay the first three percent of total value of the house plus five large before the insurance kicks in. So that sucks. It's basically catastrophic loss coverage.
 
My thinking for houses that have a risk of flooding is to build the downstairs as garage /store and upstairs for living i.e. coach house style.
When theres a flood risk, move the vehicles and any stored stuff to higher locations.

Don't try and make the downstairs watertight, build it from porous materials so flood water can filter in and out through the walls.
Keep the doors shut during flooding.
This means you don't get debris, sludge, raw sewerage etc coming in in a rush when the waterproofing is overwhelmed and you don't get hydraulic pressures trying to push walls over.
Use materials that are water tolerant and will dry reasonably quickly with dehumidifiers.

Old mill houses are an example of this approach.
History of flooding, no insurance company interested in insuring, downstairs gets wet, dries out, reoccupied and life goes on.

Here in Blighty they will spend more on fixing a flooded place than it would cost to knock down and rebuild. Then two years later it happens all over again !

I guess eventually they will start building the Coach house style and not putting any fancy finishes onto the walls ......
 
Ancona

when does the flood risk period end ?
Is it seasonal or is this just a one off event ?

You do seem to be getting more than your share )-:
 
Our dry season starts middle of November and ends in late March to the beginning of April. Until then, I'm at risk. My house is one story, so we're sitting ducks. Today is rain all day long.
 
So, we got an inch and a quarter yesterday, and water got halfway up to the front door, but was gone by this morning. Rain is forecast for today and tomorrow though. Also, there is a hurricane coming along the west coast this weekend, and we'll be on the dirty side of the storm, although I think we will be far enough away that the storm should be pulling the moisture away, rather than tossing it at us.
 
I actually did. Man they are EXPENSIVE!!! To go all the way around my house with ten or twelve feet of room all the way around would cost me around twenty five grand for one that stands eight feet high.
 
Wow! I guess that's why they aren't ubiquitous.
 
So how quickly has your area recovered from the last hurricane Ancona ?
And what was your total damage ?
Was it just the tree falling onto the generator housing ?
Are you going to do any alterations to meet future weather challenges ?

And what happened to your favourite neighbours, the ones whose house you hoped to buy once they had trashed it ?
 
A lot of people in Blighty are now using CBD and THC oil and creams to get rid of cancer. The THC as a cream rubbed on externally so you dont have to get all tripped out.

Its a kind of bottom up revolution ......
Click to expand...

Well we were given some THC cream the other day and I was looking forward to trying it out on my aches and pains but my Good Lady got to it first and decided those odd little growths around her horses arsehole might be cancerous, so she started dosing it up there.
Now it takes more than one (gloved up) finger of dosage to to the job so I have a difficult choice, accept some horsey 'material' had got into the cream or wait for another batch to be made ........ (-:
 
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