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In 1983, we were hit by Hurricane Alicia. We lived about 20 miles north of Galveston Island, and about 10 miles west of Galveston Bay. I had children who was barely 6, barely 3, and 10 mo old. The storm hit the mainland at 115 mph. We were far enough inland that I was most concerned about tornadoes that are more of a threat as the hurricane moves onshore. And ... it came ashore in the middle of the night. I don't know when I've been more scared than sitting in the dark, trying to listen to a battery-powered radio, and hearing the shriek of the wind and the pounding of the rain. Yes, the house did creak and moan a LOT.
We were lucky. We had part of a fence blow down, lost a porch light that broke, and had some water seep in around doors and windows (although I was mopping it up almost as fast as it came in). Neighbors lost parts of roofs, a couple of houses looked as if they may have been briefly touched by a tornado with part of the roof decking gone as well.
The worst part was after the storm. Imagine going from the shrieking, howling winds to dead calm. It really does feel as if the hurricane has taken every breath of moving air right along with it as it moved through. You are left with unimaginable heat and humidity and no stirring air at all. And remember ... no power. No ice, no cold water, no fans, no A/C, nothing ....
Lines of frustrated people trying to GET those things and all in short supply in the 1st place. Everyone has gone to get supplies before the storm hits and cleaned out store shelves. Now there is a wait of a day or two - or more in some cases - for the trucks to be able to get back into the area to restock supplies. More frustration, and more short tempers from people who are just exhausted and can't get relief from the heat and humidity.
Yes, we were lucky. We had our house ... we had our cars, our kids, etc.
Very interesting to 'live through' with a baby and 2 little ones! On the 5th day after the hurricane, we still had no power. I ended up taking the kids across town to a friend's house where they had power restored. We took nice baths, sat in the AC, and ate a hot meal! The next day our power was on, so we went back home.
I vowed then to NEVER stay during another hurricane ... ever!
As with all other New England weather, once it started, it hit fast and hard and now almost quickly as it started, it's over. I ran errands yesterday morning - it was totally mental out there. There were lines at the gas stations, food stores and Home Depot. The ATM had no money. Common courtesy was gone.
Today, there was a lot of hard wind and heavy rain. We did lose power early this morning, but surprisingly, it was back before we expected. It was nice to just read a book and re-connect with the family (not that the three of us haven't spent a lot of time together this summer ...). And now this evening, all my neighbors are outside, just hanging out.
Tomorrow, back to work. Mikey starts school on Thursday. Then it's Labor Day and the official end of Summer. Life moves on ...
Although turning it over sounds like a great idea, ours has the integrated 6' poles to attach the mesh sides to. I didn't even think of having to secure the trampoline until my wife mentioned a co-worker whose trampoline took out 3 fences down the street before landing in a pool a few years ago.
I used 3/8 rebar I bent around a lally column and then staked into the ground.
But ... 20 hours and counting without power at my house.
Dave
Daughter and son-in-law went to beach today. What a difference a day makes!
Bob
The 'eye' passed over late morning, and it was bright sun for a bit. I shot some video of the stream in the ravine that now looked like the Colorado River, and some down trees. One thing was particularly funny. The tree that split and nailed the house last month - the other half broke off but went in the opposite direction. This time it is purely Toll Brothers to worry about.
Other than a few brief periods, power is up. Cannot say the same for some of the other houses on the street. I have a lot of cleanup and two trees to assess whether to take down tomorrow. Way to windy this afternoon to work safely outside for any big jobs.
All things considered, we made out great. Its been a long two days, and I really need some sleep!
Remarkably pleased to hear how many have got through this one okay.
One thing which does mystify me is the human behaviour where risk control has been effective. Pundits always say that the risk was overstated because the damage was less than the experts warned and hence they were alarmist. I saw it repeatedly in the UK during the 1990's where the Police would clear an area, after receiving a bomb warning, avoiding casualties. The logic went something along the lines of; "There were no casualties; therefore there was no risk!" This entirely missed the potential human catastrophe avoided.
Did anyone score a new greenhouse in their back garden; that was our winner for the weirdest claim after the 1989 storm in England. Poor guy was mystified to look out the back as he did not own a now, neatly planted greenhouse in his rear garden
Cheers
Graham
Cheers
Graham
First post from a new spammer.....
The power company status of my outage:
As of 08:35 AM on 08/29/2011 we are working to restore your service as quickly and safely as possible. Currently we are working to identify the cause of the outage. We expect to have service restored by 11:00 PM on 09/02/2011. Thank you for your patience.
Today, you can buy one of the little portable units that you see vendor use at the flea markets. The most basic unit from Harbor Freight was on sale last week for $89. $250, or about the price of a lawn mower will get you an entry level unit more than capable of supporting a refrigerator, a few lights & fans, boiler/furnace even a shallow well pump (not all at the same time....). By the time you get to $400, you are into pretty serious 240v units for deep wells, etc.
Today, a basic generator should be a staple in everyone's garage. Its an essential part of your disaster preparedness kit.
You know what's funny? I went with Bob to that dealer, and we checked one out in the parking lot. In fact it was open, so I remember climbing inside that car.
That was a while ago, but the funny thing is it just may have been your car, if that was unsold.
We were there to look at Subies, the new Impreza wide-body had just come out and we also wanted to see some new colors.
Even our condo in Ocean City, MD, was OK.
I think both the Outer Banks and some parts of Jersey got hit harder, though.
Bob
Turbo cooked Turbot?
Cheers Pat.
we have talked about getting a generator here ... while we rarely lose power .. ours would be because of a winter snow storm and we'd have no heat! ... we'd really like a large one ....
From the news footage you would think the East Coast was under water!!!
Sorry all, we had a sunny weekend in Seattle- 80 degrees!
Hope there's not too much to clean up for you guys!
tom
The last time we got hit badly was Wilma, when it come right through Coral Springs. The house had all its shutters up and it's like twilight with a bit of light coming in from the tops and bottoms of the shutters. The eye was a strange period with a silence like in a sound room. We all ran outside to see the damage, running around the house and making sure everything was still tight, then running back in before Part 2 came. We ended up losing power for 3 days. We were lucky as parts of Coral Springs had no power for weeks. Driving around was very disorienting as all the trees that provided you with landmarks were gone. It was as if you were in a different city; nothing looked familiar.
My sister is under contract to buy a house, and today she was supposed to settle.
Was.
Due to Irene, the tenants were not able to move out. They had planned to do so this weekend, but Irene pretty much wiped out half of Saturday and Sunday, so the property is not vacant!
Yikes. Reboot, try again. We will do another walk-through on Friday. Our bank said no problem, just hoping their bank is OK with it (it's a short sale). Given they probably can't wait to be rid of this property, I doubt they'll object.
So it delayed my sister's American Dream, for now at least.
Our cousin is still without power, too. I think they got a generator, though.
We're feeling the effects from that storm a bit this week as well; trying to do business with "East Coast" companies this week is a real nightmare.
I tried to call the dealership in Silver Spring, and got their off-site call center.. Dealer is open and power is on, but all computers and phones at the dealership are out..
I'm not sure how I'll get through the day...
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Bob
One of the technicians that work for me lives in one of the hard hit areas on the other side of the Hudson. He's out, and his mom's house in NJ is under water. I've also talked to some friends who work at our sister plant in Essex Junction, VT - another area hard hit by floods.
Still plenty of misery to go around, unfortunately.
We were struck by a tragedy yesterday at a local school when a driver went berserk (still not sure what was the issue) and not only failed to stop at an intersection where school children were crossing on their way to the elementary school across the street, but accelerated through it, hitting a child, and continuing through a neighboring yard to hit parked vehicles, fences, etc., before finally coming to rest.
The child is still alive, but it is sketchy at this point.
They're coming over tonight for an electricity fest and probably some hot showers!
Some years back we went thru a really bad spell of 'early departures' of workers & spouses. One to a seemly random murder, three to freak accidents (car crash, falling tree, and electrocution), two heart attacks, one to MS, and a good half dozen slowly to cancer. After a while you become a bit numb. Thankfully the spacing between events has increased quite a lot in the past few years.
Fun note - Someday, I need to get our OBW fleet together for a picture. Me = '02, Bruce = '03, Gene = '03 & Chuck = '04.
Overall, life is moving on. Unfortunately - due to lack of funds, etc - the child's funeral won't be held until next Wed. Seems like a long time to begin 'closure' ... I really do feel for the child's family ...
On a brighter note ... if you'd like to read some 'entertaining' and 'thought-provoking' ideas ... try this blog ...
tardybelle.blogspot.com ...
Blueberry Festival here locally ... at some point over the weekend ... husband and I will go 'eat our way through it' ... lol
Ode to Teachers
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/03/opinion/blow-an-ode-to-teachers.html?smid=fb-s-
on another note ... while I'm not an ND football fan (and don't watch much sports at all) I do enjoy the jet flyovers before the games ... the jets scream right over my house and are flying low as the stadium is only a few miles away ... when I was a kid my mother and I would run out of the house to watch the jets fly over when we lived in Ft. Worth near an AF base ... I still run out to see the jets fly over ... lol (and then I had to call her and tell her she 'trained me well' ...)
The Corkscrew is neat- you crest the hill and can't see anything until the nose of the car just drops and you hope you aimed it in the right direction before going down! It feels like the top of a roller coaster!
It's definitely a challenging track- lots of elevation change. I had 3 other drivers spin out in front of me which was also challenging to avoid them!
It was a good and fun learning experience. Driving on the street is kinda boring now though!
tom
Bob
Anyone actually crash?
It really was fun- not fast enough to be scary!
2 guys spun but never left the track. One guy spun off the track at turn 10 into the dirt but was still far from the barriers. Left a nice cloud of dust though!
We were driving the skip barber MX-5 Miatas and you could purchase insurance for the cars. Probably a good idea.
tom
Now about the OBW. Everything stopped on Tuesday, 9/11. Commerce ground to an abrupt halt and the fear that gripped the nation threatened to do more long term harm than the attacks themselves.
I'm no fan of GW Bush, but one thing he said struck a cord. Paraphrased, we needed to spend our way out of malaise. Two days later while driving between our sites on the way back from giving a presentation at a forum on UPS installations for critical equipment, I stopped in to my local Subi dealer. I hadn't planned on buying a car that September, but we'd discussed replacing the Toyota wagon sometime in 2002/2003. We didn't close the deal for another two weeks as the 2002 models were just arriving, but that's how it came to be.
Also took the kids to Sesame Place that weekend. Besides some extra security, it was fun, and lines were short.
For me the lesson was enjoy life while you can, life is short, have fun, spend quality time with the people you love, doing the things you are passionate about.
I also remember worrying about NYPDBlue, a Subaru owner on these boards, who turned out to be OK after all. Phew.
Peace.