Waiting for the Big Fat Lady to smite

[radhak]

We live in Miramar, 20 miles north of Miami, and we are bracing for Hurricane Irma's impact Saturday evening / Sunday morning. Almost all models are forecasting a Category 5 or 4 storm, larger in size than the state of Florida. Our home is built to code implemented after Andrew, but that code had much lower a bar than 185 mph winds. Lord knows what sort of damage we will be enduring tomorrow. We are not in the evacuation zone, but the threat is real.

I have put up hurricane shutters all around, and cleaned up the exterior for furniture and stuff. I made space in the garage for one car, but now my wife wants both car in the garage, so will have to be creative in how I move my tools around to make that happen.

Earlier in the week I could have planned an escape, maybe to Atlanta, but now for the past 2 days there are no flights, and gas has run out at most gas pumps, and the roads are clogged all the way up. Will I regret not running earlier? Who knows - fingers crossed!

[gerti]

Good luck, you'll be in our thoughts!

[atgcpaul]

Good luck to you all.

From watching the news with the huge backups on the highways and police escorts for the gas station workers, seems like the prequel for The Walking Dead.

[radhak]

Thanks folks.

I have to say past experience seems to have provided lessons learnt: gas, while running out at some, is still available at other pumps. Grocery stores managed to keep supply of water etc up, right up to the moment they closed. And yeah, the cops around do give a feeling of impending apocalypse, but a bit of over-reaction might be better than being caught unaware by looting etc.

[leehljp]

Building to "code" has its purposes and building beyond "code" (if one can afford it) sure gives a sense of security. When we moved to west Tokyo in 1986 from the USA, I knew we were moving into an earthquake zone. We moved into a house that was built in the mid-60s. I kinda worried at times as to how strong our house was. A few months after moving into the house, I began exploring some aspects of the construction and looked in the attic. I was surprised to see that the frame of the house was 10 cm (4 inch) square steel pipe. I never worried after that. The house was built way beyond code for that time and probably exceeds what code is now. (The house has since been torn down to build an apartment complex.)

Properly done gang-nails are much stronger than a couple of single nails at joints. However, screws are much stronger than gang-nail joints if done properly. I built a 9' x 12' storage shed using screws in every joint - in Nagoya in 2005 and a month later a typhoon stalled over us. With sustained winds of 100 mph for 3 hours, I lost 3 shingles. We were up on a ridge and the force of the wind hit the storage house coming in on the ridge which increased its force. In talking with a few engineers and code enforcers here there and yonder, I always get the response that all screws are way overkill. Not necessary! WRONG in my opinion. It may cost more but it sure is effective.

Praying for you.

[cwsmith]

Good luck on weathering the storm. You'll be in our prayers and our sincerest hopes is that you'll not receive any great amount of damage.

CWS

[capncarl]

leehjip, I would like to see houses built using more adhesive as well as screws. When you run a bead of adhesive down each stud or rafter before attaching the plywood or particle board you have upped the ante and made that wall or roof panel much stronger. Spraying on foam insulation inside the walls and on the bottom of the roof deck dramatically increases the strength of those components. All of these building strengthning features are not worth squat for a lot of modern designed houses that are more windows than walls. ( like mine! )

i try to keep 20-30 gallons of gasoline on hand for my lawnmower and generator, knowing that I'll have an ample supply in case of emergencies such as these. To keep it from going bad it is cycled into the boat, truck and cars. If I need more fuel for the generator I can always tap into the 30 gallons in the boat tank.

capncarl

[UPS1990]

My GOD keep you safe!

[LCHIEN]

I sincerely hope for the best for you in the coming storm. Please be safe. Property can be replaced, lives can't.

[Twin Oaks]

May God bless & protect all who are in the path of this storm.

[radhak]

Just to update y’all that we personally dodged a big bullet with Irma: she skirted our area from sufficiently far away that we missed the nastiest impact. The wind was howling all day yesterday and into the night, but we even managed to retain our power most of the time – in itself a miracle because most areas here lost power.

A quick look outside tells me that I have a couple of downed trees – which means a long day of cleanup today, and probably some roof damage to be assessed.

Thankfully our cars are safe because I managed to make space in the garage and parked the two cars inside – which feat my wife says was the true miracle !

Having seen so many hurricanes, I have to say this was the most stressful – for the threat it posed, and also the sheer size of it meant it was 4/5 days in the making, and it took around 24 hours to pass us by fully. Most others took a day or so of preparation and were over in hours. This seemed interminable.

But anyway, open air and the ability to step outside is so nice – albeit for cleanup.

I hope to get something positive out of this: I am seeing my garage/workshop with new eyes now, and believe I can get rid of a lot of stuff and make it truly compact and 'mobile', to help me work easier and cleaner, and also enable us to park our cars in more expediently.

Thanks for all your wishes and prayers.

[atgcpaul]

Awesome! I'm glad you were able to make it through relatively unscathed.

No doubt, there will be a lot of people very negatively affected by Irma, but my impression is it skirted the coast enough that the effect wasn't as bad as it could have been. Am I way off base?

[dbhost]

Praying you are okay, and for a quick recovery. Let's hope Jose goes away!

[radhak]

Thanks, yes, we are doing good. Jose seems to be slated to dissipate at sea.

Paul, you are right - Irma did expend a major part of her venom over sea, and hit the US mainland much diminished. If it had turned north as earlier feared, at Miami, that would have been many times more nastier.

[jabe]

Glad U R safe