Southeast folks OK?

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  • atgcpaul
    Veteran Member
    • Aug 2003
    • 4055
    • Maryland
    • Grizzly 1023SLX

    Southeast folks OK?

    From the news we get over here, seems like Hurricane Michael was as bad as predicted with lots of property damage in Florida and Georgia. All of my family live in Northeast so just rain for them.

    Hope you all are OK.

    Paul
  • capncarl
    Veteran Member
    • Jan 2007
    • 3564
    • Leesburg Georgia USA
    • SawStop CTS

    #2
    It’s a royal mess down here! I live about 175 miles as the crow fly’s from Mexico Beach Fla. The center of the eye of the hurricane passed over us about midnight as a cat 2, they say winds were 100mph. It sounded like the train everyone talks about...... for several hours. When the eye got to us the wind and rain stopped and everything got really eerie quiet. I walked outside with a big flashlight to survey the damage, as did my neighbors, and found trees down, debris everywhere..... and my shop carport ceiling laying on my boat. About 15 minutes later I heard the “train” coming back so I headed back into the house, it lasted about 3 more hours before the wind dropped down to a casual 60mph whistle! Most Everyone’s power has been off since then, my power was off only 24 hrs probably because of a nearby state prison sharing our power circuit. Some of my friends are going on their 6th day without power. We made 4 trips to the landfill today with my 16’ utility trailer full of tree debris, and will probably make as many tips tomorrow.
    The art gallery in Appalachicola Fla that sells my Tiny Tables and Tiny Trees emailed me today and reported that they had 3 feet of water in their gallery. I offered to help with their clean up and rebuild.
    I am very familiar with the storm destroyed areas. I was in Mexico Beach a couple of weeks before the storm visiting friends and attending a funeral there. We contact my deceased friends mother the morning of the storm, she lives about 1/2 mile off the beach in a new brick house. She wasn’t leaving, said that it was just another storm. No fool like an old fool. We haven’t been able to contact her since the storm. The beach rental apartment that I had on Mexico Brach for 2 years is completely gone, I don’t even see the concrete slab on the NOAA storm flyover photos. Few structures survived in this 2 mile x 1 block strip of housing along the beach front. It even blew down the water tower which was located 1/2 mile inland. The canal with all of the damage and destruction that has been all over the news WAS one of my favorite launch areas for my boat, with its direct outlet into the gulf. My deceased friends boat stayed docked in that canal until his illness overtook him earlier this year. The destruction shown doesn’t sink home unless you actually saw it beforehand. My wife and I are really thankful that we were not able to find a place within our budget In Mexico Beach.
    capncarl

    Comment

    • Carlos
      Veteran Member
      • Jan 2004
      • 1893
      • Phoenix, AZ, USA.

      #3
      It's amazing how much a few miles changes things. I spent last week on Orlando and Miami, where we had great weather other than the usual horrible humidity. Spent lots of time outside, it was pretty nice. A friend was down in the affected areas basically recovering remnants from his parents' place however.

      Comment

      • leehljp
        Just me
        • Dec 2002
        • 8429
        • Tunica, MS
        • BT3000/3100

        #4
        My wife was in Lakeland (between Tampa and Orlando) when it hit. They had some strong winds there but not bad. She had been there for a month taking care of her 90 yr old mom in re-hab. LOML was scheduled to leave the day before it hit, but winds along I-10 were already scaring her. She was going to come back on I-10 to Mobile and go up through Hattiesburg to Jackson and visit a sister. She had to stay until Friday since I-10 didn't open back up until late Thursday Afternoon. She said I-10 was terrible for about 75 miles in there, trees down everywhere, pushed up along side the road, and that was 30 miles inland. Got word from a lineman friend yesterday. He often goes to Hurricane and tornado areas and has been for years. He said this is the worst devastation he has ever seen.
        Last edited by leehljp; 10-17-2018, 07:38 AM.
        Hank Lee

        Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted!

        Comment

        • atgcpaul
          Veteran Member
          • Aug 2003
          • 4055
          • Maryland
          • Grizzly 1023SLX

          #5
          Well, I am glad that the folks here are doing OK. capncarl, I couldn't imagine sitting in that kind of chaos for hours and then having a lull only to know it was coming around again. Is there lightning/thunder during this time, too? We had a dog that was terrified of thunderstorms. That would probably have given him a coronary.

          I hadn't even heard of Mexico Beach until this happened.

          Comment

          • capncarl
            Veteran Member
            • Jan 2007
            • 3564
            • Leesburg Georgia USA
            • SawStop CTS

            #6
            There was no lightening or thunder. I was surprised.
            Mexico Beach fla is like Panama City Fla without the city. In HAD 1 3 story motel, and no time shares with revolving doors like all the other tourist beaches. They prohibited any building over 3 story, most every structure was single family with a sprinkling of duplex and apartment complexes. MB was still a golf cart community, with no golf course, no goofy golf, no stores except an old Ace hdw and IGA grocery store. To say the city leaders kept their thumb on growth would be an understatement, commercial growth just didn’t happen here. The beach was a duplicate of Panama City, Destin, Ft Walton, white sugar sand. I think I heard 1200 full time residents that jumped to probably 5 times that during the summer. That packed out their 2-3 restaurants. It looked like a great place to live, and for some it probably was but I decided that the reason there was not more permanent residents was they probably were so bored in the off season they killed theirselves.
            capncarl

            Comment

            • capncarl
              Veteran Member
              • Jan 2007
              • 3564
              • Leesburg Georgia USA
              • SawStop CTS

              #7
              My house is not hurricane or tornado friendly, it has lots of windows and glass walls. There is not a safe place in it to hide from a storm. That fact just went right by me when we built the house. I’ve had several tornadoes come real close, one less than 200 yards, and have serious thoughts about installing a steel prefabricated storm shelter in my house garage. For hurricane Michael that would mean sitting in a metal box for 6-7 hours. I’m not sure I’m up for that.

              Comment

              • atgcpaul
                Veteran Member
                • Aug 2003
                • 4055
                • Maryland
                • Grizzly 1023SLX

                #8
                My wife developed a phobia of wind storms I think after one knocked a tree down in our yard. She was semi-serious about me installing a shelter in our basement. We were in the DC area at the time.

                She is now thinking about where we should retire--not that we are even old enough for that, but she's a planner. She has pretty much crossed off the whole southeast and the areas in tornado alley. My top spot would be in the Pacific Northwest although it is far from family but I think even Seattle had a tornado this past year.

                Comment

                • Carlos
                  Veteran Member
                  • Jan 2004
                  • 1893
                  • Phoenix, AZ, USA.

                  #9
                  We never get twisters here, but we do get linear 100 MPH winds. Not a big deal, as long as you didn't leave stuff out, or have one of those flimsy cheap gazebos. I no longer have one. The replacement weighs 800 pounds and doesn't care. My friend who lives a half mile away took a lot of roof damage a few days go because he's got open space facing the part of the desert where the winds generally come from. I've got two houses between me and the desert, they buffer it.

                  Comment

                  • leehljp
                    Just me
                    • Dec 2002
                    • 8429
                    • Tunica, MS
                    • BT3000/3100

                    #10
                    Originally posted by capncarl
                    . . . and have serious thoughts about installing a steel prefabricated storm shelter in my house garage. For hurricane Michael that would mean sitting in a metal box for 6-7 hours. I’m not sure I’m up for that.
                    When we were in Toyota City, a typhoon came over with 100 mph winds and stalled somewhat. We had full wind with the 10 year old house shaking and vibrating from 4 pm to 9pm. I had just finished building a small 9x12 shop, no nails except roofing, all Screws. I lost 4 shingles but the shop came through OK. Our house - sideways rain, Doors swelled shut. Couldn't get out after the main part of the storm except through a window.

                    I had just gotten back into Nagoya from Tokyo at about 2:30 pm on the Shinkansen (bullet train). It was the last train in as they stopped all other trains due to the typhoon. I caught a local train (last one they let out) to Toyota. AT Toyota City train station, I called my wife to come pick me up and she said matter of factly: "Fend for yourself, I am not driving in this". There was one taxi there. Cost me $40 to go 4 kilometers! But it was worth it.
                    Hank Lee

                    Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted!

                    Comment

                    • capncarl
                      Veteran Member
                      • Jan 2007
                      • 3564
                      • Leesburg Georgia USA
                      • SawStop CTS

                      #11
                      Lee,
                      previously you mentioned your distain with our lovely insurance companies. Someone sent us this information on hurricane coverage insurance. I haven’t verified it’s authenticity, but what the heck, it came off the internet so it must be true. More ways your insurance company finds ways to “harvest” money from their customers.

                      Hurricane Deductible - Pretty much all homeowner policies in Florida have a 2% hurricane deductible. What that means is that the deductible is 2% of your policy limit. So, if the policy limit on your home is $350,000, your hurricane deductible will be $7,000. It doesn't matter what your standard deductible is, the hurricane deductible will be applied for this storm. Information

                      Comment

                      • capncarl
                        Veteran Member
                        • Jan 2007
                        • 3564
                        • Leesburg Georgia USA
                        • SawStop CTS

                        #12
                        Little of the damages I have witnessed has been directly caused by wind, most of it was caused by trees. I know trees are a large part of our lives but if we make an effort to remove trees that have a potential risk of falling on our houses, that risk is reduced. I’m not sure how to address the problem with trees knocking down power lines but trees are the culprit here in most if not all of our power outages.
                        capncarl

                        Comment

                        • Carlos
                          Veteran Member
                          • Jan 2004
                          • 1893
                          • Phoenix, AZ, USA.

                          #13
                          Tree damage is rare around here. But a long time ago a Saguaro fell over in my neighbor's yard during a storm and totaled his car. Which is doubly a pain because they are protected and you can't just go chop it up.

                          Comment

                          • atgcpaul
                            Veteran Member
                            • Aug 2003
                            • 4055
                            • Maryland
                            • Grizzly 1023SLX

                            #14
                            We found out about that wind deductible, too, when that tree fell on my garage. OK, the deductible was always there but not much you can do to get rid of it. The biggest expense was the tree removal, and when I realized the deductible was going to be too high, I ended up fixing the garage myself for a few hundred dollars. I was really bummed to have lost that tree, though. It provided such excellent shade to my patio and I could do all my outdoor sanding and finishing under it even when it was sunny out.

                            Comment

                            • capncarl
                              Veteran Member
                              • Jan 2007
                              • 3564
                              • Leesburg Georgia USA
                              • SawStop CTS

                              #15
                              I like my shade tress as much as anyone, our old family home was shaded by giant pecan trees that provided pecans as well as shade. When we sold the house the buyer had all of the trees removed before she rented the house out. She said that her insurance agent insisted they be removed before he would write her a policy. That turned out to be a good thing for her because the twister that hit last hear blew every tree standing down in that neighborhood, causing lots of damages to the houses.

                              I figure the the money I will save by not having a shade tree falling on my shop will keep my air conditioner running in the shop.

                              Comment

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