Hurricane Beryl

[LCHIEN]

This morning dawned hot and humid. We took down the flagpole and put away most of the potted plants and plants stands that could fit in the garage. The lines were long at the gas station so I'll have to do with 3/4 tank and a bit more than half.
the weathermaps show we are on the east edge of the storm boundary but I thinknits only a cat 1.
Right at noon and on schedule the sky turned dark and it's been thunder and downpour since.
Hope we do ok.

[dbhost]

Flower pots and trash cans are in. I have the SUV fully gassed up as of yesterday, I have 5 gallons of gas for the generator in the shed, I have plenty of Coleman Fuel and my Coleman stove ready if I lose power. You are much further away over there in Katy and I am really not worried about it. All the updates show we are just in the far edge of the storm and will likely only have to deal with Tropical storm conditions and it should be pretty brief.

My only big issue is concerns with interruptions in communications. We have upcoming changes to the site / DNS being forced on us by the site host and the DNS / Domain is in my account, so here is h oping I can at least get online with my laptop on Wednesday!

I have an inverter and as long as 5G works, I will be able to do it...

[LCHIEN]

I'm probably 40 miles closer to the storm than you are, Dave!

[dbhost]

I am right off of Galveston Bay. I thought you were in Katy. You might be closer to where the eye wall is going to go through, but I am much closer to the storm surge... If I am reading the trackers correctly, you are more likely to get hurricane force wind than me, where on my side of town, we are expecting a 4 to 6 ft storm surge. So it will probably be messy in Kemah / Seabrook over off of Todville Road... that area that is just barely above the bay normally... Good thing is it is making landfall / surge during low tide...

[cwsmith]

I hope you are all okay!

I'm adding you all to my prayers. Please stay safe!

CWS

[LCHIEN]

Yes, I'll be seeing hurricane force winds, but 50 miles inland. You'll be seeing the storm surge. Both can be seriously damaging.

[LCHIEN]

It rained all night from about 2AM on.
At 7:30 this morning woke up and found that the eye was headed directly for Katy and about an hour south of us.
A bunch of tree branches were shed all over the lawn and will have to be cleaned up.
Other than that, not so bad so far.

[dbhost]

I will be replacing about 48' of privacy fence now, and cleaning tree debris out of my yard... Guess I need to talk to insurance about a roof too...

So the eye of the storm hit way further east than I was expecting, and while the sustained winds here along the bay were Tropical Storm force, we had easily some mid Cat 1 gusts... Pretty sure that is what took the fence out.

[capncarl]

What a mess! My neighbor just replaced his privacy fence, it was originally installed 16 yrs ago and had been partially blown down several times. The 4x4 posts had been replaced a number of times due to rotting of at ground level. This time his new privacy fence has metal poles. I highly recommend considering metal poles for any privacy fence.

[dbhost]

On the fence issue. It was last replaced in 2008 after Hurricane Ike. Oddly enough that one was wierder. The posts and everything were simply sucked out of the ground due to a tornado that ran along the creek right at my fence line during the hurricane. Lost a big oak tree to boot.

[LCHIEN]

I was able to confirm something I have been taught and just accepted for 60 years.... that the barometric pressure in the center eye of a hurricane is low.

Thanks to the internet and weather radar I was able to capture this image of the eye of the storm right over my house (red x) at 09:20 AM July 8.



Also a neighbor down the street has one of those internet weather stations that posts to the internet. Later in the day I was able to capture this record of the barometric pressure in my neighborhood:

You can clearly see it hits a low of 28.96 in Hg at around 0910 when it was directly over us.

[dbhost]

The damage from just a Cat 1 was actually surprising. I need a new fence and a new roof now... Good thing is the wrap didn't get breeched, bad thing is oh so many shingles are all over my yard...

[LCHIEN]

I never lost electricity except for about 5 seconds.
Lost cell and internet about four hours after the eye passed and took about 24 hours before that returned.
Many people I know lost power for 2-3 days, The electric company is saying 500,000 are still without power and may be until Next Monday one week after.
There are still many intersections with traffic lights out and its **** to find restaurants that are open and have power and fresh food, even if they have power today and their fridges were out of power for 24 hours, do you want to eat there?
At the peak, 2.6 million lost power.

[capncarl]

Having a generator for emergency power is good insurance, just like having spare BT belts. If you have it you won’t need it!
When hurricane Michael came through and blew down all of the trees in South Georgia most of our area was without power for up to several weeks. I was without power lass than 8 hours, and had enough fuel to keep refrigerator, freezer and well operating for several weeks with prudent fuel management.

[LCHIEN]

I figure a 20KW natural gas generator and transfer switch and "plumbing" will run around $10,000. The gas inlet is nowhere near the electrical box so a long run of one or the other is necessary. and 20 kW is enough to run one AC not both.
Its not just the money, I don't like the room it takes and the additional maintenance tasks it adds to a life I'm trying to simplify as I get older. So I'm having a hard time justifying it.
I suppose one good positive it adds to the resale value of the house...

[capncarl]

I’m not talking about a generator like you see on tv adds, where the family is all playing cards at the dining room table and the lights flicker. The AC doesn’t even quiver, the CPAC machine isn’t affected, jr’s gaming machine still works, basically no one in the family even knows there is a storm and the power is out.
I am talking about a 7.5kw genset with a single cylinder 13 hp Yamaha gasoline or propane engine that can be used every few hours to keep the freezers and refrigerator cold and the well operational for baths and toilet operation. Some lighting and cooking can be slipped in while the generator is servicing the refrigerator and freezers, but that’s about it. Running a generator continuously on such an expensive fuel as gasoline or 20 lb cylinders of propane for several weeks would cost more than the groceries in the refrigerator and freezers would be worth!

In the aftermath of a storm you have to live somewhere, and if your house is inhabitable you gotta make it as easy on yourself as you can, that is where a small genset comes in handy.

[dbhost]

As far as power backup is concerned. I have a 2.2KW gasolline generator for the camper along with 600w of solar panels and 800 amp hours of total battery storage. I only need to run 1 small 5K BTU window unit AC, a refigerator and deep freezer, and can easily power what I need with this setup. Without the need for the AC the solar alone is way WAY more than enough plus run my WiFi and laptop...