Well, I'm supposed to be sitting on a plane heading to California to visit DW's family. Luckily Hurricane Ike has rescued me.

Wife in kids are currently on the jet whie I've stayed behind to hold the fort. Considering we get our preps ready May 1st, all I need to do is move the potted plants out of the yard and maybe secure some stuff inside. I have custom plywood covers for the windows which I'll probably put up just for the practice. The only problem I foresse is my bottle of Maker's Mark whisky is almost empty!

Hopefuly things aren't nuts at the liquor store...

I'll post my experiences, assuming I don't lose power.

-Blast

Run, don't walk, to the liquor store NOW!!!

I'm sure OBG and Wildman took the bottles of Makers Mark I had packaged and ready to send you to the UPS store. Anyway they said they would.

Blast,
Run don't walk to Speck's as fast as you can. At 9:45AM there was a line of about 20 people waiting for the opening.
kmat

Man, every time I think I'm making some progress working down my preparedness list, you guys teach me about something else I need.

Now where are those DIY Home Distillery plans in the Long-Term Preparedness archives...? (I don't even want to think about the Bug-out Still Camelbak thingamajigs ideas you might have.)

Great Scott!!! No reserve bourbon with the bug in supplies?

I keep a couple of bottles of the GOOD stuff tucked away. I figure when bugging in I will, at least, have one small treat to look forward to.

Good Luck Blast!! Looks like Ike is coming too close for comfort. Hopefully you won't sustain any damage. This thing looks quite impressive. Again, Good Luck!!

Blast,
Good luck and stay safe buddy. Protect the kitty!
PM me a shipping address
Stu

I did. Now, if it had been some rum or vodka, that is another thing entirely. Or scotch, my wife likes scotch. But I still love her...

I've gotten into the bad habit of driving around on less than half a tank of gas. Today has taught me the error of my ways. I finally found a place that still had some and, after I'd waited in line for thirty minutes, wound up buying the last of their supply. What a charmed life I lead.

Be safe, Blast.

Same to you, Gizmo. Hey, when are we going shooting again?
-Blast

Here is a google earth with the .kmz file that auto-updates all the active hurricanes. Note the thumbtack.

Blast (and all the other Texans in Ike's path),

Best of fortune to you, keep your head down, the myriad of flashlights handy, the shot glass half full, and be sure to laugh at the knuckleheaded newspeople on TV standing in the rain and wind, reporting the obvious.

Andy

PS. Have you taken the "before" pictures of house and property? Be sure to park the neighbor's Lexus in front of your house for the picture so you can say, "well, I guess the wind must have blown it away..."

If you can't get to the liquor store, at least this will give you an excuse to rig up that still we all know you've been dying to play with!!


Do be careful.

It is my understanding that in the Houston area,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Gasoline will go up $1.50 starting tomorrow morning.

Also from Ch 19 C.B. chatter, prices are already rising towards that $1.50 increase tonight!!!!

Blast,

Take care and do keep your priorities in order - 1st the whisky, then the plywood. An I think the cats go on the inside.

Hopefully your contingency plans are well in order - tequila (100% agave?) and cheap rum if I remember correctly. Ya gotta be prepared for the worst.

Good luck and be careful.

- Eric

Things are looking good here. The house is prepped, the beer is iced, DW & DDs are safe in California (relatively speaking)and the latest forecast has the storm much weaker than predicted this morning. According to http://houstonhidefromthewind.org/ I should only feel 79mph winds.

I think it's time for a beer.

-Blast

I've already started on the beer. I'll sleep like a baby tonight!!

We're expecting Tropical Storm winds and rain here in Lafayette.

Blast, keep your head down. My brother lives in Groves Tx and works for Signal Int. they bugged out about 11:30 this am and headed north. He on the other hand is hunkering down at his place, he sent his XW and 2 DD and 1 DS north also, on theweatherimpact.com web site they were projecting Ike to hit E of Houston and roll toward Dallas, Wildman have one for me willya?

Mike

Have a beer for me. I enjoyed a couple of shots of bourbon last night, and have a fresh bottle I'll tap into in Blast's honor tonight and tomorrow.

I'm expecting to see a post by the end of the weekend from Blast containing the words "everything went pretty well until I decided to _____".

LOL!!


-Blast, who has is kayak sitting by the front door...

Good luck to all in Ike's path.

Here in Cayman we are still getting wave action from Ike. In fact, part of downtown is closed off this morning as the waves are more powerfully today. Sea's look calm until you see a 5-8' wave form 100-200' from shore then crash on the iron shore.

7:54am, 9/12/08

Current projections have Ike's eye passing directly over my house.

Galveston island will be completely submeged under 12' of water.

I'm not on Galveston Island.

-Blast

(emphasis mine) That's classic.

As I was groggily listening to the radio in bed this morning, I think I heard the newscaster saying that Ike may produce waves up to 50 feet high! I guess it's the very long distances that such a massive hurricane like Ike can drive the water that allows it to produce such high waves. And to think, it's "just" a Cat 2.

Blast,
Thanks for asking me to go fishing with you in Galveston this weekend. I'm sorry, I'll have to pass. Something about your meeting me there just did not sound right, so I'm not going. I still don't understand why you had me sign that blank last will & testament and the life insurance papers though.
Take care and stay safe.
Stu

Be safe and may the feline keep its claws retracted. My Niece is in the path as well...her preps are not good. I've been trying to preach preparedness to them for so long...sigh!

The lesson she learned after evacuating Rita? Don't evacuate.

Check out the live Galveston cams on cnn.com or if they come in, the Galveston Beach cams. http://www.galveston.com/webcams/

I thought this was funny. This was on khou.com which has a slideshow of what people were doing to prepare. It just looks silly.

I give it until noon local time tomorrow.

Should we start a pool?

Actually, maybe not so silly. Depending on how quickly floodwaters rise or storm surge comes in, and how fast the water is moving, a car could easily float long enough to be carried some distance away. It could crash into other cars or other people's houses along the way.

Not sure about the rug. Perhaps it's to protect the paint on the roof from rope damage or if small things fall on it. Then again, maybe the owner fears that it'll be underwater when he/she comes back and the rug is something less slippery to stand on in the floodwater? <shrug>

The rug really brings the yard together.

Thanks Danny.

BTW what is the breaking strength of garden hose???

We bugged out of Galveston County yesterday and are about 120 miles north and the winds are blowing here. Called the house a few minutes ago and still have power because the answering machine picked up.

Who was it a month ago talking smack about us leaving for a Cat 1?

I just hope my house doesnt flood!

Mike

I've taken the liberty of updating the pic with the approximate location of Blasts residence (hope he doesn't mind). Anyway, looks like he'll see the hurricane eye to eye.

Man it looks impressive.

Now THATS what I call social responsibility!

Keep your cars tethered, people!

Somehow, I suspect that is not their motivation.

Librarian is right by the "B" in my name and kmat is just north of us.

First power flicker at 10:30pm. The pines trees in my front yard are whipping around.

Hurricane tip: Those "chemlight" braclets are a great way to mark your gear so you can find it in the dark.

-Blast

That little bit of rope (or whatever) isn't gonna stop a car from floating anywhere...

Stay safe everyone!

Good luck to all of you who are in Ike's path.

Just reading about Ike online...

From the NY Times: A couple were surveying the damage (not much to their home), "... it would have been much easier had the city not turned off the water and gas... We understand that they needed to take precautions but I need a cup of coffee something vicious and the toilet needs flushing..."

So, the city should have left the water lines open to contamination, and left the gas available for a holocaust, just so a couple of dimwits who didn't have the foresight to collect some water and a small stove could have coffee and flush the toilet!

Sue

That about says it all. They pay for those utilities, but when they need them most they get turned off, how inconsiderate. Then again, listen to the stories about fires that start and can't be fought because there is no access.

There's plenty of water outside (flooding conditions and there's no water?) to flush the toilet, and pocket sized camp stoves can boil water for that morning jolt just fine. Uh oh, no electricity -- how will they grind the beans?

This from a dispatch: South of Galveston, authorities said 67-year-old Ray Wilkinson was the only resident who didn't evacuate from Surfside Beach, population 800. He was drunk and waving when authorities reached him on Saturday morning.

"He kinda drank his way through the night," Mayor Larry Davison said.


He's obviously one of us.

Drinking your "way through the night" is not a good survival attribute. It's only time for that AFTER you know you're in the clear and all is good. Until then all I drink is water and coffee.

Oh. Well, some garden hoses are probably stronger than a lot of the "rope" some people use for things they shouldn't. Still ain't gonna hold a car tho...

It only needs to hold it long enough to fill with water

Gawrsh! We musta collected 50 gallons in everything we had, for use as grey water. The water pressure did get down to nothing, but its back now.

My daughter said "Daddy, Mommy showed me a magic trick, she poured a bucket of water in the toilet and it flushed!" Apparently, that other lady would have felt it was magic also. Except, my daughter is six. I wish I coulda run into those people and sold them some special organic toilet flushing water... that I collected from their gutter downspout. I betcha they woulda bought it.

Anyway we survived, no major damage. No electricity, but those who are prepared have ways

Pretty stupid aren't they, not to mention self centered.

Coffee? Coffee? You are hereby remanded to remedial drinking 101, head professor, Blast.

BTDT, puked on the T-shirt

Actually, having worked more graveyard shifts than I care to remember, drinking coffee by the gallons, then hitting the bars at a very early hour, I have learned that, with a lot of coffee on board, you can then drink more beer/booze before you drop. You do tend to have to visit the bathroom A LOT tho...

. . .and you end up very dehydrated. BTDT too.

I wonder what the name of the knot they used is, and how much beer was required to tie it?

But to be honest some sort of leash-law for boats would be helpful. When I was growing up on the Bay I vaguely recall that boats were the hardest debris to deal: a car could be rolled away, most other things cut up with chainsaws, but a big boat in the middle of the street was a real nuisance.

It appeared last night that Ike made its turn to the north earlier than predicted, just before arriving at Galveston. Instead of the eye going up I-45 to downtown Houston it went through Galveston Bay going north. In a big storm everything gets wet anyway but even the small change makes a big difference in wind direction and speed. In the event, the strong winds blowing storm surge inland were east of Galveston Bay, and Houston.

I'm a believer that riding our hurricanes is not nearly as big a deal as the media makes it out to be if the attitude is "willing, if conditions permit" as opposed to "determined, 'cause I ain't never run before!" But I have to wonder about the lady missing her coffee: can she make it if it's two weeks and not two hours without electricity? Has she ever heard of Sterno stoves, or whatever is used these days? I'd hate to go camping wither, roughing it with TVs and cell phones going the entire time...

Glad to hear Blast is ok. Hope the rest of the forum members do well. Like others we had high winds in N KY but no significant damage (in comparison to Houston/Galveston). Power is off for a large area but for some reason we have power in our neighborhood (underground wires?)

Not sure if Blast at home alone and being bored is a good thing!

It may make for some interesting stories though!

"...alone..."

Alone? Blast, what did you do with the cat???

Sorry , I meant without DW supervising things! I'm sure the cat is ok.

He probably had a "Thomasina" incident. The cat slipped out through a wind blown open doorway, "hopefully",,,uh, I mean, Unfortunately, never to be seen again.

Should that happen, I'd hate to be Blast when the DW gets home. I'd like to be there to watch though.

I think I'd rather not be there for the live performance, it could get pretty gruesome, but a tape might find a good audience.

- Eric

We made it back to League City Saturday evening to no power but a house that was almost as we had left it Thursday. One tree was over and I just pushed it back up and hope it survives. Lost my fence and I do not believe any roof damage.

I got power and cable back this afternoon. I had kept the homebrew and food cold on generator since Saturday night.

South of League City is bad. Power is coming back in a few places. No gasoline though. I will be riding the motorcycle for a few days and the weather is perfect for it though!!

Galveston Island is bad.

Still amazed at how many people are not prepared for power and basic services to be off for even 24 hours. Some of my neighbors didnt have even candles or food for more than a day or so. Certain parts of the area will be without electricity for a while.

I think I need more gasoline storage and another generator; maybe two. I also need a 4 wheel drive vehicle; almost got stuck in the middle of nowhere on the trip home.

Just rethinking the plan!

Mike

Anyone heard from Blast?

Yes, he's on the forum now.