Blast does a hurricane

Hey everybody, I'm back on-line here at work. No power at home yet and water comes/goes. Can't say I'm having any problems, though. Y'all's concern and offers of support are heartwarming and I thank you very much. I have to admit that I've been having the time of my life with this event.

A cold front showed up the day after Ike dropping nightitme temps down into the fifties! That doesn't normally happen here until November. I'm thinking God realized he upset a bunch of Texans and is trying to make up for it before we go and kick His tush (should "tush" be capitalized when talking about a diety's tush?). Anyway, I've been downright chilly at times.

I kept notes throughout this event and will be posting some pretty extensive reports about preps, what worked, what didn't, what I'll do differently, etc...

I've read the posts concerning Ike and have lots to add. I think there are some misconceptions that should be clearered up.

Unfortunately, I can't upload pictures at work so you won't be able to see what I'm talking about. Eventually I'll have all this information/pictures on my blog, to. So, those of you who read it will see the stuff twice.

-Blast

Welcome back! Glad you had fun...

Correcting, "having fun"! I'm at work in only the loosest usage of the word. Tonight I'm frying a turkey for the neighborhood followed by tango lessons.

-Blast

"...tango lessons.."

Pics of that should be fun...

Welcome back, Blast. I look forward to your reports.

Ike was a huge storm in size which luckily diffused it's power somewhat. The eye passed 22 miles to my east as a class 2 hurricane, though it was only 1mph under what is considered class 3.

Our neighborhood was hit with a constant windspeed of 72mph for over twelve hours. During that time we suffered gusts up to 97.75mph. It took about five hours to go from no wind to the 70mph winds. It took another 4-5 hours to drop back down from 70 down to zero.

There was suprisingly little rain during most of Ike, less than 5 inches in our neighborhood. However, another storm front hit as Ike was leaving and this storm dropped another 10 inches of rain in a six-hour period. 15 miles to the west recieved 19 inches of rain post-Ike. This resulted in minor flooding.

There was almost no lightening with Ike, at least in my location. The exploding transformers made up for that witha very impressive light show.

There were reports of tornadoes, especially to the east of the eye. There are indications that we might have been hit by some micro-twisters, but I have not been able to confirm this.

No hail.

-Blast

As mentioned earlier we had twelve hours of 70mph winds with gusts up just under 100mph. At this speed rain was being blown horizontally. This resulted in water trickling in under the windows exposed to this wind. Placing towels on the windowsills soaked up this water and prevented any damage.

My two-car-wide garage door no longer stays open, to get in/out I need to prop it up with a stick. The garage door's spring was replaced this summer and there wasn't a problem before the storm. The door itself has some barely-noticable warpage, but I'm not sure how this could affect the springs. The door was not braced or re-enforced in any manner.

Many oak and loblolly pine trees are down in the neighborhood. Which ones survived and which ones fell seems to be very random. In most cases the rootball was tore out of the ground rather than the trunk breaking.

About 1 in every 10 house suffered some sort of roof damage. In most cases this was just missing shingles, but the tar paper remained. Some cases the bare plywood roof was exposed. The damaged sections were all under 15'x15' in size and usually limited to only one section of the roof. No roof in the neighborhood is over 12 years old, most are less than seven years old.

One house lost 2-3 planks of their siding, exposing the insulation beneath. I'm not sure if the siding was wood of hardiplank (cement-composite wood).

Each yard in our neighborhood is surrounded by 6' tall cedar-plank "barricade style" fences. Sections of these fences were blown over. In each case the fence broke at two posts. The posts were not up-rooted. The broken fences stayed where they fell, they did not become missles. Nor did I see any individual cedar planks missing from fences. These fences are 7-12 years old.

No windows were broken in the neighborhood except in one case where a branch from a falling tree hit it.

The large amount of broken branches clogged the storm-sewer drains slowing down the escape of water. However, the water never got deep enough for me to go kayaking down the street. (I had stored my kayak inside the front door in hopes I could take her out)

Yards will filled with small and medium (2" diameter) oak and pine branches. The trees were partially stripped of leaves, needles, and pine cones.

I and a few others had boarded up some of my windows. In light of the lack of damage I probably will not board up next time unless I think it'll be a class 3 or higher.

-Blast

Glad to hear all are okay. Very interesting observations.

I'm glad you're back, Blast!!!!

I'm looking forward to reading all of your observations.

Blast..i recall you lived here in Minnesota at one time.
homes up here are built to carry a snow load and seem for the
most part to be fairly sturdy. on the few trips i've taken down South the homes i've seen are made for warm weather--thiner walls..more and bigger windows..the shots we see on TV show nothing but heaps of 2x4's after these storms.i know there is another thread on this subject but how do you feel about "flimsy"
Southern homes V.S. "heavy" Northern homes..yes, i know not much would stand up to a class 4 storm..

+1

Welcome back to the fire, not-so-newguy!

1. Power began flickering at my house around 10pm and went off for good at 4am. After the first flickering I cut the breakers to everything but the room I was in. This was to protect them from the power surges as transformers blew up.

2. Before the storm my neighbors and I set up a walkie-talkie connection between the houses which was monitered through the entire storm. This allowed people to call for help, but also just to chat for comfort.

3. Rechargable spotlights were invaluable during the storm. However when you shine one out your window the reflection was so strong that you couldn't see past it. About half the houses had spotlights and we quickly figured out that we could use the walkie-talkies to direct the spotlight from another house to light up the area you wanted to see.

4. Garage doors make a weird humming noise in high winds.

5. The water in your toilet can be used as a crude barometer. The water level in the bowl dropped as the low-pressure eye moved closer and closer. The water level rose again after the eye passed. I want to sell pressure-calibrated toilets to people in hurricane zones.

6. You can't hear a really big tree fall during a hurricane unless it hits your house.

-Blast

I've run into the same thing with almost every flashlight that I've attempted to use through a window. I've found that if I shine the light out the lower part of the window, I can peer out the top part of the window and see where the light is shining.

I can't really say. The house I grew up in in Minnesota was over 100 years old before I was born. The siding was 1" thick planks.

Houses here have to meet certain hurricane building codes and are designed with less steep roofs so as to lessen the impact of the wind. As for the strength of the walls and such, wind can be stronger than wood...

-Blast, not helping much

Glad to see you back, Blast! And sorry you never got to use your kayak...

1. Wash all your clothes/bedding/towels before the storm hits. There's no telling when you'll have another chance.

2. Keep a large supply of crappy towels on hand. We used to have lots of beautiful white towels. They are now a large supply of crappy towels. I ended up using towels to stop water coming in through the windows and doors, ooze seeping out of the freezers and fridge, wiping off after playing in the rain, etc...

3. Keep a small notepad with you at all times! Something will occur to you but if you don't write it down you'll forget it. It's also critical for writing information down that you hear on the radio.

4. Keep a flashlight with you at all times while the power is out. This means during the day and night. You will constantly find yourself hunting around in dark closets, garages, etc in your house and other people's houses. It's a pain to have to go and find a flashlight all these times.

5. It gets dark inside the house well before it gets dark outside. That's another reason to always keep a flashlight on you. You will be spending a lot of time working outside and it'll get late. Then you'll have to stumble around inside your house looking for your flashlight when you do go in even if it's still light outside.

6. Those little cylume lightstick braclets are awesome for marking you flashlights, radios, water jugs, cat, furniture and other stuff you need to see in the dark. Amazingly, ones I activated on Friday night were still glowing faintly Tuesday night! They are really cheap right now for Halloween so by several containers of them. Also, they come in assorted colors so you can assign a color to a particular type of thing (yellow for flashlights, blue for water, evil green for cats, etc...)

7. Set your house up like a blind person lives there. In otherwords, have an assigned spot for everything and when it's not in use return it to that spot. That way you'll always know where a particular radio/flashlight/axe are and you won't have to hunt for it in the dark. It took me two days to figure this tip out.

8. According to the Red Cross insulin will last for one month at 86F. I thought it had to be kept cold. I'm not a diabetic, but when I heard that information I wrote it down in my notebook to share with y'all.

9. Don't dump your water right after the storm. A friend in another part of town had filled up all their bathtubs before the storm. After Ike passed the water was still on so they drained the tubs and took baths before going to bed. The water was turned off during the night, they are now hauling water from a pool three blocks away to flush their toilets.

10. Scoop out the kitty litter during daylight hours. It's really hard to do by the light of a flashlight.

11a. If you have a generator running outside you still better also have a carbon monoxide detector in the house.
11b. Keep an eye on the direction of the wind. The people right next door to me were running their generator on their back patio. During the night the wind shifted direction and started blowing it's exhuast into their house. Luckily their CO moniter when off and woke them up in time.

12. Where there are damaged roofs and downed fences there are nails. Where there are nails someone wiil step on one. This results in a 14-hour wait in the emergency room.

13. Just because someone has a chainsaw doesn't mean they know how to use a chainsaw. The stunts and stupidity I saw with saws was mind-boggling. I watched one guy start cutting through an 18" thick limb but before it cut all the way through the wood split and the section he was cutting dropped three feet down to the ground. However, it was still attached the rest of the tree by a 2" thick, 3' long strip of highly stressed wood. He cut through this strip before I could yell a warning. The string sprung back up vicously and nearly removed his face. I warned him again but he siad it was okay. The same thing happened with him three more times before he finally started making the first cut underneath the limbs.

14. People will drive through your yard to get around a tree blocking the road. This is very hard on sprinkler systems.

15. If you have a gridle you can cook ANYTHING on a barbecue grill. Never go into an Apocalypse without a gridle.

16. Cargo-shorts styled swimsuits are great clothing to wear after during/after a hurricane. They are quick drying and can be washed while you are in the shower. Keep 2-3 pairs on hand.

17. Devote your energies to first taking care of the food in your fridge/freezer, THEN clean up the yard.

18. It is legal to have tigers as pets in Texas. In a hurricane one or more of these tigers may escape. Keep this in mind when you are placing all your raw, spoiling meat in your garbage can.

19. The more aluminum foil and ziploc baggies you have the better off you will be.

20. Your ice maker isn't nearly as powerful as you think it is. Fill every cooler you can find with ice before the storm hits.

21. Thinking "I don't need and D-cell batteries." is your brain's way of telling you you need D-sized batteries.

22. Put all your extension cords in an easy to get to place even if you don't have a generator.

-Blast

Blast--that answered my question..you have storm codes like we have snow codes--take care,what we see on TV looks bad in the long run--

Supposedly if our neighborhood doesn't get power by this Friday it won't get it for two more weeks. That's not a big problem for us. In fact, I'm hoping DD1&2 will have to spend a few nights without power just so they understand it's a possibility and that it's not the end of the world. My neighbor has a 14-yr old daughter and she is in absolute shock. She's been crying about it for the last four days and they even have a generator! It boggles my mind.

-Blast

So- what does fresh-grilled tiger taste like?

Remember, some people pay lots of money to eat exotic animals. And you only have to put out the bait and wait :-)

Really great lessons learned Blast. Should be made into a booklet distributed to all your friends and neighbors.

One more item occurs to me "Send annoying 14 year old children to their friends house across town. Don't let them return until things are back to normal."

Great post. Lots of useful info there.

Very good post Blast...I enjoyed reading it.

Welcome back as well Blast. We've been through your experience many times in the past being in Florida and when we had our 110 mile per hour winds that were pinning us in the house for a day was the best learning curve (for hurricanes) that I could have got. We get hurricanes so much it seems it's like a normal part of life. I would recommended getting your garage door replaced with a stronger door with hurricane bars or use 2 4X4 posts anchored to the concrete and header on the wall and release the paw on the garage door or the plastic teeth will be shredded. After our 3 back to back storms and me up on the roof (2 story) with a repelling rope anchored between 2 trees re shingling 100 square feet of roof (3X in different places) between 3 storms to keep the integrity of the house made me a much better prepared person. These are the storms that I believe God gives you incite on what you really need and what you don't to survive. Since then we can go quite a while if pinned in as long as the house isn't breached but have back ups to backups if needed. One twister would wipe all that out in a second but we do what we can to survive.

It's nice now a days to have a back generator 12.5 K watts to manage loss of power to keep the freezers charged and 100% power at night for a pleasant night. Since being more prepared we look at the hurricanes as a vacation from work ironically. Bottom line is we live with inherent dangers constantly and survive. I'm glad everything worked out and a lot of people were rooting for you. I'm sure you were the most equipt person around your area, sit back and enjoy. Also we would go to the shopping malls or stores in the day time to get in the AC and save on the generator in the daytime and ran the generator at nights to save on fuel on the 100 gallon gas tank.

Blastette and Poppers were in California visiting her family. I was supposed to go, but when choosing between in-laws or a hurricane...

They are returning tomorrow, lastest update has the power coming back on Monday, I'm supposed to fly to Denver on Sunday. Somehow I don't think I'll make it to the mile-high city.

-Blast

Welcome back man, and glad to hear you made it through.

Not only will nails wind up in your foot, your truck or car tires will also have nails in them. Having a quality patch or plug kit with a small 12v compressor will help keep you on the road or at least driving through Blast's yard.

Blast, As a desert dweller I'm mostly curious; Would a pre-storm application of duct-tape or caulk (or anything) have kept the water from seeping through windows and doors (or the covering you had over them)? I suppose I should also ask if it would be worth the trouble to remove the residue afterwards.

A solution suggests itself, if you can figure out a way to get kitty to eat a bracelet, or if the luminescence persists after liberation frm the plastic tube and passage through the feline digestive system.

In my former life I lived in the desert southwest, AKA central CA. We once had a cricket infestation, jillions and jillons of crickets, day and night, night and day. Coming into the house around windows, under doors, etc. We used masking tape to block them. I suspect that my ex is still trying to remove the residue of that tape. Or would if she ever did housework. But that is another story...

I would assume you could use clear silicone as it peels off clean, easy, and in one piece. The smell might be intolerable though.

The smell would clear pretty quick as it cures.

Perhaps, but the water has to go somewhere. Into a towel seems the easiest overall.

-Blast

Well, the power was back on when I got home, though I didn't realize it until a neighbor told me. I spent the evening washing towels and dishes. Discovered the garbage disposal isn't working. Oh yeah, I also fried up a turkey for the last block party. Everyone actually seemed a little down, we were all having a good time. I know I'm feeling depressed now.

DW and the the DDs get home this evening, they'll have missed a great learning experience but it'll be good to have the family together again.

I have a few more posts on the hurricane coming including a big one on what I did wrong.

-Blast

Congratulations on getting powerback!!!

I know your DW and DD's will be happy to be home with you!

"...fried up a turkey...what I did wrong..."

Uh oh, this could be bad...

OBG
I wuz "thinkin" the same thing
this could be very bad

Mike

Real Bad!

Down boys, the turkey came out perfect. I've been frying them for over twelve years without any personal or property damage. I'm talking about what I'll do differently for the next storm.

-Blast

Off-Topic Blast,,

I wish I was a fly on your wall as the DD's tell you about their adventure in California.

They probably have a lot to share from their perspectives! It should be some more fun for you!!!

Structures that are heaps of 2x4's after Ike probably weren't much better before Ike. As mentioned, Ike was a *powerful* storm but not an *intense* storm.

(a picture of a house with no damage isn't dramatic, and press photographers get paid for dramatic photos)

I think the usual problem isn't aerodynamic stress of wind simply blowing but rather impact from wind-blown debris. In other words, engineering a structure to withstand Cat 4 winds won't automatically result in a surviving structure unless it can also withstand an impact from a cow at 40mph.

The main non-impact damage houses used to take from these storms was having the roof lifted off (gravity was about that held them on). Building codes have required "hurricane clips" for some time. I think builders actually comply these days though we'll see...

A lot of the "heaps" of 2x4's on the Texas coast were caused by waves and storm surge, and were well built.

Blast, happy to hear that you & yours made it through OK.

Some good inof that you posted, thanks.

Bill

Hi Blast,

Glad to hear all is well with you and your family. I am enjoying reading about your adventure.

Mike

Ditto. Blast it's great to have you back! Thanks for sharing!!

I meant "some heaps of 2x4s are impact damage [includes waves such as flowing storm surge] but there are many very old weekend cabins on Galveston Bay that weren't much to start with."

I grew up in the Galveston Bay area near Seabrook/El Lago and rode out Alicia, a comparable storm, in Nassau Bay.

Glad you are well and back online.

Are you serious about the tigers ?

Humor aside, tigers aren't the only things to worry about. Snakes can be a big problem, as can fire ants.

I understand alligators were spotted further south on the coast after Ike.

Sorry I haven't had a chance to post this, I've been very busy. Okay, the following is stuff I either didn't do and should have, or did wrong.

1. I didn't buy ice before the storm. I rearranged the freezers and filled up all our tupperware with water and froze it. This wasn't enough. I should have filled every cooler and empty spot in our freezers with bags of ice or dry ice.

2. I didn't seal the food well enough against the water from the melted ice. I should have either put the food in big ziploc bags or sealed the ice in heavy-duty garbage bag. I had to throw out a lot of food just because it became water-logged.

3. I didn't fill spare gas cans with gasoline. Both vehicles were topped off, but I had three 5-gal gas cans sitting empty. I figured since I didn't have a generator I didn't need the extra gas (and associated extra risks). Had I had the extra gas I could have helped supply my neighbor's generator with gas. Sidenote: a few days after the storm the company I work for began giving each employee 5 free gallons of gas each day.

4. I didn't put our extension cords in an easy to access location. Again I figured since I didn't have a generator I didn't need the extension cords. However, I could have run cords from my central battery system to other rooms.

5. While I had plenty of tarps and nails in case of roof damage, I didn't have long wood strips to help hold the tarps on the roof. Luckily, I didn't need the tarps.

6. I made my plywood shutters too heavy to install by myself.

7. I hadn't written the shutter's window location on each shutter, I just numbered them and wrote the location on a piece of paper. I then misplaced the paper sometime in the last few years.

8. After the hurricane I spent the day cleaning the yard rather than optimizing keeping my food properly cooled or cooking it.

9. A lot of the food I did cook still ended up going bad because I didn't have enough ice to keep it cool.

10. The first day I didn't realize how quickly it would get dark inside my house while still light outside.

11. After our power came on I took out the batteries from all our flashlights and radios to prevent corrosion damage from leaking batteries. Then while I was in Denver the power went out again, leaving DW/DWs without light until she was able to find the flashlight and reinsert the batteries.

12. Hauled large logs while wearing sandals. Luckily I didn't drop any on my feet.

Mistakes I saw others make:
1. One friend dumped out all their water after the storm ended then discovered their water was shut off.

2. Neighbor was walking around barefoot and stepped on a nail. He ended up having to spend all day waiting in an emergency room.

3. Too many incidents of horrible chainsaw safety.

4. People racing down unlit, debris-filled neighborhood streets at high speeds.

5. People drove across other people's lawns to get around fallen trees.

Feel free to ask for details on any of these.

-Blast

There are lots of hurricane prep lists out there. Here is a list of things I was really glad I had that are normally included on these lists:

1.Xantrex Powerpack 400 Plus. I was able to run a fan and a CFL lamp for 10+ hours using this battery/inverter powerpack then recharge it using my car or the neighbor's generator.

2. 12-volt fan plugged into powerpack. This kept me cool.

3. Limb cutter. This cutting tool reduced big branches into tiny bits quickly, safely, and easily.


4. Aluminum foil, bbq grill and griddle. Give me a barbecue grill and a griddle and I'll figure out how to cook just about anything. Add the aluminum foil and I can cook anything.

5. LED lamp and rechargable spotlight. The lamp lit up a room using six LEDs and three AA batteries. The spotlight was able to light up my neighbor's place four houses down.


6. Walkie-talkies. House to house communications gave safety and comfort.

7. 7gal and 2.5gal Aquatainers. I could move the big one easily, but DW could only use the smaller one.


-Blast

Interesting overview, Blast!

If your meat isn't spoiled, just freeze-burned or soaking in water, ask around your neighborhood if any dog owners feed raw. They would probably welcome the meat, you wouldn't have to put up with it sitting around and rotting, nor pay an extra garbage fee (if you've got a lot). Maybe check with your neighbors now, and you'll know which way to jump if you hit trouble.

Sue

Blast,

That's a pretty short list of things that didn't get done or went wrong. Congratulations on finding your errors the less endangering way!!

If the DW & DD's had been home, you would've been able to keep them reasonably comfortable and very safe!!!

As they say in the Guard, BZ!

BZ?

Bravo Zulu: a USCG signal meaning - A job well done!

In Texas BZ could mean Bug Zapper.......good to clarify.

Chief that signal applies with the Navy as well as the CG.
( Likely derived from a flag hoist.)


(We didn't do flag hoists other than the Jolly Roger in submarines so that's the extent of my knowlege on that topic. Arrrrr!)

I thought that was a navy signal as well but having always stayed as far away from the step-father (US Navy), this red-headed stepchild wasn't sure if they used it or not.

Semper Paratus Semper Fidelis

They do.