California People - Get prepared NOW!

Are you ready for rain, and snow? And then more rain and snow?

Depending where you live the weather service is calling for up to 20" of rain in <10 days.

Depending where you live the weather service is calling for up to 10' of snow in <10 days.

Depending where you live the winds could get up to 40mph.

Lots of rain + wind = no power, and dangerous electrical situations.

I've talked to people in So-Cal already and fire stations are already making, and handing out sand bags.

Start preparing for no power, flooding, and different transportation routes!!!

Winds up to 60mph in the mountains weather service is saying now.

Tuesday afternoon and evening is expected to bring LOTS of rain and snow.

1" of rain / hour during some periods.

Flooding expected mid to end of week.

Small streams and rivers will have risen SIGNIFICANTLY they are saying.

Keep watching the news. If California does get that volume of rain, we are going to have some serious mudslide problems. BTW, I live in L.A.

otherPete

Yeah I heard that

Downed trees, and power is the concern up here.

And mud slides, and avalanches along HWY50 and possibly HWY80.

That will be a mess. Watch yourselves and stay safe.

San Diego here. Fortunately I do a lot of tele-commuting. Hit the store this AM for last minute items and topped off the tank on the way home. No need to drive much more this week.

On the positive side, I heard that certain areas that rely primarily on local water supplies could actually get back to normal levels after years of drought if these storms drop as much precipitation as forecast.

Here's hoping that you guys and gals just get a little soggy and some extra water reserves.

Actually, the time to prepare was last week. This series of storms was forecast well in advance with commendable accuracy. This is how we fill our local reservoirs. Nice hard rain like this has its positive side.

Guess you can tell my house has not yet been swept away.

Yep.

No plan to leave the house this week unless I have to.

Just put another log on the fire, and back to work

Dang! Good luck to you all.


http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20100118/US.California.Storms/?CID=NET_Newshero

Forecasters said storms lasting through at least Friday could drop 20 inches of rain inland and 8 inches along the coast and in the valleys of Southern California. Ten inches of rain was predicted for the San Francisco Bay area.

What we need is snow in the mountains. A lot of rain just causes mudslides; it helps with reservoir water levels but not as much as some folks think.

Well we are already out of power.

Constant hard rain + 30mph+ gusts = no power.

Sure wish I had the 2000 Honda EU!

Wow, that was the most rain I've seen in a long time. The rain band has passed and the sun is starting to peek through right now. Unfortunately, my roof sprang a leak during this deluge.

Yep, that was a lot of rain. Fortunately we cleaned out the gutters and installed screens a couple weeks ago.

I heard a weather type say 10 feet of snow is possible in the Sierra's. That should help.

Been raining and snowing on and off here all day.
Stopped right now, and a lil blue poking through but it's coming back it looks like!!!

It's been 37 all day, hoping it turns to more snow tonight we`ll see.

We got power back around 1am and then lost it and then it came back. I got barely any sleep with the on/off of the electric devices that were not unplugged. L O L

I lived in SoCal for a long time, and even then I noticed what seemed to be a one-two punch of fires followed by heavy rains. One time (late 60s) there were bad fires, and then the winter rains came, like 45 days straight (everyone was making Bible jokes).

Sue

Let it rain let it rain let it rain! I replaced my 25 year old wood shake roof with fire proof light weight concrete last summer. Just in time because I doubt the old roof would have made it.

Cheers,
W-W

Snowing @ 3500Ft.

1" in 20 minutes it seems.

More on the way. Radar looks like the main system is moving north of SD, but that can change. Good luck.

We had hail briefly from a passing thunderstorm this morning. First and only time I have seen frozen precipitation in twenty years living at sea level in Lala land.....

It's overcast up here in the mountains and warmed to 39.

No snow over night, still an inch or so on the ground.

According to the Acuweather radar SD is under a heavy (color code orange) weather cell. Judging by the level of water in the back yard and inability of the drains to keep up with the downpour, I'd say teh radar map is pretty accurate. Glad I'm not out on I-5 or I-15 -- ugly.

Hope the Sierra's are getting inundated with snow. Not for you Todd, for those farmers in the valley who can maybe start to plant crops again -- not now, but maybe next week.

So are your computer and router and modem, like, uhm, "Using The Force" to communicate with these forums?

I have 3 APC units alive and working, a 4th I need to order a new battery for, and also a car jump start that has a 600w inverter.

So, I was on batteries when I made that post. Laptop, and router

We got power back around midnight. (Forget if I posted that.)

I ordered my Honda EU2000i today to power the office and fridge in future power failures safely.

Next winter I hope to have been able to afford the Honda EU6500i to power my entire house and well.

Considering my office uses 350 watts, that is about 12 hours of running on the 2000's 1g of fuel. I can't beat that.

For the cost of the 2000, and the tiny fuel it requires I can't NOT AFFORD to have it. I run my own biz from here, not being online/working loses me money, and potentially clients.

It's been snowing here for an hour or so.. VERY WET, 35* still but sticking.

Wow, you're set up nice. Last time we had a power failure here, just for grins, I tried to get on the internet with all my equipment plugged in to a UPS. Computer, router, and cable modem. No dice. I assumed my ISP was down as well because of the outage.

UPS's are great. Like you, I have four of them (even including the dead one with a defunct battery!) During outages my SOP is to use the UPS's to shut down all my computers gracefully, then move one over to my digital piano. I found that a single 550VA UPS will power the piano for four hours (using headphones, not the built-in amp and speakers). Not bad. There's something fun about playing piano in the dark by candlelight. I've since bought an acoustic piano too, so I don't depend on the UPS's so much for piano playing anymore. And luckily power failures are usually short-lived and fairly rare around here.

Thanks!

I do the same too. I shut down the systems, and then when I need to I use the laptop + the 600w inverter/battery in the car jump start to power my router. After the laptop dies which is about an hour or 2 maybe of full use I recharge no a UPS.

Now, with the Honda EU2000 I`ll be able to go for days.

Very excited about that.

Done the same myself. Ran from battery and signed in to the power companies web site to report my power being out. My internet has had better up time than both my power and land line phone. Last year I added the phone to the internet cable so it can be reliable too.

Have you also considered the tri-fuel kit for the Honda EU2000i. You could go for about 10 days when connected to an industrial 47kg Propane bottle.

http://www.generatorsales.com/honda-generators.asp

http://www.generatorsales.com/order/Honda-EU2000i-Tri-Fuel-Kit.asp?page=Honda_EU2000i_Tri_Fuel_Kit

Storing propane is on site would also probably be safer, more convenient and won't degrade (i.e. you wouldn't have rotate the fuel) unlike the quantities of petrol required for the same power duration. Plus it would also reduce the constant trips to the generator to refuel the tank.

I'd love to but it voids the warranty of the engine Which is BS.

I'm ready with propane, that's for sure! We have a 250g tank with a drop right where I plan to make my gen house (for bigger gen in future). Not to mention, I have multiple 100lb, and smaller tanks too. They are all backups for the house or for the shop heating.

There is stil a lot of rain coming down in LA. Not continuously - but in very heavy showers. The ground is saturated with water now.

Some residents in zones with high risk of mudslides have (predictably) refused to leave their homes ... preferring to take the chance that the nearby cliffs will remain stable. In response, local law enforcement has tied pink ribbons on to the front mailboxes of the homeowners that decided to stay. The idea is that if the house collapses in a mudslide, rescuers will know if it was occupied or not - and hence whether to try to dig out any survivors.

other Pete

That might be legitimate but if kind of sounds like an old police trick. If the people didn't want to evacuate they wold tell you to fill out a form detailing who was at the address, their next of kin, any identifying marks, and to sign the part that says they were warned so they can't sue the local authorities. The idea was to get people thinking about leaving. The forms were not official and had no legal force.

Then again that is the sort of information that local authorities might want so even if it didn't scare people into fleeing it might have some use.

Actually, the authorities have been making residents who refuse to evacuate their homes sign a form, acknowledging that they have been warned of the danger, etc., as they go door-to-door to notify them of the evacuation order.

Fortunately, the end of this unusual train of storms is in sight. At least for a bit. Hopefully I can finally get this roof leak repaired during this lull before the next storm hits, maybe Tuesday-ish.

The ground is REALLY saturated now. I'm surprised that we didn't have any really big mudslides in the burn areas (or any of the hilly areas, actually) so far. Keeping my fingers crossed!

The radio said that the rain has moved on to Las Vegas, which has received more rain this week than the place did all of last year.

Sue

Oddly the forecast shows rain starting again Sun->Tue ???

So if you filled out a form saying you refused to be evacuated or refused to evacuate - and something happens and your house is destroyed and you with it, does this mean that your estate can't sue the state?

Not that I feel it is right to be able to sue because you are dumb as a box of hair and refuse to admit to yourself that conditions are beyond your control and it's time to beat feet, but I do find it funny that the People's Republic of Cali makes you sign a waiver so the state is protected in case you bite the big one.

A. A waiver like that is worth almost as much as the paper it's signed on. Any halfway decent attorney could dance around that.

B. There's no point in suing the State of California because they haven't got any money. And even if they won, CA would just give them an IOU. And their attorney would want to be paid in legal tender NOW.

C. If you're killed in the disaster, YOU aren't going to collect much. If you want to kill yourself so your family can collect, make a plan and make it look accidental so the insurance company won't fuss. If you're just stupid, you end up on the Darwin Award site as an example of poor breeding.

Sue