HOrnbrod Posted October 10, 2018 Share Posted October 10, 2018 My USAF daughter with her husband and dogs arrived late last night from Florida. She had recently been transferred from OK to Tyndall Air Force Base outside of Panama City, bought a house, and settled in. Cat 3 Hurricane Michael is roaring in and headed directly for this area. I'm just happy they are all here and safe with us. Whatever happens later today in FL happens, nothing you can do about it except insure everyone is out of harms way. Damn, getting awfully tired of this nasty weather lately.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted October 10, 2018 Share Posted October 10, 2018 hunker down and stay safe. hopefully you've stocked up on the essentials (beer, food, gas). the gas stations around me are already running dry of fuel. which is weird to me, because if there are trees down everywhere and no power, there's no where to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOrnbrod Posted October 10, 2018 Author Share Posted October 10, 2018 No worries here Pete up in north Bama. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluenotenick Posted October 10, 2018 Share Posted October 10, 2018 Wishing them a good outcome with their property in FL. Glad they are safe with you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kryptronic Posted October 10, 2018 Share Posted October 10, 2018 Our thoughts and prayers are with all the members down south, and their families. Please be safe. I lived on the Outer Banks when Isabel hit and we stayed to weather out the storm. Foolhardy to say the least. Anybody underestimating mother nature right now is in for a wake up call. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted October 11, 2018 Share Posted October 11, 2018 still rainin'. looking at the radar, it looks like it'll be doing that for quite a while. but the predictions are the "center" will go more east than north so hopefully it will be more rain than wind here by atlanta. looks like florida got hammered Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOrnbrod Posted October 11, 2018 Author Share Posted October 11, 2018 My daughter got word from a neighbor friend who stayed during the hurricane that her house is still standing, but the windows are all blown out. Could have been a lot worse. The neighbor also stated that looters are already roaming around. Daughter and husband will probably head down in the next couple of days to board the house up. Tyndall AFB where she is stationed received a direct hit causing extensive damage and the base is closed indefinitely. And that all evacuated personnel should make plans for an extended time away from the base.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 Ouch! Good news that she, her husband, and the dogs are safe. Not good about the house, but hardly surprising. What really [bleep]s me off is the looters. WTF is wrong with people that they steal from other people whose whole lives have been destroyed? I think looters should be shot on sight. To use an expression we knew too well in the Army back in the Vietnam era, looters are lower than whale [poop] at the bottom of the ocean. The next thing your daughter and son-in-law will have to watch out for is the scam contractors. Any time there's a disaster like this, there just aren't enough contractors available locally to deal with the magnitude of the work to be done, so outsiders come in. Some are good, some are okay ... and many are fly-by-nights who are just there to make a quick buck. It can be difficult to know one type from another. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeep Driver Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 57 minutes ago, Eagle said: Ouch! Good news that she, her husband, and the dogs are safe. Not good about the house, but hardly surprising. What really [bleep]s me off is the looters. WTF is wrong with people that they steal from other people whose whole lives have been destroyed? I think looters should be shot on sight. To use an expression we knew too well in the Army back in the Vietnam era, looters are lower than whale [poop] at the bottom of the ocean. The next thing your daughter and son-in-law will have to watch out for is the scam contractors. Any time there's a disaster like this, there just aren't enough contractors available locally to deal with the magnitude of the work to be done, so outsiders come in. Some are good, some are okay ... and many are fly-by-nights who are just there to make a quick buck. It can be difficult to know one type from another. FL prosecutes, you don't work in FL without a FL license. One of my customers owns several cabins here in Gatlinburg, they are from Houston and they lost their home in the flood two years ago, they just moved back in last month. They said that only 40% of Houston has been rebuilt. There is a national shortage of labor and materials, lead time on kitchen cabinets in Houston is 6-8 months if you can get cabinet at all right now. We are only 50% recovered from the fires here from two years ago. NC will take years to recover. Those in FL with near total losses will not recover any time soon, maybe a year or two. And material prices are at a premium right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dasbulliwagen Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 I'm in central NC, Asheboro. The eye went right over us. The front side was no big deal, but when the back side came through it got a little rough for a while. Lots of trees down due to high winds and lots of power outages. We didnt lose power, but near by neighborhoods are without. The rain during this one was nowhere near as bad as Florence, I guess because it was moving so fast. It stated yesterday monring around 7, and was gone by 7 yesterday evening. Hope everyone effected is OK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOrnbrod Posted October 12, 2018 Author Share Posted October 12, 2018 After every natural (or unnatural) disaster, the first responders are always the POS looters. The human excrement who make their sorry living by preying upon others' misfortunes. Pond slime scum... Tyndall AFB was leveled and there is talk about a closure. My daughter is an air battle manager instructor there for officers, and it's her first "shore" duty after years of flight duty over the middle east. She's naturally concerned what's going to happen to her next as everyone else who is stationed there is... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 holy crap that place was decimated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjeff87 Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 Don and Das...glad to hear you and yours are safe. We were actually down in Orlando (Disney) the first half of the week. Just a little bit of rain and wind, but we flew back to RIC yesterday afternoon. I wasn't sure our flight was going to make it in before the remnants hit here, but we just squeaked in. Got home from the airport and all hell broke loose around 6PM. We got 8.5 inches of rain, there were several tornadoes in the area, but we didn't get hit by any (had some good 50-60 mph winds though). We lost power around 7:00 last night and it's still out. Dominion power doesn't have a restoration estimate, but a spokesperson in a news conference said they hope to have everyone restored by Monday. Lol. My Generac 20K generator has been humming along happily, though, so we're ok. House is lit up like the Vegas strip at night while everyone else is pitch black. I've got a 7K portable genset that I gave to my neighbor (they just moved in last month) so they can at least keep their food cold and run some lights and whatnot. I did just power down my genny to let it rest for about 30 minutes and to check the oil. All is well. Good times...good times. Reminds me of Isabel back in 2002. I'm about to make me a coconut MOJITO and kick back for the evening. Changed the oil in the KJ and spent the day cleaning up the yard from all the storm debris. Disney thread to follow...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjeff87 Posted October 13, 2018 Share Posted October 13, 2018 Day #3, still no utility power. Generator humming along happily. No cable or internet either, but that's understandable all things considered. The cable company rents pole space from the utility and they can't do any restoration until the POCO is done fixing things. I've got a digital converter box rigged up to an antenna and have 21 assorted channels of crap to watch POCO says restoration "should" be by midnight tonight....I'm not taking any bets on that though. My neighbor 2 doors down lost part of their roof. Our troubles pale in comparison to those that got truly hit down in FL. Thoughts and prayers to all those affected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjeff87 Posted October 13, 2018 Share Posted October 13, 2018 Don, I've blown some money on a lot of stupid crap over my 48 years, but I'm here to tell you that generator was the BEST purchase I ever made. Lots of options out there, I won't try to sway you one way or another, but this Generac I bought back in 2010 has never missed a beat. It's an air cooled unit, I think the next step up (22k) goes to water cooled and 1800 rpm, which is quieter than this 3600 rpm unit, but we can barely hear it running right outside the bay window in the living room. I got it mostly because when/if there's a mass power outage it's most likely due to some catastrophic event and I'm usually at work supporting some kind of relief operation and my wife is here by herself. It's all automatic, she doesn't have to do a thing and she's safe. edit:. I was out cutting the grass and just noticed we lost one of our Leyland Cypress trees in the back yard. It's flopped over and the whole root ball is popped out of the ground. No chance of saving it. Still better than my neighbor missing half of his roof.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOrnbrod Posted October 13, 2018 Author Share Posted October 13, 2018 Crap - I went to edit my post and somehow deleted it. The 20K air cooled model will be fine for us. Longest we've been w/o power is 20 days a few years ago due to a tornado. Not fun. I have a 7K portable for the fridge and lights, but would love something bigger for A/C or heat. AND self-starting. Will call next Monday... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjeff87 Posted October 13, 2018 Share Posted October 13, 2018 The bonus of going 20k or larger is that it comes with a new breaker panel with the automatic transfer switch (ATS) built in, as opposed to a separate unit hanging on the wall. It's a much cleaner install (and you get a new panel). Shoot me a PM if you have any questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted October 13, 2018 Share Posted October 13, 2018 see, what you need is one like mine. it came with a no-more-power-outages-longer-than-a-couple-hours-ever-again guarantee. apparently. I've yet to fire that thing up for anything other than an annual test run. humor aside, I love generators. such an incredible piece-of-mind purchase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted October 13, 2018 Share Posted October 13, 2018 Don, it looks like you daughter is going to be with you for awhile. https://weather.com/safety/hurricane/news/2018-10-12-tyndall-air-force-base-damage-hurricane-michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOrnbrod Posted October 14, 2018 Author Share Posted October 14, 2018 2 hours ago, Eagle said: Don, it looks like you daughter is going to be with you for awhile. https://weather.com/safety/hurricane/news/2018-10-12-tyndall-air-force-base-damage-hurricane-michael Yeah, she's in contact with the authorities nearly hourly. Doesn't look like a quick fix.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shelbyluvv Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 I'm alive here in South Georgia. We got slammed pretty bad here in Albany. I have at least 25 trees down. 2 on my shop. It held up and protected the MJ and the 48. I have 2 50' pines on top of my well house. It is totally crushed. They also took out a 25' section of my fence. I also have 3 of my neighbors trees on my fence and in the pool. Luckily we had nothing hit the house too hard. We have some bent gutters and a few missing shingles. We are still without power. I sold my generator a long time ago. I underestimated the power of this storm. I hooked up a 1500 watt inverter to my boats battery on the mule. So far it has kept our bad @$$ fish and Bill the Lobster alive. These fish have survived a 2300 mile cross country trip and now a hurricane. Here are some pictures of how I packed all the toys away and some of the damage. If you look closely you can see my well house and the corner of the work shop where the 48 was parked. I knew retiring for the Marines was going to be tough but this took it to a whole new level, lol! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 Bo, it looks like you're going to need a couple of chainsaw chains. And you'll be able to heat your house with wood for about ten years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjeff87 Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 Wow Bo, glad you are ok. I think a lot of folks underestimated the power of this storm. It was just a disorganized broad low pressure area off the Honduran coast last week, but it hit the bath water in the gulf and just exploded. Keep an eye on Nadine way out in the southeast Atlantic too....it just might turn into something as it gets closer to the US. Hopefully with the pattern change there are more, stronger cold fronts crossing the country that would help push things off the coast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOrnbrod Posted October 14, 2018 Author Share Posted October 14, 2018 11 minutes ago, Eagle said: Bo, it looks like you're going to need a couple of chainsaw chains. And you'll be able to heat your house with wood for about ten years. You don't want to burn no stinkin' pine. Those Georgia pine trees fall down if you look at them wrong. You took a hit Bo, but could have been much worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knucklehead97 Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 Usually around my house gets worse than it was this time. The worst thing to happen to me from this is the mandatory "1 pallet of every type of bulk water" that Publix has during emergencies. My new stores back room was full enough before I had to order those 5 pallets glad everyone so far is safe and unscathed. I've seen videos and pictures and it's crazy how destroyed everything is down there. I can't imagine that just happening to my home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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