Hurricane's a comin'

[Michchamp]

Looks like Hurricane Harvey is gonna hit Texas this Friday night/Saturday morning. link.

I'm going stand out in my backyard, tie myself to a tree, and rage against the Hurricane like Lt. Dan in Forrest Gump, then become a born again Christian the next day, cause that's something people do here in Texas.

 

[Mitchrapp]

Looks like Hurricane Harvey is gonna hit Texas this Friday night/Saturday morning. link.

I'm going stand out in my backyard, tie myself to a tree, and rage against the Hurricane like Lt. Dan in Forrest Gump, then become a born again Christian the next day, cause that's something people do here in Texas.

I might make a wager on that..

 

[turok]

Looks like Hurricane Harvey is gonna hit Texas this Friday night/Saturday morning. link.

I'm going stand out in my backyard, tie myself to a tree, and rage against the Hurricane like Lt. Dan in Forrest Gump, then become a born again Christian the next day, cause that's something people do here in Texas.

Trees=lightning rods, and you're much more likely to wind up as a dead fried atheist, than a born-again Christian.

 

[Michchamp]

Trees=lightning rods, and you're much more likely to wind up as a dead fried atheist, than a born-again Christian.

that would be less than ideal.

 

[b311j]

Too bad Texans couldnt pray enough to get Harvey to turn away from the state. Now it appears Floridians were lax against Irma. It would have seemed god knew the hurricanes he created were bad. But alas the 1000's that begged him to avert his storms fell on deaf ears.

 

[turok]

Too bad Texans couldnt pray enough to get Harvey to turn away from the state. Now it appears Floridians were lax against Irma. It would have seemed god knew the hurricanes he created were bad. But alas the 1000's that begged him to avert his storms fell on deaf ears.

I dunno...ex-governor Perry once called for the whole state to join in on a day of prayer for rain, b/c of the long exceptional drought which was affecting the state. A couple of years after he left office, Texass was hit with monsoon-like rainstorms for~ a week, flooding many areas, and the total was enough for 8" of floodwater had it been equally distributed across the state.


The Christian gawd can be such a practical joker sometimes....

 

[JScottWriter]

Looks like Hurricane Jose isn't going to just go away. I guess I will leave the second floor shutters up for a couple more days.

 

[sggatecl]

Looks like Hurricane Jose isn't going to just go away. I guess I will leave the second floor shutters up for a couple more days.

Did the forecast change again? I was just reading yesterday that it was supposed to go north and die in the Atlantic.

 

[JScottWriter]

Yeah it does a full 360 and ends up 600 miles east of Miami. The latest I saw shows it going slightly NW pointing right at my house. Hopefully it doesn't take that straight line.

 

[Michchamp]

So... North Carolina buddies... you all prayed up an' ready for the big one?

Read that the Southeast has already been saturated by rain, so the 10-20+" this is expected to dump is going to get catastrophic in many places.

 

[Gulo Blue]

So... North Carolina buddies... you all prayed up an' ready for the big one?

Read that the Southeast has already been saturated by rain, so the 10-20+" this is expected to dump is going to get catastrophic in many places.

I'm charging batteries, making ice, and cleaning out jugs to fill with water. Power goes out if someone sneezes, so I'm not really expecting weather damage (other than stuff that gets hit by falling branches in my yard), but I am planning on being without power for a while. I have some golf cart batteries left over from a project that I could alligator clip to a car cigarette lighter style cell phone charger that should keep my phone going as long as I need. If it does get bad, I have plenty of gas and a chainsaw if I get blocked in.

 

[Michchamp]

I'm charging batteries, making ice, and cleaning out jugs to fill with water. Power goes out if someone sneezes, so I'm not really expecting weather damage (other than stuff that gets hit by falling branches in my yard), but I am planning on being without power for a while. I have some golf cart batteries left over from a project that I could alligator clip to a car cigarette lighter style cell phone charger that should keep my phone going as long as I need. If it does get bad, I have plenty of gas and a chainsaw if I get blocked in.

Get one of these, if you can: battery backup.

There are even better ones (Goalzero apparently makes good ones), but they get kinda pricey. I'm thinking of getting one that you can charge with solar panels or a small wind generator... power forerver in any situation.

the only thing we lost long term was cable & internet because Comcast blows. took nearly a week to come back on.

also, see if your local municipality has a flood map that gets updated in real time.

We also used the waze app to navigate around roads closed due to flooding. google maps and the iphone maps app were not very good at that.

 

[Michchamp]

the other tip I didn't think of is to crank your fridge and freezer as low as possible to store extra cold in there, and open it as little as possible during any prolonged outages.

and if you get desperate you can always drink the water in your hot water heater, I think.

 

[Gulo Blue]

Get one of these, if you can: battery backup.

I've thought about that. More for my wife than for me. I'll be bothered more by the lack of AC than computer resources. I have stacks of books I've been meaning to read forever.

 

[Michchamp]

there's currently a tropical depression over the Yucatan that's expected to develop once it gets to the Gulf of Mexico, and then head toward Texas. reports are saying they don't expect much, but the gulf waters are like Hurricane Fuel at this time of year.

 

[Gulo Blue]

the other tip I didn't think of is to crank your fridge and freezer as low as possible to store extra cold in there, and open it as little as possible during any prolonged outages.

and if you get desperate you can always drink the water in your hot water heater, I think.

I'll have gobs of water. Enough to get by for months. And I'm making ice in a chest freezer. When I'm done I might just put a couple buckets of water in there and see how much progress it can make and if I'm worried my regular freezer is thawing, I can check to see how it's holding up.


Otherwise, I'll have to fire up the grill. (I'm willing to sacrifice the frozen vegetables.) This is more of an exercise to see how prepared we are. Worst comes to worst and my efforts fail (in terms of ice), maybe I lose $100 in groceries. But we'll have plenty of food and water that doesn't require refrigeration either way.

 

[Michchamp]

I've thought about that. More for my wife than for me. I'll be bothered more by the lack of AC than computer resources. I have stacks of books I've been meaning to read forever.

Yeah, it's the lack of AC that will be brutal, although all the rain and clouds should keep temperatures low for awhile.

you could at least power a small fan at night to sleep.

That was the thing I was most worried about, being miserable for days on end with no power.

people that lived through Hurricane Ike here said they were without power for a week. but I also read that Houston's grid is built to withstand tropical force winds... hurricane force winds don't typically extend out very far from the eye, so unless there's a direct hit, we should be okay.

Harvey made landfall about 142 miles from us, as the crow flies, and winds here were really not bad, from what I remember, although you could clearly see rotation of the winds from the clouds in the sky, and if you look at a map we were right on the edge of the spinning disk when it hit

we were also about 47 miles directly from the ocean, and winds slow down when they pass over land.

 

[tomdalton22]

I'll have gobs of water. Enough to get by for months. And I'm making ice in a chest freezer. When I'm done I might just put a couple buckets of water in there and see how much progress it can make and if I'm worried my regular freezer is thawing, I can check to see how it's holding up.


Otherwise, I'll have to fire up the grill. (I'm willing to sacrifice the frozen vegetables.) This is more of an exercise to see how prepared we are. Worst comes to worst and my efforts fail (in terms of ice), maybe I lose $100 in groceries. But we'll have plenty of food and water that doesn't require refrigeration either way.

No generator?

 

[Michchamp]

Also, be prepared for dumbasses immediately pushing their pro-gun agenda.

our neighborhood message board was plagued by some idiot who kept sharing false stories of looters and ranting about how the only security any of us had was gun owners.

everyone ignored him as they tried to figure out what a "voluntary evacuation order" meant, what roads were passable, who had gas, what stores were open, etc.

 

[Gulo Blue]

No generator?

Nope. I thought about it. Maybe someday. The thing that really stops me is that I don't want a ton of gas sitting here. I either won't really need it at all, or I'll wish I had a ton of gas. And I don't want to be stuck with a ton of gas I didn't use.