Irma

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.Mike

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 18, 2017
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Location
Savannah, Georgia
Well, this one is not looking good for us in the southeast. I hope everyone down in Florida is making their preparations.

We're exactly 1 mile from the Savannah River, which is tidal, and 10 -12 miles to the ocean. Our plan is to ride out category 3 or below, and evacuate for category 4 or higher. We do not yet have an evacuation destination in mind.

We stayed for Matthew in October, which hit us as a category 2. We had minimal damage, and were one of 6 houses in our neighborhood that never lost power. The folks down the block had major damage, and haven't even moved back in yet!

Our prep is underway. Tons of water, food, batteries, etc. I'll be trimming back trees tomorrow, and coming up with a plan for my boat. The plywood I bought for my floor might have to be repurposed.

Bottled water is getting hard to come by, as are batteries. I've heard rumors of lines at gas stations, but I haven't seen any. I don't think there is a single cat cage for sale in the whole city.

I hope everyone here stays safe!
 
richg99 said:
I hope that storm makes a big right turn and goes out to sea.

We do not need another catastrophe in 30 days.

richg99


You got that right. It is bad enough Houston got hit by Harvey. Now Irma is lurking and Jose is looking to get in on the action. I can't wait for hurricane season to end. I am pretty much prepped for it as far as can but a hurricane is unpredictable. It can wipe you out in a heartbeat. Well, I hope all of our fellow members are ready and are able to come through this with no more than a scratch. Good Luck, Everyone.
 
Every active hurricane season before a storm I see many thousands of people on TV who are totally unprepared and then what do they do? Go buy water, tape, and plywood? WTF???

I'm in Florida since 1976, here's what I learned...

1. I have NEVER EVER lost water service, so I don't buy water, I buy beer, gatorade etc. I ALWAYS keep a case of water for fishing, and after a storm if there's a boil water order and I have no power my dog and cat will not go thirsty. If there's a boil water order and I have power, I can boil water.

2. A generator is affordable, much more affordable than throwing away a freezer full of meats, which a neighbor did TWICE being too value conscious to get a genset.

3. I have many rechargeable batteries, of all sizes AND multiple chargers, and DC powered lights, radio, fans for when I shut the genset off.

4. Not only do I have shutters, I have EVERYTHING on hand to install them, but EVERY YEAR I hear that folks are running around looking for wingnuts. Last hurricane a passing by rube INSISTED I sell him MY wingnuts and leave my house unprotected. The ones that buy plywood? Sheesh, with plywood selling for $30 (and up) each sheet I think shutters are a better deal.

5. I have a camp stove and BBQ. I can cook three meals on them and eat. After Wilma I was out of power for well over a month, and we got by pretty well.

6. I have a Tracfone as a backup. Tracfone has been THE most reliable phone after a storm. I've had one for decades.

My preparations are minimally expensive IMO, especially if you acquire the necessary items in years BEFORE severe storms strike. Why so many are frantic before a hurricane mystifies me.
 
You are a smart guy, Gary.

You've learned from experience, and put that learning into action.

I own a big generator. I bought it because someday, my house in Houston might need it. I won't be there if the storm is in the Summer, but that is OK with me!

My kids can start it and live in my house for a while if their homes have any major issues.

I also have two window air conditioners in my wood shop. They can be removed and used anywhere that they fit. We can't run the whole house a/c on the generator, but we can run those window a/c units.

Guess the Boy Scouts were right....Be Prepared.

richg99
 
Florida is so susceptible to hurricanes. You guys are much better prepared than us, and for good reason. We're kind of tucked in along the coast, and rarely get hit. Our last actual landfall was in 1979. The Carolinas usually take the hit for us.

The freakout factor is high right now. When Matthew hit us in October, people really freaked out the last couple days before the storm. It seems the lesson learned was to start the freakout a couple of days earlier.

We buy bottled water and freeze it to use in place of ice. That's how we plan to preserve food for a little while if we lose power. We camp a lot, so being without power isn't much of an issue.

This storm looks worse with every update.
 
.Mike said:
We buy bottled water and freeze it to use in place of ice. That's how we plan to preserve food for a little while if we lose power.

I used to live on salt water and went fishing several times a week. I had a side by side refrigerator with a very productive ice maker. I just filled many 1 gallon zip lock bags with ice from the refrigerator and it was always there when I needed it. This is less expensive ice, and I don't have to transport it from the store.

Today I do the same and take one bag in a cooler every time I go fishing. For the storm season I double up on the amount of ice I store.
 
i hope it goes out to sea. my stepdad came back up to virginia the other day from florida. hopefully irma dies down. his house that is supposed to be mine one day is right in the path
 
180mph winds is unlike anything anyone's ever seen in a hurricane in the US (basically a ~23 mile wide F3 tornado) and the wide range of uncertainty as to where this thing is going makes me happy I live in CT, though Montana's appeal is growing.

If an F3 tornado is capable of overturning trains, throwing vehicles and tearing roofs off of well constructed homes (not just wrecking trailer parks) then wherever that eyewall hits land anyone in its path is in serious trouble.

Prayers for anyone stuck unable to get out of its way and natural selection for those too ignorant to do anything.
 
I tried to find an indoor spot to put my boat, but it looks like it is going to have to sit in the yard.

I've come up with two options. Does one of these sound better than the other? Any other suggestions?

1. Put the boat on the ground, flip it over, put some anchors in the ground, and strap it down.

2. Put the tongue on the ground, put in some anchors, and strap the trailer down. If the boat is right side up, it will fill with water. My theory on putting the front end on the ground is that it can only fill to a certain point, and then overflow. Otherwise, I would be relying on the drain hole to prevent it from completely filling, which seems unwise. The water weight should help weigh it down.
 
The recommendations on a mostly Florida boat site that I follow on Facebook leaned towards....

Assuming that you have to leave the boat outside.

Remove tires from trailer (they will tend to float). (anchor them down )
Block axle of trailer up with concrete blocks
Buy screw-in mobile home/pet anchors and screw them into the nearby ground.
Using chains or heavy straps, strap the boat (upright) and the trailer to the anchors
Half fill the boat with water (this assumes you won't ruin your electronics, I guess)
remove batteries from the boat and store up high and safe.
If you have a permanent gas tank in the boat, fill it with gasoline to add weight.

I have not had to use ANY of these recommendations personally, and am just passing them on. If you were worried about messing up your electronics, I'd guess you could put some 5-gallon buckets in the boat and just fill those with water. Don't really know.

richg99
 
Important thing is to not let there be an air pocket allowed to form under the boat - this will be at a higher pressure than the fast moving air to the topside.

Knocking the wheels off the trailer dropping it to the ground and filling it with water sound like your best bet for a small tin. Lay it flat on the ground if you can.
 
What worries me about filling it with water is the weight of the water. I estimate that my boat will hold about 6,000lbs of water. That was the reasoning behind putting the bow on the ground, to allow overflow before the boat completely fills up.

On the trailer, I can't imagine that either the boat or the trailer would survive that weight. On the ground, maybe, but there would be a lot of pressure pushing out. Obviously, these boats are built to support water pushing in from the outside, not pushing out from the inside.

That is the argument I've read in favor of flipping it and strapping it down. As long as it doesn't flood, the boat stands a better chance of surviving. We are expected to be safe from flooding through a category 4. The latest projections put Irma as a category 3 when it hits us.

I'm not sure what I'll do, but I'll be doing it tomorrow! We are now in a state of emergency, and have a mandatory political evacuation starting on Saturday, but that has no real bearing on my decision to evacuate.
 
They just moved to cone to the west a bit. If nothing changes at some point, the entire state may see hurricane force winds.
I have lived here for 65yrs and been through several bad ones, but this one could be the worst one to ever hit the state of Florida.
Irma has slightly stronger winds, and is twice the size of Andrew. Looks like it is coming straight up the middle. And to add insult to injury, my cellphone just turned into a brick.

Say a prayer for Florida

John
 
Rather than filling the boat upright, or turning it over and strapping it down, I think I'd strap it down, upside down remove the plug and if water rose no harm it wouldn't float anywhere, the removed plug would let the boat fill with water and it would be self draining.
 
Yeah, that is what I decided to do. My boat is 230lbs, and my 5' tall wife and I removed it from the trailer last night, and flipped it over. My motor is sitting in my laundry room... heh!

We woke up this morning to find that the models have shifted from us getting a direct hit, to us maxing out at tropical storm or cat1 levels. We're still prepping, but have pretty much ruled out evacuation. We're still under an evacuation order for tomorrow at 8AM, but now our emergency management agency is being universally mocked.

Florida just isn't going to avoid Irma, so I am hopeful that good prep, modern construction, and advanced notice minimize the impact.

A few sites to share...

I'm sure a lot of people have seen this site by now. Lots of models, presented in a nice, 1990s-birth-of-the-internet format: https://spaghettimodels.com/

Here is a site that we have used for years. 7 models that you can evaluate yourself. We like the European models for when the storms are far out, and the Navy model when it gets closer: https://moe.met.fsu.edu/tcgengifs/

And last, a Twitter feed. I hate Twitter/Facebook, but this guy's feed is great. During Harvey, he live streamed the storm from a carwash less than a mile from the eye. He is currently in Miami. https://twitter.com/Jeff_Piotrowski
 
Little rain and a big puffy class 4. Yawn. Florida will not be gone next week. Few areas directly hit by eye wall or near shallow water storm surge will play well until the next big news event.
 
^^^easy to say when you're in Arizona LOL

People always seem to mock emergency management agencies for alerting them to dangers that never materialize but they fail to process that these forecasts are known to be uncertain from the beginning, and therefore to serve whoever ends up getting hit they need to warn everyone who could get hit.

They can't wait until 6 hours before an event when the forecasts are precise enough to estimate the local area which will be hit and tell whatever population is there to get ready and out - there isn't enough time.

Those that dismiss current warnings because previous warnings were ultimately unnecessary fail to comprehend simple middle-school levels of probability analysis. What is laughable is the really ignorant out there conclude that it is part of some far reaching conspiracy to force them to make purchases of safety materials they don't "need". It's ok...natural selection will catch up with them eventually.
 
onthewater102 said:
^^^easy to say when you're in Arizona LOL

People always seem to mock emergency management agencies for alerting them to dangers that never materialize but they fail to process that these forecasts are known to be uncertain from the beginning, and therefore to serve whoever ends up getting hit they need to warn everyone who could get hit.

They can't wait until 6 hours before an event when the forecasts are precise enough to estimate the local area which will be hit and tell whatever population is there to get ready and out - there isn't enough time.

Those that dismiss current warnings because previous warnings were ultimately unnecessary fail to comprehend simple middle-school levels of probability analysis. What is laughable is the really ignorant out there conclude that it is part of some far reaching conspiracy to force them to make purchases of safety materials they don't "need". It's ok...natural selection will catch up with them eventually.

Good on you!

God bless those who can still think and evaluate facts. The FACT is, they gave us a CONE which is a likelihood that landfall will be anywhere in it.

The possibility of an east coast brush and it possibly moving some 90 miles west is somewhat of a relief, but I'm ready and anyone who isn't is a idiot, and well... sorry, 911 won't be working for you.
 

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