Hurricane Irene

[W2R]

Wow! Very weird indeed W2R. I'd love to see other pictures you have from Katrina.

Thanks but honestly, most of them are awul! But if one applies to a topic being discussed, like this one, I'll remember to post it.

This one was taken 8 days after Hurricane Katrina. The big tree whose trunk you can see, was weakened by that storm and came down in another hurricane (Gustav), I think in 2008. It took the fence down with it at that time.

 

[Purron]

Thanks but honestly, most of them are awul! But if one applies to a topic being discussed, like this one, I'll remember to post it.

This one was taken 8 days after Hurricane Katrina. The big tree whose trunk you can see, was weakened by that storm and came down in another hurricane (Gustav), I think in 2008. It took the fence down with it at that time.

We had the same problem with trees being weakened from the big snows here in the DC area not so long ago. They came down later when we had windy, rainy weather. Who knows how many trees impacted by Irene will come down later. We'll be keeping a close eye on them for sure.

 

[freebird5825]

All good here, 2 hours west of Albany NY. We had high wind warnings for up to 60 mph gusts for my area. We had a lot of rain and some winds earlier today, but nothing like they predicted. I had everything tied down just in case.
I am a higher elevation part of the state, with no rivers nearby, so no flooding in my immediate area. Not so lucky to the south and east of us.

 

[W2R]

We had the same problem with trees being weakened from the big snows here in the DC area not so long ago. They came down later when we had windy, rainy weather. Who knows how many trees impacted by Irene will come down later. We'll be keeping a close eye on them for sure.

I hope your trees were not too weakened! Sorry to hear about the delayed effects of the big snows on trees in your area.

Almost all of the trees on my (formerly shady, tree-lined) street were knocked down during 2005's hurricanes Cindy and Katrina. Actually, Category 1 Cindy took down more than Katrina. Some neighbors planted more, but not me! I like trees but I don't want a tree where it can fall on my house, living down here.

The tree that fell down on top of a neighbor's car a few days ago during a lightning storm with a lot of wind (see the weather thread) might have been weakened by Katrina, or might have been planted after Katrina and just grew and grew and grew until it was a mid-sized tree. Plants seem to do that down here due to our hothouse climate.

 

[Purron]

Anyone heard from Harley after the storm? Worried.

 

[W2R]

Unless I am mistaken, he has been on the board tonight.

 

[Gumby]

There are 754,000 homes without power in Connecticut tonight (over half the state). We are among the lucky half. They say it may be well over a week to re-establish power, given the widespread damage from fallen trees and downed lines.

 

[harley]

Anyone heard from Harley after the storm? Worried.

Unless I am mistaken, he has been on the board tonight.

Good timing. I just got internet access back about 15 mins ago. We lost it at about 1:30 yesterday afternoon. Our power stayed on for the most part, and the genny handled the short periods where it was out.

The storm was interesting, not as bad as feared. We had 5 or 6 hours of ~70-75 mph winds, and got about 8 inches of rain over that period, but our preparations were effective and we didn't have any leaks or other problems. Some of our neighbors lost some shingles, and our other neighbors willow trees got pretty mangled. Clean-up has been going on all day. The biggest worry, storm surge, turned out fine. The water made it to the top of the rip-rap, but didn't come farther up into the yard or to the house like we feared.

Generally, I think evacuating Ocean City and other coastal towns may have been overkill, but I can see why they did it. Better to move people out than to make the emergency responders risk their lives rescuing idiots. We were stuck here no matter what, since they closed the Bay Bridge early on. But it all turned out fine for us, and hopefully that will be our storm of the century. Thanks for thinking about us.

 

[Purron]

Glad to hear you're OK Harley. OK here too in NOVA. Lots to be thankful for. Beautiful night, huh?

 

[Sarah in SC]

I am also glad to hear that all of you have made it through the storm-thanks for your reports.
W2R, I've seen outside ceiling fans do that, but normally it happens over time, after absorbing moisture from the air on porches, but never "overnight" like that, from a storm. That is wild!

 

[DblDoc]

Good to hear folks made it through OK.

DD

 

[REWahoo]

Glad you folks in the path of Irene are OK.

This thread reminds me of a forum classic from 2005: http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/run-unclemick-unclemick-checks-in-on-page-8-a-17787.html

 

[W2R]

W2R, I've seen outside ceiling fans do that, but normally it happens over time, after absorbing moisture from the air on porches, but never "overnight" like that, from a storm. That is wild!

Yes, pretty amazing that it happened to a perfectly good outdoor ceiling fan due to a hurricane, huh? That is why I thought a picture would be worth 1000 words. I guess it was due to the battering and abrasion of the wind combined with the huge amount of water blown onto the fan, soaking it continually for so long - - and then even after the rains stopped, it probably didn't dry out for days due to our humid climate. It was rated for outdoor use, but not for that kind of pummeling and soaking. But at any rate, as I'm sure you know, there are a lot of strange and unique things to be seen after one of these storms.

Having bits of leaves paste themselves to one side of the exterior of Gumby's house after a storm, so that he had to go out and clean the house after Irene must have seemed pretty strange to him too. Seems pretty wild to me, anyway, as you put it!

I'm sure this has happened to you before: We didn't hear birds at all for a long time after Katrina. They had all been blown away. Leonidas probably remembers this. And there were weird plants and other wildlife that we had never seen before, some very invasive and taking over the deserted properties.

F. swears he saw a chupucabra in the middle of the night after the storm, but maybe that was an illusion in the moonlight.

 

[harley]

I was actually amazed at all the wildlife that came right back. We actually had a lot more herons than usual today. I was wondering where they rode out the storm. I know this sounds wacky, but it appears that there is a different batch of seagulls out back than we usually have. There were a couple of (very) small islands out in the bay right behind out house, and one of them is now gone. The storm wasn't that big, but it did make some changes.

 

[W2R]

I don't think that sounds wacky - - It makes perfect sense to me that your seagulls blew away, and those from somewhere else blew into your area.

 

[Nords]

Yes, I know I'd go out and buy at least five or six flashlights if the price didn't go up during a disaster.
Seriously, I doubt people buy more than they need. The distribution of flashlights is going to be restricted with or without gouging.
With price gouging, the restrictions are based on income, without gouging the restrictions are based on foresight.
I don't think the government should get involved, but I don't think we should applaud the gougers.

The point of the free market is that I can buy ALL the flashlights at the store's fixed price, and then double my resale price during the few hours left before the hurricane arrives.

Of course I'd be selling flashlights right before the hurricane, which is a pretty hazardous business. I'd expect to be compensated for those risks, and for the additional expense of carrying a firearm to protect my inventory...

The first thing that happens when Hawaii's hurricane/tsunami sirens go off is that everyone queues up to buy gas, water, rice, & toilet paper until the tanks & shelves are emptied. Then they spend the next year trying to store all the water, rice, & toilet paper. If they had brought a truck full of gasoline cans then they'd be struggling to store those too!

 

[MichaelB]

Welcome back online to all those wet folks in the storm path, and good luck with the clean up. I'd offer to help but I'm a bit busy right now.

Shout out to Brewer who has amazing timing and could not have chosen a better moment to leave the east coast.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

Got to love the media. NBC for one had a segment on about whether or not Irene was overhyped. They were talking about National Weather Service still calling Irene a category 1 hurricane when winds were ONLY 65 mph when EVERYBODY knows winds have to be 75 mph in order to be classified as a cat 1. Can you believe the networks are saying "overhyped"? They are the ones with the 24/7 coverage, wall to wall reporting, etc. I say overhyped is better than downplaying the storm and then have it grow in size and/or strength. I wonder if the 20 something dead people would have thought it was overhyped?

 

[HFWR]

Got to love the media. NBC for one had a segment on about whether or not Irene was overhyped. They were talking about National Weather Service still calling Irene a category 1 hurricane when winds were ONLY 65 mph when EVERYBODY knows winds have to be 75 mph in order to be classified as a cat 1. Can you believe the networks are saying "overhyped"? They are the ones with the 24/7 coverage, wall to wall reporting, etc. I say overhyped is better than downplaying the storm and then have it grow in size and/or strength. I wonder if the 20 something dead people would have thought it was overhyped?

As Bob Pisani (CNBC) said this morning, the media didn't overhype, the storm underperformed...

I'd say 100 year flooding, $10B damages, and 3M or so without power constitutes a significant storm.

 

[TromboneAl]

"Overhyping" does have a downside: evacuation fatigue. I bet there's a cycle: hype evac fizzle hype evac fizzle less hype no evac fizzle no hype no evac Katrina.

 

[Purron]

Irene was a big bad storm and people needed to understand what was happening to take steps to protect life and property. IMHO, part of the problem is 24/7 coverage geared at keeping people interested. That's how we end up with Ali Velchi standing on a beach wearing a CNN slicker.

Let's see how they handle the next one. Tropical Depression 12 is predicted to be a hurricane by Thursday. If so, it'll be named Katia.

 

[unclemick]

"Overhyping" does have a downside: evacuation fatigue. I bet there's a cycle: hype evac fizzle hype evac fizzle less hype no evac fizzle no hype no evac Katrina.

Guilty as charged. !998 to 2003 the biggies George and Ivan turned at the last minute so I waited longer and didn't pack as much for Katrina.

We did have enough sense to evacuate though.

heh heh heh - file cabinets of DRIP plans and tax records are not the same as family pictures and other irreplaceable items.

heh heh heh -

 

[M Paquette]

The New York City MTA has a Flickr stream up for the curious. Pictures cover everything from temporary seawall construction at some tunnel entries, to pumpout work at some stations, to just why MTA-North is still out. (Mudslides, trees, third rail underwater...)

Flickr: MTAPhotos' Photostream

 

[W2R]

Guilty as charged. !998 to 2003 the biggies George and Ivan turned at the last minute so I waited longer and didn't pack as much for Katrina.

Me too - - don't feel bad! We didn't leave until the day before Katrina hit, and I just took an overnight bag with two days of clothing and my laptop computer. I even left my car in New Orleans, and rode with him instead. I had essentially nothing and that made the awful experience of sitting in Huntsville and watching our city drown on CNN, even scarier.

After that, I drove my car and took everything but the kitchen sink with me when we evacuated for Hurricane Gustav. And now, I have the Venza so even more will fit in it for future evacuations.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

Saw on the internet that Hatteras Island is cutoff from the mainland of the Outer Banks in NC. Photos showed all the roads washed out so they started the ferry service again. The photos showed big beautiful houses sitting right there at waters edge, just waiting to be washed away or blown away. Could have happened in a stronger storm. These photos and story prompted me to post this question:

I understand flood insurance and hurricane insurance is not available if you live on a barrier island (special area designation). I heard before that if you live in one of those areas, there is some federal program that rebuilds you house if it is destroyed. I was reminded of that the other day when DW told me that the FOX reporter John Stossel had his house rebuilt by the fed. Being he is a Liberatarian he personally doesn't believe in that system or method but says "if the government is going to do this for me I'm not going to turn it down". Anybody know about this rebuilding program? Maybe it should be the start of another thread.