Are you ready for Sandy?

nsaspook

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I'm watching this monster take aim and hoping anyone in it's path is getting ready.

niel

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

i gotta be honest with you, i'm worried. i'm doing some things, but i never had to prepare for something like this and i lack the resources to do so fully. this is not good and one model shows a beeline for me, but the rest aren't that far off from that one either so i'm just hoping and praying. i think there are many people in the path of this thing that are in the same boat figuratively and may even literally need one.

this is bad enough with a hurricane coming in, but with this front going through too this could be a wintry hurricane here. this will be very interesting as i haven't been able to replace my leaking roof as of yet either. large rainfall amounts like that a hurricane can deliver may also liberate the hillside behind me as well.

i did put an advisory up in the news and announcements area. we normally don't do this for inclimate weather, but this is unique in that it's a double whammy and nobody knows what might happen out of this, but one thing you can be certain of is that it won't be good. it's a matter of what degree of bad that is experienced from it all.

ggunn

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

niel wrote: »

i gotta be honest with you, i'm worried. i'm doing some things, but i never had to prepare for something like this and i lack the resources to do so fully. this is not good and one model shows a beeline for me, but the rest aren't that far off from that one either so i'm just hoping and praying. i think there are many people in the path of this thing that are in the same boat figuratively and may even literally need one.

this is bad enough with a hurricane coming in, but with this front going through too this could be a wintry hurricane here. this will be very interesting as i haven't been able to replace my leaking roof as of yet either. large rainfall amounts like that a hurricane can deliver may also liberate the hillside behind me as well.

i did put an advisory up in the news and announcements area. we normally don't do this for inclimate weather, but this is unique in that it's a double whammy and nobody knows what might happen out of this, but one thing you can be certain of is that it won't be good. it's a matter of what degree of bad that is experienced from it all.

Isn't this pretty much the same scenario as in the movie The Perfect Storm?

icarus

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

Except in "the Perfect Storm" the storm actually turned seaward,, in this case it s likely to turn inland, some where around NY, where it is expected to collide with a winter like trough and is with some of our nice cold Canadian air. (it has been quite cold and snowy here, windy and quite cold in th last few days. -10 c tonight)

We have a rental house half a block off the beach in south Portland ME, with the basement below sea level,, my wife is a bit worried.

Tony

Eric L

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

this is not good and one model shows a beeline for me

FWIW, whenever the tracking models this far out show a hurricane going right over me, I'm relieved since they always seem to change dramatically in the days ahead.

(I realize I'm probably making some version of the inverse gambler's fallacy here, but it still makes me feel better.)

waynefromnscanada

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

Hurricane safety: When the lights go out
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/29/health/hurricane-power-outage/index.html

niel

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

i thought i'd add a bit from my prospective as things are progressing here. the cold front has arrived in my area and the drizzly rain contributed to my already bad day. (i got to play auto mechanic in it) this front is prewetting the ground and i fear it will cause it to saturate being the front is slow to move. (maybe due to sandy's easterly presence?) the more moisture in the ground the less water will be absorbed later when sandy's rains blow in. i didn't catch the latest forecast as of yet, but during the day yesterday they were talking of the possibility of 3-6 inches of rainfall. i am farther out in the area for that prediction so maybe it is more around 3in. that may not help if the 3in comes quickly. even 1in quickly could cause major flooding with a saturated ground.

at this point they aren't saying the temps will dip low enough here to present a wintry problem (we'll see), but the more elevated areas could have a problem. the cold blast is going to dive more to the south of me into the w virginia mountains and who knows how bad it will get down there being fueled with both the cold air and lots of moisture.

niel

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

well the line of rain from the cold front has been replaced by bands of showers pushing through from the east. a local prediction this morning showed the eye to pass over my area before it hooks back north and about 4in of rain. i didn't catch their predicted wind speeds. the noaa model shows the eye hooking north from about central pa, but i am still within their white projected path error area. i suppose it really won't matter too much with this hurricane if i'm near the eye or not as it has spread over a wide area.

the temps didn't drop to the 30s as i expected with the cold front, but are in the 40s for as i type this it's 45 degrees f or 7 c. night temps will drop to about 40 degrees f which isn't that far of a temp drop and is a tad of relief that i won't have to be reviewing damages with snow or ice around. this is almost a certainty that shingles will be lifted from my roof and i will be looking at some interior damages. it's almost a certainty that i won't be alone as i am not the only one with a bad roof in the area and odds are it will be some time before i would even be able to schedule its replacement assuming i find a reasonable roofer to do it. i expect many of them to price gouge as they take advantage of the situation and people's misfortune. this will probably result in my having a severely damaged roof for quite some time. i am thinking of calling a few on monday just to get a place in line for an estimate. i did this last year too, but it was way higher than i could deal with financially. it still may be if their prices went up or if they gouge.

Eric L

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

Both Katrina and Ivan hit us pretty hard but I was able to make emergency roof repairs with Wet-R-Dry and the reinforcing repair fabric that you use with it. If you don't have whole sections of shingle getting torn off, that stuff is enough. But in case you do have large sections removed, you need to have some tarps ready to go.

Pretty much everyone down here had moderate to severe roof damage after Katrina, but I don't recall bad gouging. Maybe I'm just forgetting or was lucky, but I think everyone was on the lookout for it. By the way your insurer should cover the roof, after the deductible.

niel

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

it needs a roof now and i can't go up there to do any work even if i wasn't scared of the steepness and height as i'm disabled. not everybody has insurance either. i did look into it, but it was too pricey and i don't trust insurance companies. i heard of many incidents during katrina that they weren't paying out because of the sheer numbers of claims and they always pull boners on people from what i hear.

waynefromnscanada

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

I hope Niel, that somehow, you avoid damage.
On another note, just reported on our Canadian National News, that 10 Million or more people are expected to loose power and that the outages could last for weeks! OUCH! solar panels, don't leave us now!

techntrek

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

The eye has been predicted to pass over me (or close, depending on the 3-hour cycle posted at the time) since Friday. I already have supplies so no run to the store was necessary - but we did need more candy for a big Halloween campout we participate in every year so we still went Saturday morning. An entire aisle of water probably 100 feet long was empty. Bleach was half gone, so was the toilet paper.

My LPG tank is full to power my big genset, and I have enough gas to run my Prius for about 8 days. With a 20 mile run to the substation and 65 mph winds predicted I'm sure we'll be w/o power for quite a while. Worst case I also have about 20 gallons of water in the camper if everything fails (I hope not!).

Neil, worst-case if your roof is damaged hire someone to go up there and just lay down tar on the bare spots. Doesn't matter how it looks, it will keep the water out until you can get it stripped and replaced.

niel

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

techntrek,
you can't lay tar on it as the shingles have literally bubbled up and are crumbling. i'm sunk as far as my roof goes.

i have no doubt your power will be off. most utilities have trouble within 5 miles let alone 20 miles. i thought the track was to be a bit north of your location, but as with me it depends on the computer model i suppose. it will spell trouble for both of us no matter what just being in proximity to this thing.

that reminds me as i have to fill up more containers with water. hmm, maybe i should just set them outside to collect the rain water as i'm sure they'll probably fill up. i better not chance it as they could blow over and away. it's also a bad omen for the other half as her birthday is on tuesday. i think halloween will pretty much be a bust for the kids for hundreds of miles in many directions. it's not the holiday it used to be anyway.

peakbagger

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

I have one small array that hangs off the side of the house (like an awning), I dropped it down into high wind position which is as close to vertical as possible to reduce wind uplift behind the panels. As for my new upgraded pole mount array, I added a few braces to reduce it from twisting and hope for the best. I have had a generator since 2000 and still havent used it and hope I dont need to on this one. These sort of events unfortunately are effective at pointing out shortcuts taken during installation, I hope I dont find any on my system.

Unfortunately my internet connection is via cable and thats strung overhead through a area with trees, I am less optimistic about this so it amy be WiFi at the local coffes shop at some point.

Godo luck to all and make sure that when you can help out your less fortunate neighbors.

crewzer

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

niel,

I'm sorry to hear about your situation... I hope that you're spared the worst of the storm.

I'm now in in Mills River, near Asheville in western North Carolina. We're on the "backside" of the storm, and it was cold and windy last night. It's supposed to be worse tonight and tomorrow, but I think we're in good shape here at home.

I hope you and all of our friends hang in there!

Regards,
Jim / crewzer

westbranch

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

Peakbagger, hope you were able to test run your gen set. Not a good time to look for a spare part or 2 now..

niel

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

crewzer wrote: »

niel,

I'm sorry to hear about your situation... I hope that you're spared the worst of the storm.

I'm now in in Mills River, near Asheville in western North Carolina. We're on the "backside" of the storm, and it was cold and windy last night. It's supposed to be worse tonight and tomorrow, but I think we're in good shape here at home.

I hope you and all of our friends hang in there!

Regards,
Jim / crewzer

hi jim, it's good to hear from you. thanks for the well wishes, but it is not looking good from what i've heard in predictions. this thing is going to basically straddle the md/pa line. it is not clear when it will turn northward, but it doesn't really matter even if it does turn north 50 miles before me or nails me with the eye as the result will be about the same. the weather channel indicated anywhere along that area it straddles could have 10+ inches of rain. i've done what i can so far and all i can do is cross my fingers and pray. i see you have a new plate too.8) i wonder if you'll be seeing some of the snows from the backlash?

btw for those that aren't in the know of the general outlook here, solar will not do me much of any good as the skies will be gloomy for many days. the w ch indicates sunday the sun will peek out. i do have my 4 pvx1040 batteries backing up my magnum mms 1012. i still have my generator as well, but it gobbles a gallon of gas per hour. if i space things out i could go a few days without power, but until sunday is far too late for solar to do any good and my resources will exhaust long before then.

Eric L

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

btw for those that aren't in the know of the general outlook here, solar will not do me much of any good as the skies will be gloomy for many days.

Yeah, solar is of little use during these. During Issac two months ago, I got a whopping 200 watt-hours per kilowatt of array on the darkest day of the storm, which after system tare losses is barely better than nothing.

Best wishes to everyone in Sandy's path.

peakbagger

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

My generator is in fine shape, I just dont lose power very often despite being up in the woods, My area generates more power than it uses so the utility makes sure that the transmission lines are in good shape and aggressively trimmed plus the majority of my neighborhood has underground lines and fairly new power lines that also were aggressively trimmed. It also helps that the area is fed from two direct taps off the transmission system within 4 miles. I wasn't living here in the sixties when the big east coast blackout occurred but northern NH was one of the only places on the east coast that never went down, the utility just closed the breaker and the region went islanded. On the other hand southern NH usually gets nailed due to old power lines, poor trimming and a lot of rural roads. They buy a lot of generators and there are plenty of them on craigslist or reconditioned units at home depot and lowes after the storm.

If I get real desperate I have an inverter stashed away, a small charge controller and plenty of 65 watt Siemen's M75 panels in the garage.

Unfortunately a lot of folks down near the coast are going to be underwater and I hope them the best.

BB.

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

Yea--It sounds like for many folks, the 10-15+ feet of ocean water feeding back into the bays/rivers is going the the killer for most.

My brother and sister in-law live up in Long Island, and they only had a 1/2" of rain so far... They are >20' of elevation--so they are hoping for the best.

-Bill

rollandelliott

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

hope things don't turn out as bad as they look!!!! keep us updated

Shadowcatcher

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

One of the tricks those of us with solar on the RV and no sun or generator is to use jumper cables to the battery from the tow vehicle. Our thoughts and prayers are with those in harms way.

niel

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

update,
well, so far so good. i'm not getting high winds, but it's raining to beat the band. officially up to 5pm we had .69in. i'm not sure of the actual rate of rainfall i'm experiencing now or what it was after 5pm, but as long as it doesn't get any worse than what it presently is i should be ok. at this time the eye is still far off to the east just west of philly so we'll see.

Cariboocoot

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

Looks like New Jersey is down and out; can't contact someone I know there near Perth Amboy. Seems 3 million are without power. So far.

niel

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

another update. as of 2am we saw about 1.75 inches of rain so between 5pm and 2am there was 1.06in of rain. yes, my roof leaked, but i found a bigger roof leak in my pantry. it would seem the system is fizzling out some and that's good news. where the eye is is near chambersburg which is about 30 miles sw of harrisburg, our state capital, and is still straddling the border between pa/md. winds have died down comparatively and the rains are tapering off. i would say i dodged a bullet and i'm glad. it's a shame the coast got hammered like it did. i know it was snowing about 50 miles away from me too and we can still see a possibility of some snow before this is all out of here as it is a bit slow to move.

i can say i was getting sick of the weather channel's coverage as they keyed too much on ny and jersey. the hurricane was hitting other areas besides them and i wanted to hear more updates on its impact elsewhere and projected paths, winds, and rains. i think i heard pittsburgh only mentioned once in an hour and a half, but i had to have seen that stupid crane 8 or 10 times in the same period of time. even though the point of impact is newsworthy they have to understand there are allot more areas affected by this with far more people involved than ny and jersey combined.

i'm sure others in other states not affected by the hurricane would've also appreciated an update to their weather too. instead of showing the same footage over and over again they could've given everybody else a quick run through of their weather or at least placed a banner with it every half hour or so.

gee this is turning into quite a rant by me.:-)

waynefromnscanada

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

Thanks for the update Niel, I was worried about your roof, fearing the worst. Glad things were no worse where you are.
Peace.

crewzer

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

niel,

Looks like you were up quite a bit last night.

I hope things are settling down and that you can get a bit of rest today.

Take care,
Jim / crewzer

ggunn

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

Eric L wrote: »

Yeah, solar is of little use during these. During Issac two months ago, I got a whopping 200 watt-hours per kilowatt of array on the darkest day of the storm, which after system tare losses is barely better than nothing.

Best wishes to everyone in Sandy's path.

Things could be worse. When Ike struck the gulf coast a few years ago, a friend of mine in Houston was without power for 7 weeks, and he lives well within the city limits in an old established residential neighborhood.

niel

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

hi everybody. i did get some sleep. it would seem that what would've been the eye of this thing is between bedford and somerset counties judging by the center of the rotating clouds. for those that may be curious the pressure is 29.09 inches and is falling in pittsburgh as i type this. the remnants still need to be dealt with and are slow to move.

i tried watching the weather channel again to get updates on what it is doing now, where it's going, and when it might be out of here, but they're still focused on the atlantic coast. i guess i'll have to turn on the local goofs and see what they say about it because i can't get current updates on the weather from the weather channel.

westbranch

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

try this one Niel, a bit slow to load even on DSL.

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/weather/maps/caon0696/?ref=alerts_user-p_satrad

crewzer

Re: Are you ready for Sandy?

Well, new reports suggest that a lot of people and animals need a bit of help after this storm. We've made donations to the American Red Cross and to the Humane Society.

Regards to all,
Jim / crewzer