Hurricane? FL?

[DrHenley]

Well, I got outside to survey the damage. Lot's of small branch tips covering the yard as always after heavy winds, a couple of small dead limbs on the roof, not big enough to do any damage, some limbs in the backyard, but the big surprise was a big limb that fell on the tool shed. Not sure if it can be salvaged.

 

[Maverick]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...-140mph-winds-unleash-13ft-waves-Florida.html

 

[Maverick]

When we lose power and it looks to be more than 24hrs we would take food out of the freezer and frig that we plan on using for the day, though we take it out during the coolest part of the day, I would run the generator 3 hours a day for the frig/freezer and charging batteries/phones etc.., this method kept the frig and freezer at stable temps. The food we take out are put in a 12vdc frig, we would restock it every evening.

Today I have propane frig and freezers we use but the above has worked good for us.

 

[DrHenley]

Oh, I forgot to mention...

The power was on when I woke up. What time it came on I have no idea, but at midnight they still didn't have an ETA for dispatching a crew.

As of 5:30 am (I was already up by then with power restored) there were 200,000 Georgia Power customers still without power, so I'm damned lucky to be on the high priority list!

Thanks Georgia Power! Now, don't make me feel guilty - get all those other people back up ASAP!

 

[DrHenley]

The food we take out are put in a 12vdc frig, we would restock it every evening.

Today I have propane frig and freezers we use but the above has worked good for us.

I have a fridge that I would use in an extended power outage (>3 days) to keep milk and other "necessary perishables" and maybe a tray of ice, which I bought expressly for that purpose. It is a non-frost free, with a small icebox in the top, so it draws very little power. I could run it off of a small inverter.

 

[DrHenley]

Oh Hell! That was no limb that fell on the tool shed, that was the top of a damned tree!

 

[Maverick]

Any damage to the contents Doc? I'm surprised that o'l metal shed appeared to stay in contact as well as it did.

 

[DrPrepper1]

Any damage to the contents Doc? I'm surprised that o'l metal shed appeared to stay in contact as well as it did.

Me too!

 

[DrHenley]

I haven't looked inside yet, but I don't think so. There aren't any shelves on that side. The mosquitoes are out in force, so I just snapped the pictures and ran back inside.

What we dread is going to check on the rental house.

 

[Maverick]

Hurricane Michael spawns ‘monster’ mosquitoes FIVE TIMES the normal size and their bite is like being stabbed with a needle
The eggs of the Psorophora ciliata - known as gallnippers - can lie dormant for years until floodwaters come along, then they hatch in huge swarms

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7467248/hurricane-michael-monster-mosquitoes/

 

[Brent S]

Just watching the news about the gulf coast. Mexico beach was wiped out. It will be a long time before the area is liveable again.

 

[Maverick]

 

[Dani]

To watch the destruction of a hurricane on a community is just heartbreaking. They have a long road ahead of them especially in Mexico beach area. It will slowly recover though. Do have to wonder if they are going to put up restrictive building codes which makes the average Joe just out of luck to rebuild? With that you get high dollar beach cabins which generate more tax dollars for the county. Average Joe Blow sells property cheap after storms. It's a shame really.
I personal saw how the beach looked after hurricane Ike, which was a 19ft storm surge. There are no words to say to give you a description of how devastating that actually was to see. All the cabins at Rollover gone except for what is known as the three bird houses which had been newly built on the bay side of the highway. We were able to dig down in the sand about 3 foot to find the original slab of the cabin. The only thing left above ground was the lower portion of a stairway leading up to the sundeck. The cabin, the garage, the fencing were gone. We were able to find the old cast iron potbellied stove and granny's old gumbo pot, both buried deep in the sand along with some prickly pear that the neighbor had in her garden that I brought home to transplant here.
My heart goes out to these people. We only had a getaway, for some this is/was a home all year. So many lives have to drastically change.

 

[Maverick]

More pictures coming in though one was striking, I'll post below, sad but that is the reality of being unprepared.

https://apnews.com/3cdbb4c6702f49eeae0d5fae6b917592

 

[TexasFreedom]

Doc, I'll help you... The shed is a total loss. There is no 'recovery' with that tin. Note that when you file on insurance, make sure to claim for the tree as well. A nice tree is worth several thousand, and losing the top devalues the tree substantially.... probably more 'value' loss in the tree than the cheap tin shed structure.

 

[Brent S]

Doc, I'll help you... The shed is a total loss. There is no 'recovery' with that tin. Note that when you file on insurance, make sure to claim for the tree as well. A nice tree is worth several thousand, and losing the top devalues the tree substantially.... probably more 'value' loss in the tree than the cheap tin shed structure.

Better advice is just write off the shed. If you file a claim odds are your insurance rates will go up. Save the insurance claim for anything substantial. It sucks that this is they way it is, why should you be punished for using insurance....

 

[DrHenley]

I keep the doors open on the shed because I store propane and gasoline in there. I built it for maximum ventilation with the floor made of treated pine 2x4s with gaps between the boards over a foot off the ground. So I think I'm just going to get some metal roofing and re-roof that side and leave the walls alone.

Our insurance company is bad. I've had them tell me before not to file a claim on roof damage to the house and just fix it myself. WTF? When I lived in Auburn, AL, the insurance company there didn't balk at replacing a metal shed that got blown away. Didn't raise my rates either.

 

[DrHenley]

Hurricane Michael spawns ‘monster’ mosquitoes FIVE TIMES the normal size and their bite is like being stabbed with a needle

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7467248/hurricane-michael-monster-mosquitoes/

View attachment 9065

Those are the mosquitoes we have in the Mississippi Delta. The white joints are very noticeable, along with the size of the mosquitoes.

When they bite it feels almost like being bit by fire ants. They can bite through three layers of clothes, especially where your skin is pressing against your clothes...like at your kneecaps and shoulders. They like to bite my shoulder blades... Raises a small red welt that goes away fairly quickly and doesn't itch long. When we have a wet fall, sometimes in the mornings you can hear a bunch of them buzzing off in the woods when they first wake up. You can hear them from 100 yards away.

They drive the deer crazy too. The deer will find some water to lie down in with just their nose sticking out of the water.

So far the most effective deterrent I've found are Thermocells. I tried an electronic mosquito repeller and they ignored it completely. When using Off, they just bite through your clothes instead of exposed skin.

 

[Maverick]

Home owner insurances are fetched up here, take earthquakes and flood insurances

Earthquakes, whats not covered

Fire
Land
Vehicles
External water damage

Damage due to:

Landslides (see note below)
Settlements
Mudflows (see note below)
Earth rising, sinking and contracting
Tsunamis (see note below)

Note: must have flood insurance (see note-2 below)

Note-2: I can't get flood insurance, I don't live in a flood plain

My insurance premiums are higher because of the creek but I can't get flood insurance but because the creek has the potential to flood I pay a higher premium price but it won't cover any potential damage caused by the potentially flooding creek. I just !%#@*& like try wrapping ones head around this ****... Maybe I need to check with lloyds of london but then again I don't have million dollar legs in fact I can just put $10 in savings to cover mine. Insurance companies sucks!

 

[DrHenley]

If you are an insurance company, you've got two choices: Take care of your customers or take care of your stockholders.

Believe it or not, there are some insurance companies that do take care of their customers. But those are few and far between.

 

[Brent S]

Usually when you read the fine print in your policy it states that if your area is at risk for any specific type of disaster then it’s not covered. Like flood, earthquake, hurricane, etc

 

[Maverick]

Ya it stipulates in my policy but practically all the insurance companies have the same fine print in this state, I can get better insurance unfortunately they ain't license to operate here, mainly my insurance is for fires, that is the most pressing dangers, earthquakes isn't a major threat to the property other than land-locking us but we are situated just fine for that, fires and volcanoes are a big question-mark both depending on winds for the most part.

 

[Brent S]

Ya it stipulates in my policy but practically all the insurance companies have the same fine print in this state, I can get better insurance unfortunately they ain't license to operate here, mainly my insurance is for fires, that is the most pressing dangers, earthquakes isn't a major threat to the property other than land-locking us but we are situated just fine for that, fires and volcanoes are a big question-mark both depending on winds for the most part.

Wow, I thought floods and earthquakes were bad. I’ve never seriously thought about a volcano before! So much for sleeping soundly, lol

 

[Maverick]

Wow, I thought floods and earthquakes were bad. I’ve never seriously thought about a volcano before! So much for sleeping soundly, lol

I got two that flank me, ones already blown and the other one is still an active stratovolcano and more violent than Saint Helens, the cone on Mt. Adams has been building for 520,000 years, it's one of the longest living mountain in the Cascades.

Mt. Adams

 

[Brent S]

I got two that flank me, ones already blown and the other one is still an active stratovolcano and more violent than Saint Helens, the cone on Mt. Adams has been building for 520,000 years, it's one of the longest living mountain in the Cascades.

Mt. Adams

View attachment 9069

Wow, that’s beautiful, and kind of scary!

 

[Maverick]

Here is a seismicity plot that shows the number of located earthquakes per week (black spikes) and the cumulative number of earthquakes over time (red).

Mt. Adams

 

[DrHenley]

Thousands of people reported missing after Michael:
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article219919660.html

 

[Maverick]

God, I pray it's not in the thousands but in all the fly overs, drones and home videos I seen, showed very few people for the amount of people supposedly didn't evacuate?

 

[DrHenley]

Cell phone coverage is still down a lot of places, so a lot of those missing just haven't been able to get in touch.

They started finding bodies in Mexico Beach but haven't released the numbers yet.

 

[Psalm7]

If You need another reason to prepp and be self sufficient check out some of the crimes happening in the shelters from this storm .
It's a bad scene down there where it was hardest hit and a preppers place could be destroyed in the storm too but if You live on the coast then prepp for it. Government shelters do not look appealing to Me .
That being said We are moving into tornado season here in the mid South .