I am Getting Too Old for this S...!

Started by Raptor, September 01, 2021, 06:21:53 PM

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Raptor

Like the title says I am getting too old for this S...

Recap thus far:
I stayed in NOLA for the storm. The Ida's path was clearly to the east of me and the storm surge even at the worst part was no more than 16 feet. It was moving quickly and although it was sure to strengthen it was not going to be a monster. Katrina was a massively wide storm that had hurricane force winds extending in a hundred mile radius of the eye with a 25 foot storm surge.

We shut down and battened down everything and simply waited. The possible up grade from 3 to 4 was confirmed but I was confident in my structure and I had a good plan b that did not involve getting on the interstate. I was more worried about the risks inherent with evacuation than staying. I had passed on the last charter flight out and it was either stay or get on the road. We stayed. The farm was not likely to be in the path but its structure is lighter than my home in Metairie.

The weather was beautiful Saturday the proverbial calm before the storm. There was the usual people rushing around getting things. I needed nothing and we ate the food we had in the freezer. The only preps I did was to fill up 6 water bottles with water and freeze them and fill up two extra 5 gallon jugs of water.
I had reduced my gasoline inventory a couple of years ago to only 2 - 5 gallon containers but I had cycled those less than a week ago so they were fresh. I store more gasoline on the farm but in NOLA 10 gallons will get both vehicles to the farm and they were both full already.

The generator has 5 days of fuel and the NG generator has fuel as long as the pipeline has NG.
We waited and by Sunday at 2:50 pm the utility power went out. I had already transferred the house to the generator when the lights were flickering  in the afternoon. I had started up the smaller NG generator and life went on.

The wind did howl and at one point an upstairs sink drain started whistling. I had never heard that noise but I assume assume it was the sewer vent pipe with wind coming into it. Kind weird and kinda funny at the same time.

At another point in time I went outside to clear a street drain clogged with debris and as I was raking the drain clear I heard a train and I thought "wow trains are running now"?! Then I remembered "There are no trains near me?!" so I ran to the lee of the house and a huge gust blew through. I decided F the drain and went inside.
The house is an older house and built at a time when homes were supposed to last several generations.  It has survived hurricanes for 75 years. I went to bed and slept through most of it.
When morning arrived the wife was in the pool and looked around there was no interior damage and outside looked like someone took a weed eater to the trees but other than few limbs in the yard that were about 1 to 2 inches in diameter there was not much to worry about.

When I asked my why she was swimming in our drinking water (swimming pool) she said to turn on the faucet. I did and nothing happened. No water. That really surprised me because normally the water works after a hurricane. No water is a freeze issue not a hurricane norm. I did find out that so many trees in my neighborhood that the reserves were drained and without power it was not replenished so we had a boil water order in effect.

We were also told that the sewerage lift stations were without power and that we should not run the washing machine or dishwasher. Since all utility power was out that was not likely to pose a problem in most cases but still a compromised sewerage system could back flow into the house. I have a sewer cleanout near the curb which is lower than the house. I removed the outside cover plate in case there was a back flow to prevent it from getting into the house.

The other thing that struck me outside, was the din of generators. There was a lot of noise from everything from a whole house generator to portable units. It was like being in a truck stop parking lot.
After a quick survey of the block I headed downtown to check my sole remaining asset in NOLA and the  reason I am still in this city.

The trip downtown was uneventful other than a roof in the middle of the road which needed an obvious detour. This part can be very dangerous because of hanging wires that are not visible until you are right on them So slow and steady is the right pace. I made it to the interstate and it was clear all the way downtown. No water and even a dry pavement showed that the rain stopped early.

My building had only a wind driven rain intrusion into the lobby. Not a single bit of damage beyond that along with not a single electron, no utility power which meant the 2 main city grids were down. The guards were there but the generator was off ... not good. I found out that when the storm move to cat 4 status the decision was made to lock down the building and turn off the generator and evacuate the employees. The guards are locals and did not have a safe place to go so they asked to stay for the storm which is the norm for us but turning off the generator is not. I was not happy about the explanation which was they were saving fuel. Still it was done, water under the bridge and no one got hurt.

Anyway without power no one is coming down to the property. There was no need for clean up or other work so we just locked up the building. It will stay that way until a 2 MW generator arrives to be hooked up. We have been told that power to the CBD will be given priority but it may take weeks. It took 6 weeks after Katrina to get utility power. Hopefully it will not take that long but who knows.

I then drove to the farm to check it out and a brief survey showed it had utility power and no damage. We would have been off staying there. I headed back home.

So after going back home I spent the night waiting to see if there is likely to be any significant improvement.

The situation was one that there was no gasoline for cars. Generators use about 15 gallons per day and there were lines already forming at the gas stations.

The water pressure returned somewhat but there was a boil water order.

The sewerage system was compromised.

The heat and humidity was oppressive (like always) and people were getting short tempered. A generator can keep the HVAC going but it is not a panacea. The gasoline issue for the portable generators was particularly bothersome for others.

I had no communications and cell phones were useless.

It was time to rethink and relocate. We packed up, shut down the house and relocated to the farm for the duration. It has utility power the internet is poor but much better than in NOLA now. So that brings us to today.
Folks you are on your own...Plan and act accordingly!

I will never claim to have all the answers. Depending upon the subject; I am also aware that I may not have all the questions much less the answers. As a result I am always willing to listen to others and work with them to arrive at the right answers to the applicable questions.

flybynight

Ahhhhhh Raptor. So badass a cat 4 hurricane lulls him to sleep.  :awesome: :awesome: :awesome:


And to think I was worried for him
"Hey idiot, you should feel your pulse, not see it."  Echo 83

Raptor

Quote from: flybynight on September 01, 2021, 06:33:00 PM
Ahhhhhh Raptor. So badass a cat 4 hurricane lulls him to sleep.  :awesome: :awesome: :awesome:



Badass hmmm I have been called worse... :)

It was not meant to come off like that.

In a situation like this after everything is done and you cannot in any effect any outcome sleep is the best thing and tomorrow is going to be a long day.
Folks you are on your own...Plan and act accordingly!

I will never claim to have all the answers. Depending upon the subject; I am also aware that I may not have all the questions much less the answers. As a result I am always willing to listen to others and work with them to arrive at the right answers to the applicable questions.

airballrad

I am very glad to hear that you and yours are well, and that there is likely not enough damage to warrant a long AAO this time around.  :)

Quote from: Raptor on September 01, 2021, 07:39:56 PM


In a situation like this after everything is done and you cannot in any effect any outcome sleep is the best thing and tomorrow is going to be a long day.

Raptor

The key issues now are power and gasoline distribution. The local officials are saying if you have gas to go then go. The problem though is that the Labor Day weekend has many hotels booked all over so there are fewer hotel rooms available in desirable locations. That said rooms are available in rural parts of MS & AL if the heat is a problem.



The refineries are restarting today but the key issue is too few stations have power and the demand for gas for generators and evacuation is very high.



I got some good news about an hour ago the power at my building came on. We are on the same grid as the University Medical  Center, city hall and the Super Dome. :smiley_clap: lets hope it stays on.
Folks you are on your own...Plan and act accordingly!

I will never claim to have all the answers. Depending upon the subject; I am also aware that I may not have all the questions much less the answers. As a result I am always willing to listen to others and work with them to arrive at the right answers to the applicable questions.

RoneKiln

Quote from: flybynight on September 01, 2021, 06:33:00 PM
Ahhhhhh Raptor. So badass a cat 4 hurricane lulls him to sleep.  :awesome: :awesome: :awesome:


And to think I was worried for him

After watching him deal with hurricanes the last 12(ish) years, I've come to worry more for the hurricanes. They always give up first and crawl away crying. I can't help but feel bad for them.
"Seriously the most dangerous thing you are likely to do is to put salt on a Big Mac right before you eat it and to climb into your car."
--Raptor

Raptor

#6
Today i went to the CBD to "tanker in"6 -5 gallon cans so my employees working at the building could fill up their cars. I cannot find gasoline through my regular commercial  jobber sources. I can get diesel by the drum load without an issue. But even their gasoline stocks are low and they are reserving their supplies only for contracted customers. I do not buy enough each year to get that level of service.

The good news is that several employees are happily staying in the building so they do not need to commute. I say happily because the HVAC is working great and their power is still out of service. A cool office building beats a hot house. It is not a hotel but it is available and has running water sewer service and HVAC.

Still this is surprising. After Katrina the reverse occurred but supplies caught up with demand after a couple of weeks. This too shall happen but I suspect that the gas demand is driven by the large number of gas powered generators in use.

This AM I went to my "hole in the bushes" gas station in MS to fill up some of the 6 jugs of gas and was surprised to see cars from NOLA in a line there. It took a 1/2 hour to get through the line. A first for me there.

I watched as this person pulled out 8 -5 gallon cans from the trunk of his Altima. He took almost 15 minutes to fill these tanks. He did not take the caps off while on line, he pumped slowly and really was agonizingly unprepared and overwhelmed by the task. In a case of self interest i offered and he accepted my help to pull out jugs and put the caps back on. He finished the last can, went to fill his car, then realized that his car fuel fill was on the wrong side and the hose would not reach his car. I thought he was going to cry.  I told him just turn the car around. He seemed to be afraid that the "evil country people" would kill him if he did that.  I told him it was ok just do it quick, others need fuel. He finished and i finally started refueling. He offered no reciprocal assistance but did ask about where to buy propane. :rolleyes1:
I simply pointed to the full propane tank cage 10 feet to his left.

There is a lot of that going around.



Folks you are on your own...Plan and act accordingly!

I will never claim to have all the answers. Depending upon the subject; I am also aware that I may not have all the questions much less the answers. As a result I am always willing to listen to others and work with them to arrive at the right answers to the applicable questions.

sheddi

Quote from: Raptor on September 02, 2021, 09:55:28 PM
I watched as this person pulled out 8 -5 gallon cans from the trunk of his Altima. He took almost 15 minutes to fill these tanks. He did not take the caps off while on line, he pumped slowly and really was agonizingly unprepared and overwhelmed by the task.

I sometimes get a bit like that the first time I do something. I might have thought it through beforehand and planned every step but the task itself grows in my mind to being some Herculean feat.

I guess that person was so far outside their comfort zone that their mind turned the act of buying gas into something else entirely. (Just a thought but were the gas cans all brand new?)

MacWa77ace

Quote from: Raptor on September 01, 2021, 09:44:40 PM
The key issues now are power and gasoline distribution. The local officials are saying if you have gas to go then go. The problem though is that the Labor Day weekend has many hotels booked all over so there are fewer hotel rooms available in desirable locations. That said rooms are available in rural parts of MS & AL if the heat is a problem.



The refineries are restarting today but the key issue is too few stations have power and the demand for gas for generators and evacuation is very high.



I got some good news about an hour ago the power at my building came on. We are on the same grid as the University Medical  Center, city hall and the Super Dome. :smiley_clap: lets hope it stays on.

In Florida its code that all gas stations have backup generators. Lots of codes were changed here after Andrew hit. Does NO implement something similar, it seems to work great here.
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Raptor

#9
The cans were old. He was clearly not used to this and likely fatigued. This fatigue is both common and dangerous. This is the part of the aftermath where there are many casualties.


Quote from: MacWa77ace on September 03, 2021, 08:44:05 AM

In Florida its code that all gas stations have backup generators. Lots of codes were changed here after Andrew hit. Does NO implement something similar, it seems to work great here.

Many stations have generators, at least the regionally owned ones do. The problem is that even with a generator you need daily fuel deliveries to keep up with customer demand. The stations run out of gas inventory very quickly.

Folks you are on your own...Plan and act accordingly!

I will never claim to have all the answers. Depending upon the subject; I am also aware that I may not have all the questions much less the answers. As a result I am always willing to listen to others and work with them to arrive at the right answers to the applicable questions.

Raptor

#10
This is unfortunately further proof of what I said years ago.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/louisiana-nursing-home-patients-moved-ahead-ida-die-investigation-launched-n1278440
The elderly, infirm and very young do not belong in a disaster zone. If you have these under your care, plan accordingly.


843 elderly and ill people in 7 nursing homes were "evacuated" to a warehouse without HVAC. The nursing homes were all owned by an investor who lives in Oregon. The homes had a history of violations. Granted some violations were minimal but two had serious fines and one had its medicare payments stopped (that is a pretty serious penalty).

Still is not as bad as the euthanasia that was conducted at a hospital in NOLA or the nursing home deaths by drowning that made head lines after Katrina.

Still once again the take away: The elderly, infirm and very young do not belong in a disaster zone. If you have these under your care, plan accordingly.

As someone is getting too old for this "s...", I am certainly taking my previous advice to heart and reviewing my options for the path forward.


Folks you are on your own...Plan and act accordingly!

I will never claim to have all the answers. Depending upon the subject; I am also aware that I may not have all the questions much less the answers. As a result I am always willing to listen to others and work with them to arrive at the right answers to the applicable questions.

echo83

Raptor, first off, I'm really glad that you were able to ride this one out.

My AO is nowhere near as prone to hurricane damage as yours, but I've found myself re-reading your posts to gain every bit of knowledge possible. Thanks for sharing your experiences with this one. Again, I'm glad you're safe.

CG

Yup, Raptor's post-Katrina thread was one that I made sure to save.  Reports from people who are there are almost always more interesting, detailed, and useful than what you see anywhere else.

Raptor

#13
Thank you for the compliments.

The latest thing locally (rural MS) at least is that gas stations are limiting fuel purchases to $20. It started at $50 then went to $30 and finally $20. The good news is that the local station has fuel but at the current price I can buy only ~6 gallons. 

No big deal to me but I watched one lady in my hole in the woods place who had driven from NOLA (~ 1 hour+) break down in tears at the news. I am not sure what she is doing in back woods MS looking for gas but I assume she is looking at a gas buddy app or something. I felt sorry for her until she started cursing out the staff. Cursing out people is not a way to make friends and influence people. I was going to suggest to her that she try another gas station that had a higher limit but after that outburst I changed my mind.
Folks you are on your own...Plan and act accordingly!

I will never claim to have all the answers. Depending upon the subject; I am also aware that I may not have all the questions much less the answers. As a result I am always willing to listen to others and work with them to arrive at the right answers to the applicable questions.

Raptor

#14
A quick update so far the power is being restored slowly but steadily. The lack power is the core cause for many of the other issues.

The key issue is a lack of internet connectivity. Internet has become the key infrastructure for virtually all commerce. In my case:

My accounting and management systems are all cloud based. So no internet no nothing. No payroll, no billing no ACH's etc. So the folks need to stay where they have connectivity which leads to a bunch of simple communication issues.

Most of the places are taking credit cards and prefer credit cards; except that due to the slow internet connection the transactions are automatically cancelled due to a delay. Yet they do not want cash (for security reasons) and you have to play with the POS system multiple times to get the transaction to go through. Buying something is turning into an ordeal.

The insurance adjusters relay on internet linked tablets to enter adjustment data. No paper forms but with out internet there is no backup to the cloud function. No cloud connection no adjustment.

All telephones are now VOIP as far as I can tell so even a land line is problematic.

One fix I see to this is the Starlink System but it is not ready for prime time yet. The Hughes Net does work for things like email but for cloud based data entry forget it. The latency is far too annoying.

I would note that even Entergy (a Fortune 500 company) is having internet connectivity. Their outage map is notoriously inaccurate because of their inability to get the data correctly to the internet.
https://www.nola.com/news/hurricane/article_7fe5886c-0c01-11ec-b09c-937d455fcafd.html

In any planning/prep a means of internet connectivity needs to be considered. The internet has been added to power, water, food and shelter as a critical need in anything but a hollywood PAW.

Folks you are on your own...Plan and act accordingly!

I will never claim to have all the answers. Depending upon the subject; I am also aware that I may not have all the questions much less the answers. As a result I am always willing to listen to others and work with them to arrive at the right answers to the applicable questions.

woodsghost

I completely agree regarding internet. Along with devices to access the internet and power to keep them juced up. Thank you for your posts.

And the lady who cusses out staff? I think I'd have followed the same path. I have a big heart for people in need but I also expect people to show respect for those around them.

the_alias

Glad everything went good for you it sounds like Raptor!

Good lessons and stuff to learn from as usual for me.
Few die from pushing on, more die from giving up

Raptor

#17
 I drove. In to get some business done and check the house. I was going to spend the night, run the generator to keep the pool from turning green.

When i got to the power panel i saw the utility power was functioning. I flipped the manual transfer switch and  had utility power. So I powered up everything albeit with utility power.

A neighbor next door mentioned that while they had power they lost an hvac unit. Apparently running it on their generator caused issues.

The common dark humor here is that we have a pandecanne. Still things are reopening.
Folks you are on your own...Plan and act accordingly!

I will never claim to have all the answers. Depending upon the subject; I am also aware that I may not have all the questions much less the answers. As a result I am always willing to listen to others and work with them to arrive at the right answers to the applicable questions.

Raptor

This first weekend after power has been restored to the majority of places will be hectic. There are long lines at the grocery stores as everyone replenishes staples lost during the power outage. Traffic is still a bit wonky in that some traffic signals work and other do not work a block later.

This is very dangerous time to drive due to the traffic issues.

I normally do not like to post damage pictures out of respect for people. That said I am going to make an exception because to be honest I have never seen anything like this. The top picture to provide some scale of a damaged oak tree. The tree was knocked over by the storm and the tree was cut down and somehow the whole stump was removed from the front yard and set in the street. I left the stop sign and garbage can in the photo to provide a scale for the size. I have no idea what they used to remove the stump. I had to be a crane of some sort. It has to weigh many hundred (1,000's of lbs?). You can see the sand where they backfilled the hole it left.

However this is typical of the plain weird things you see after a hurricane. BTW I have no clue who lives there I was simply driving on a back street.
Folks you are on your own...Plan and act accordingly!

I will never claim to have all the answers. Depending upon the subject; I am also aware that I may not have all the questions much less the answers. As a result I am always willing to listen to others and work with them to arrive at the right answers to the applicable questions.

EBuff75

Quote from: Raptor on September 10, 2021, 02:05:24 PM
This first weekend after power has been restored to the majority of places will be hectic. There are long lines at the grocery stores as everyone replenishes staples lost during the power outage. Traffic is still a bit wonky in that some traffic signals work and other do not work a block later.

This is very dangerous time to drive due to the traffic issues.

I normally do not like to post damage pictures out of respect for people. That said I am going to make an exception because to be honest I have never seen anything like this. The top picture to provide some scale of a damaged oak tree. The tree was knocked over by the storm and the tree was cut down and somehow the whole stump was removed from the front yard and set in the street. I left the stop sign and garbage can in the photo to provide a scale for the size. I have no idea what they used to remove the stump. I had to be a crane of some sort. It has to weigh many hundred (1,000's of lbs?). You can see the sand where they backfilled the hole it left.

However this is typical of the plain weird things you see after a hurricane. BTW I have no clue who lives there I was simply driving on a back street.

There's a reason that I keep an eye on my trees and have companies come out to trim them up periodically.  I have two huge oaks in my front yard, both of which are around 14ft in circumference (which would be just under 4.5ft in diameter).  The trees out back are smaller (ONLY around 7-8ft circumference / 2.5ft diameter), but there are seven of them (my entire lot is only 1/4 acre, as I'm in the Detroit suburbs) that are a mix of oak and maple.  Earlier this summer a branch came off of one of the trees in the back yard and just that branch was about 9-10in thick and some thirty feet long.  It gave the house a bit of a thump when it fell, but didn't do any real damage, other than making a mess in the yard.

I recognize that the trees here are a risk factor for my house/garage/shed in the event of a storm.  Fortunately, they're all fairly healthy, although I probably need to have a service come out and "dead wood" (remove all the dead branches up in the canopy) the trees again, as it's been a few years.  It's worth knowing a bit about the types of trees that you have, as that can have a big impact on how you manage them.  We have some very brittle trees in my neighborhood and every time there's a storm, a bunch of them will come down in people's yards or in the street.  Not sure about the one species of dwarf maple that they put out by the road, but they're very brittle, as are a lot of the old, scraggly pines that were frequently planted along the property lines. 

That root ball is fairly impressive, but I'm surprised at how shallow the roots appear to be for its size.  "Normal" maple trees (around here that means red or sugar maple) have extremely invasive roots which can damage foundations and get into sewer lines (I have to have my lines cleared about every other year to get the roots out), but are very wind-proof as a result.  Those same decorative maples in my neighborhood have shallow roots, in addition to being brittle, which can cause them to rip out in the wind.  Generally speaking, the trees at my house have very sizeable roots and I try to keep the dead / risky branches in check, which should minimize the risk of anything happening with them. Nothing is certain though, but my house is pretty tough, so even if one were to fall on it, I should be okay inside!
Information - it's all a battle for information. You have to know what's happening if you're going to do anything about it. - Tom Clancy, Patriot Games

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