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Hurricane Hermine

WebSlave

WebSlave

It is what it is, but certainly not what it was.
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Looks like the Tallahassee area is going to get drenched over the next couple of days with this tropical storm taking a bead on this area. Hopefully the storm won't make a surprise strengthening into the hurricane territory.

I just put the trickle chargers on the cars, as they certainly won't be going anywhere for a while. I'm sure my road will be a mess for about a week. In the process of putting in a new fuel pump in Connie's Silverado, so we will be relying on the Jeep for any local travel.

Too bad my standby generator went kaput from rodents chewing up the wiring. Might wish I had gotten that fixed if the power goes out. But at least I don't have to worry about animals dying during a power outage any longer.

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I'm hoping for you that it will not turn into a hurricane. And it is pure misery to be stuck without electricity as hot as it is. Despite the city spray program there are a ton of mosquitoes around, hopefully you don't have them that bad.
 
I have already stored a water supply and stocked up big-time on canned/dry goods. Sticking to home this time around. I don't have a generator, but my brother does, and lives a 2-minute walk away.

Good luck to everyone in the path of Hermine! ((hugs)) to all and stay safe.
 
Ooof, we went through a bad one earlier this year, wouldn't wish that on you. Hope it turns away from you - remember not to park your cars under any trees....
 
Hmm... Looks like now they are forecasting it to become a hurricane.

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But the radar looks like there is nothing at all developing in the Gulf of Mexico. :shrug01: Maybe the weather service is just trying to hype this up after the LONG drought of advertising attracting tropical storms has hit them hard in the pocket book. So this sort of thing is (no pun intended) certainly a windfall for them.

hermine_1100pm_radar.gif


Well, if it looks like it is getting bad tomorrow, we can always just jump in the Jeep and head northwest somewhere. Glad we don't have to worry about animals any longer.

I read that they are evacuating people south of route 98/319. I just looked at the local forecast and they have downgraded that to just a 90 percent chance of thunderstorms for tomorrow, with winds of just 23 mph. Friday the chance drops down to 80 percent and winds of 26 mph.

Like I said, good chance this is all just hype that the weather service is pumping up for the anticipated viewership. At worst we may have to pull the chimes down off of the porch roof if they seem to be blowing around too much. We've had tropical systems take pretty much the same track close to us and most of the time we wouldn't even get a rain shower out of them.

Anyway, the vehicles are all in the garage, and it's supposed to be designed to withstand winds up to 140 mph. So I think they will all be OK.
 
Looks like it's developing a pretty good eye wall now.

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Rains have just started. Not expecting them to stop anytime soon.

Connie and I were out in the yard earlier picking up and putting away anything that could get blown around or damaged by being knocked over by the winds. Looks like it should pass to the southeast of us, so normally that means the strongest storms will not hit us directly. Theoretically, anyway. Of course, always the chance of unpredictable tornadoes.

Hopefully the chainsaw will crank up if I wind up needing it. And I'm expecting power to go out probably later this evening or overnight. Brought over extra batteries for the flashlights.

REALLY wish I had gotten that generator repaired. Well, that will be high up on the priority list for next week.

Not sure I can do any video, as I would imagine horizontally blowing rain wouldn't be good for the camera. These new ones I bought aren't sealed against the elements, apparently. So I am going to try hard to not get them wet. Maybe I could set one of the GoPros out, though. Have to see if I have any batteries charged up.
 
Looks like it's getting bad, it's only a few mph's away from a category 1. Florida's first hurricane landfall in over a decade.
 
Yeah, and it just HAD to be in my back yard............ :rolleyes:

Well, hopefully it won't be too bad. If it had been looking like we were going to be dealing with a Cat 2 or above, we would have loaded up the Jeep with an overnight bag and headed out of here. Who knows, maybe by tonight we will be wishing we had done that. I know Connie is pretty nervous about all this.

One good thing about living in an area surrounded by trees is that often the high winds will just skip over the tops of the trees, and hopefully not impact the buildings too much. The bad thing about living in an area surrounded by trees is that sometimes the trees fall down, which CAN impact the buildings severely. Luck of the draw, I guess. From what appears to be the direction the high winds will be coming from (east or southeast) we don't have any tall trees that could be a danger. We do have a large live oak on that side of the house, but they have a pretty extensive root system that should keep it stuck in the ground. If not, well Connie has been wanting to have that tree removed for years now anyway. Just might need to have a porch rebuilt too, I guess.

Of course, the wrinkle here is that we don't have any home owner's insurance. For a couple of reasons. One being that the insurance policy (State Farm) we had was so ridiculous in their hurricane coverage (the deductible was a substantial percentage of the value of our home) that we figured the costs of repairs would wind up coming out of our pockets anyway. They would not unbundle that expensive but useless hurricane portion of the policy, so we decided to just drop it entirely. And then when Charlie passed through years ago, we heard so many horror stories about the insurance companies down south dragging their feet paying claims or even outright denying them, requiring attorneys to get involved, that we just decided that the insurance wouldn't be of much help anyway. The insurance companies are always your friend when you are handing them a check, but apparently when you actually NEED that bill of goods they sold you, well, good luck with that.

Anyway, I figure the money we saved over the years by not throwing our money away into the black hole of the insurance companies will go a long way to paying for any damage that does happen. Of course, maybe I will think differently after the fact..... :shrug01:
 
Looks like the eye is winding up pretty tight now. It IS only supposed to be a category 1 hurricane, now isn't it???? :eek:

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Hurricane Sandy ripped half of the shingles and most of the trim off my house. The roofing contractor quoted us $18K, Allstate cut us a check for $1500. A family about a mile from me lost their entire house sans the foundation, State farm gave them $1750 to "rebuild".
 
WebSlave said:
Well, hopefully it won't be too bad.
Click to expand...

I think there are a lot of people who would show up to help if you needed it. I do a good job with interior painting, (and cooking large lasagnas for helpers:)) and I'm sure among the thousands of members here there are those with carpentry skills and so on that would be proud to donate time and materials to help fix what they could. A little help from each person could translate into a real old fashioned 'barn raising'.
 
Lucille said:
I think there are a lot of people who would show up to help if you needed it. I do a good job with interior painting, (and cooking large lasagnas for helpers:)) and I'm sure among the thousands of members here there are those with carpentry skills and so on that would be proud to donate time and materials to help fix what they could. A little help from each person could translate into a real old fashioned 'barn raising'.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that would probably be a hoot (party time!), but hopefully it won't be necessary. About the worst I would imagine is one or more trees falling on the house, garage, or my old reptile business related buildings. But hopefully that won't happen. Probably our stream will flood out the section of the road it goes under and maybe some trees falling across the road. Connie is making an "emergency survival" cake right now. :)
 
JButera said:
Hurricane Sandy ripped half of the shingles and most of the trim off my house. The roofing contractor quoted us $18K, Allstate cut us a check for $1500. A family about a mile from me lost their entire house sans the foundation, State farm gave them $1750 to "rebuild".
Click to expand...

Well, I rest my case concerning my opinion of insurance companies in general.
 
Jim Cantore (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) in Apalachicola

Have to admit, got a couple of chuckles out of this....

 
Lucille said:
I think there are a lot of people who would show up to help if you needed it. I do a good job with interior painting, (and cooking large lasagnas for helpers:)) and I'm sure among the thousands of members here there are those with carpentry skills and so on that would be proud to donate time and materials to help fix what they could. A little help from each person could translate into a real old fashioned 'barn raising'.
Click to expand...
Lucille, what time should we meet up at Rich's place?
Screenshot (469).jpg
 
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