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Hurricane Florence 2018


wvu80

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1 hour ago, wvu80 said:

As I look up (I'm between Columbus and Pittsburgh) I can see the front of the hurricane fingers moving counter-clockwise.  They look like dark low hanging clouds and they are curved.  Usually they are higher, wispy looking and curved.  This looks different than anything I've seen before in my lifetime.

 

welcome to the hurricane zone. 

if you're between Pitt & Columbus, you're not home right now are you?

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1 hour ago, wvu80 said:

The local TV news station was reporting live from the West Virginia Turnpike which is I-77 going south.   As the reporter was talking there was truck after truck after truck with the booms on them from the local electric company heading south.  The Turnpike Commission has temporarily lifted the weight restrictions so repair vehicles can easily get to the hurricane zone.

 

There will be armies of utility trucks headed that way before it's all said and done.  They'll be from various states.  It takes a massive effort to put humpty dumpty back together again.  If they relied only on the local utility company, it could take years to restore power.

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35 minutes ago, -js- said:

 

if you're between Pitt & Columbus, you're not home right now are you?

I know you're not geographically challenged, but if I said I was reporting from Boaz, West Virginia, or Left Hand, or Gay, do you think anybody would know where that was?  There are cow pastures bigger than the area where I live.

 

When I tell people from out-out-town I'm from West Virginia, the most common response is "I know where that's at, I have relatives in Roanoke."  Groan.

 

WEST Virginia, not western Virginia.   🤓

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Just got back to Ohio from my future retirement home in Sunset Beach, NC. Lots and lots of utility trucks heading south. Even saw caravans of ambulances and tree removal trucks. Saw one convoy with massive track driven post hole diggers. Looks like plans were in place a long time ago to get all that gear moving. 

 

I hope everyone in Florence's path has a safe place to ride this out. I have friends in Sunset Beach who are staying put. No reasoning with them. Say a prayer with me that Sunday evening finds them safe and sound. I expect the wind, water, and flying debris will do a number on my house. Have insurance but can’t imagine how long it will take to rebuild. 

 

 

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55 minutes ago, CECAA850 said:

There will be armies of utility trucks headed that way before it's all said and done. 

True, I remember after the storm there were trucks down here from all over the country repairing power, they did an amazing job.

 

There was a news story today out of NO about EMS with water rescue training, and firemen leaving to head toward the East coast to be ready when it's time. I would imagine this is going on all over right now.

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2 minutes ago, dtel said:

True, I remember after the storm there were trucks down here from all over the country repairing power, they did an amazing job.

 

There was a news story today out of NO about EMS with water rescue training, and firemen leaving to head toward the East coast to be ready when it's time. I would imagine this is going on all over right now.

They made a small camp ground out of the lawn area of out fair grounds after Rita.  All the out of state linemen stayed there and were based out of there while we were getting put back together.  Someone did an awesome job with logistics to get all those guys organized and pulling in  the same direction.  They were extremely efficient in getting our city up and running.  Our house was out of electricity for 8 days but many were longer.  Without outside help it would have been months.

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27 minutes ago, cincymat said:

Have insurance but can’t imagine how long it will take to rebuild. 

There's the rub.  You have insurance but with thousands of houses needing work could be months to get a licensed contractor scheduled.  Let's hope the worst of the storm passes you by.

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That's good to hear cincymat.....glad they are headed this way.  I saw some at the local library parking lot....looks like they are staging there too.

 

Clean up with no AC to come into at the end of the day is a drag.  I submerged in the tub I had filled for flushing after all day in the yard last time. 

 

This would be a great time for young guy's/gals to start a lawn maintenance or tree removal service.  This recovery could jump start their business.

 

Just thinking out loud......

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4 minutes ago, wvu80 said:

There's the rub.  You have insurance but with thousands of houses needing work could be months to get a licensed contractor scheduled.  Let's hope the worst of the storm passes you by.

If its as bad as I’m imagining, a front end loader and about 5 forty yard roll off boxes will clear the site for a rebuild. 

 

My wife doesn’t think that’s funny but guess I’m in a dark mood. 

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6 minutes ago, wvu80 said:

There's the rub.  You have insurance but with thousands of houses needing work could be months to get a licensed contractor scheduled.  Let's hope the worst of the storm passes you by.

The other side is it seems many shady contractors move in and rip off homeowners, so much that N.O. changed penalties,fines and jail time for when these people were caught.

 

Also just finding a contractor you could trust there were no supplies left anywhere, you couldn't find almost anything to rebuild a house, you couldn't buy a faucet, toilet or almost anything for months it would sell out so fast. This was part of why there was such a problem with the Chinese drywall that was shipped here. It was so bad it was putting out a gas that would corrode metal, like drywall screws, plumbing piped in the wall and any other metal around. It all had to be replaced and in some cases also plumbing and other metal things in the area

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15 minutes ago, wvu80 said:

There's the rub.  You have insurance but with thousands of houses needing work could be months to get a licensed contractor scheduled.  Let's hope the worst of the storm passes you by.

The area around here still has about 50% of the houses and businesses gone one year after Harvey hit.

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9 minutes ago, Tarheel said:

Clean up with no AC to come into at the end of the day is a drag. 

What's worse than no AC  is food. We got back home the next day, the first thing I did was roll a wheelbarrow inside and empted the refrigerator into it went and dumped it in the hole and came back and did the same with the chest freezer. Nothing was rotten yet but it was only going to become a much nastier job with time. :emotion-41: 

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1 hour ago, CECAA850 said:

There will be armies of utility trucks headed that way before it's all said and done

 

Back when Katrina wiped out New Orleans, my brother in law was part of that "army" going down to help.  I don't recall if he took a loader/backhoe or a bulldozer....but he took some large equipment to help.

 

While he was down there, he was crossing a street at night (on foot)......alone......  in the dark......  and some thugs came up behind him and hit him over the head with a chain.  He ended up in the hospital getting some kind of surgery on his head to put it back together....  was laid up there for (guessing) maybe a week or so before he was released.

 

Nobody ever caught....  he never got a bill from the hospital.

 

Had they looked further....  it seems he had $500 (or something) on his person that they stole.  He however, had something like $3,000 in cash stowed inside his vehicle that they didn't get.

 

 

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6 minutes ago, USNRET said:

The area around here still has about 50% of the houses and businesses gone one year after Harvey hit.

I could imagine, there are still thousands of houses not touched in N.O. and surrounding area, sometimes one or two houses on a mile long street, and that was since 2005.

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2 hours ago, wvu80 said:

The local TV news station was reporting live from the West Virginia Turnpike which is I-77 going south.   As the reporter was talking there was truck after truck after truck with the booms on them from the local electric company heading south.  The Turnpike Commission has temporarily lifted the weight restrictions so repair vehicles can easily get to the hurricane zone.

 

 

 

That's comforting to hear.  I think their help will be  greatly needed. Florence seems determined to hit Wilmington. We might get lucky if she stalls out and weakens significantly. Even then the flooding is likely to be massive.

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3 minutes ago, Coytee said:

While he was down there, he was crossing a street at night (on foot)......alone......  in the dark......  and some thugs came up behind him and hit him over the head with a chain.  He ended up in the hospital getting some kind of surgery on his head to put it back together....  was laid up there for (guessing) maybe a week or so before he was released.

When military came to town we were at Home Depot looking for extra hose for a trash pump I have to help clean my aunts house. The store had limited power so you waited in line and employees would go in the store with you. While in line there were some military people behind me and we started talking, they were in N.O. the day before before moving to this area.

 

He said they were brought back from Iraq and sent here. I asked if there were any problems in N.O. and he said a few not really wanting to talk about it. He said they would go through some empty neighborhoods and would be shot at by local dealers and druggies, which he said was a little surprising for them.  I asked what did you all do, he said the same thing we did in Iraq, fired back and ended it.  He was not happy about it at all thinking it would have never happend.

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4 minutes ago, makos said:

That's comforting to hear. 

There will be people from all over helping.

 

I can guarantee you if would have not been for all the out of state power people here to rebuild instead of 6 weeks it would have been more than 6 months, easily. 

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20 minutes ago, Coytee said:

 

Back when Katrina wiped out New Orleans, my brother in law was part of that "army" going down to help.  I don't recall if he took a loader/backhoe or a bulldozer....but he took some large equipment to help.

 

While he was down there, he was crossing a street at night (on foot)......alone......  in the dark......  and some thugs came up behind him and hit him over the head with a chain.  He ended up in the hospital getting some kind of surgery on his head to put it back together....  was laid up there for (guessing) maybe a week or so before he was released.

 

Nobody ever caught....  he never got a bill from the hospital.

 

Had they looked further....  it seems he had $500 (or something) on his person that they stole.  He however, had something like $3,000 in cash stowed inside his vehicle that they didn't get.

 

 

That seems typical from what I remember at the time. 

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