So who else is riding out hurricane Beryl?

XP1K

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Minuteman
Jul 20, 2017
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Texas
Power went out around 2am, wind is ripping at times, got several pretty good limbs down that I can see with a flashlight, and we're starting to see some standing water. The eye is supposed to go directly over us around 5:30am.
Screenshot_20240708_023807_FOX Weather.jpg
 
Just did a walk around to check on house, out buildings, etc. All ok but wind is pretty intense. So far we have power on our end of the street, but the other end is dark.

All’s well so far on upper Galveston Bay, La Porte.
Hope it doesn’t get worse.
 
As recently as yesterday morning, they were telling us here in the Corpus area (north of the bay) that we were going to get whacked. Didn't even get any rain.
Stay safe and watch out for downed power lines
 
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Power has been flickering on and off. Managed to get a fresh pot of coffee going while we still have juice.
Wind is definitely picking up. Glad I trimmed back all the tree branches from around the house. They would have messed up the roof for sure.
Interesting blue-green flashes of light in the north. Arcing power lines I assume.
 
The last hurricane hunter report said the saw 97mph winds at flight level. Anybody know what hurricane hunter flight level is.

According to fox hurricane tracker it never made it above cat1.
 
We're catching the back of the eye wall now. Wind is coming out of the southwest, opposite of what it did most of the night. Getting gusts on my weather station up to about 40mph blowing a steady 29. I think I need to raise it up a little. It's not over the peak of my house so I'm sure it's not seeing the full value. It's probably only 12-14' off the ground.

I've got trees and limbs all over the place. House is intact. All my chicken houses are still upright. Power is out. Fired up the generator so we could make some coffee and keep the freezers cold. When this blows over we'll jump in the buggy and go survey the neighborhood.

Last I heard there were over 390,000 people in matagorda County without power. We'll probably be without power for a while.
 
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Since last report, my OA has turned to shit. 60 mph maybe 70 I don’t know. Horizontal rain pouring through old windows. I should have boarded up. Didn’t think I would be exposed this far east. This is the worst storm I have personally seen.
 
We

Did lots of BBQ'ing during harvey. Used the boat for a floating table. Water was up about the bottom of the grill.
I lived in sw FL during the ‘04 hurricane season that included Charley. Charley was pretty freaky but the others were a rainy day off
 
I was really hoping for more rain out of this up here in the foothills… Got a good drenching two days ago, but that’s about it. Hope all is good down in the Houston area, and kinda feel bad for sayin’ it, but was hoping for a lot more out of this one.
 
I lived in sw FL during the ‘04 hurricane season that included Charley. Charley was pretty freaky but the others were a rainy day off

I went through Hugo c.88. Was a bit North in the Fayetteville area. And it was no joke. Being a Northern transplant just 3 months before… a bunch of us had a hurricane party.

Hugo cured me of that concept.

Charlotte (200 miles inland) was hammered. Saw that a few days later and holy hell.

Hurricanes are not to be messed with!

Hope all you SH folks are ok… guessing it’s mostly passed?

Sirhr
 
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I lived in sw FL during the ‘04 hurricane season that included Charley. Charley was pretty freaky but the others were a rainy day off
Wasnt the year there were a few back to back in what seemed like a 4 week period. Ifrc they all hit sw fl and turned up the full length of the state for the lost part. Fun times.
 
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I went through Hugo c.88. Was a bit North in the Fayetteville area. And it was no joke. Being a Northern transplant just 3 months before… a bunch of us had a hurricane party.

Hugo cured me of that concept.

Charlotte (200 miles inland) was hammered. Saw that a few days later and holy hell.

Hurricanes are not to be messed with!

Hope all you SH folks are ok… guessing it’s mostly passed?

Sirhr
Had a girlfriend whose family had a vacation home on myrtle beach for a while. Hugo left a toilet and the concrete slab. That one was a nasty one for sure. Almost as destructive an andrew across south fl.
 
guessing it’s mostly passed?

NNW Houston-ish here, just went through the eye, about to catch the back side.

As hurricanes go this is mostly a pfft.

The worst part about it is the Texas grid is so degraded there are millions without power right now.

Only thing to do now is sit it out and aise a glass to the linemen, the marines of the electrical industry.
 
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Rode out typhoon Hester in 1971. 140mph winds. Pretty well missed up the Americal AO especially on our hill where we had spend many an untold hour in the sun setting up defensive equipment. Chu Lai was a wreck. (But then Chu Lai was never a vacation hot spot, still had a nice beach).

Just missed Andrew by a month. Audrey in 1957 scared the shit our me, but I was only 7 at the time and did not understand hurricanes. completely missed any part of Camille, the worst that has hit the US in my lifetime. (And second worst ever) Betsy and Katrina were east and not an issue for us, but Rita was the second worst to hit North Louisiana. Spent weeks cleaning up the mess and took baths in the lake, no power, no water. Sally was supposed to be a nothing but she destroyed our 26 foot S2 7.9 at Ft Walton Beach. Laura, though not as strong as Rita, had even better lasting power and probably damaged North and Northwest Louisiana as bad as any storm hitting our part of the state. Spent another week cleaning up, and spent thousands restoring our Santana 20 which was severely damaged when the winds litterally picked her up, off of her trailer and she smashed to the round on her port topside.

Toured New Orleans one year AFTER Katrina…That city hasn’t been right since they started building north, east and south of the French Quarter. (The only thing resembling high ground in the entire area) However, I really like West End Park, because that is the main sailing center of Louisiana. A year later, abandoned homes were still frequently seen with RED X’s on the door. The entire West End Park was wrecked with wrecked boats everywhere. The 9th Ward is still somewhat abandoned.

In the end, I have lost track of how many hurricanes have passed over our home. and we live far north of the coast.

A couple of Tornados in Jackson Parish also should get some attention. During Covid, a really nasty little storm ripped through the camping area of Jimmy Davis State park, just across the lake from our home. What is a blessing beyond blessings, is that no one was killed. They are still repairing all the damage to the park, four years later. Then in January of 2023, another particularly nasty tornado ripped through the southern portion of Jackson parish, about 6 miles from our home. It made a long track and did a lot of destruction to several rural neighborhoods. people are still recovering/rebuilding from that storm. Brenda was in Florida with our son that night. I was in our bedroom, marveling that the lightning and thunder cracks were so close and so frequent, it was the most vivid reminder of a Firefight in Vietnam.

So, with this little history, you might see why we people of the middle Gulf don’t get terribly worked up over a cane. Just have a party cause it’s gonna do what it’s gonna do.

But we do pray and lend a hand when one passes over and causes hurt and damage to our neighbors, near and far. And bless the lineman, who always have that long follow-up of repairs to the electrical grid
 
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I went through Hugo c.88. Was a bit North in the Fayetteville area. And it was no joke. Being a Northern transplant just 3 months before… a bunch of us had a hurricane party.

Hugo cured me of that concept.

Charlotte (200 miles inland) was hammered. Saw that a few days later and holy hell.

Hurricanes are not to be messed with!

Hope all you SH folks are ok… guessing it’s mostly passed?

Sirhr
lol, I was in the same situation. 3 months after I moved to FL from the Midwest we get hit with a fucking cat 4 hurricane. As bad as it was for me, my mom about had a heart attack worrying about me.
Wasnt the year there were a few back to back in what seemed like a 4 week period. Ifrc they all hit sw fl and turned up the full length of the state for the lost part. Fun times.
Yeah, summer of ‘04 was a bitch. Thankfully it was only Charley that really fucked the area up. The others were just a rainy day off and we got to grill during the eye
 
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Wasnt the year there were a few back to back in what seemed like a 4 week period. Ifrc they all hit sw fl and turned up the full length of the state for the lost part. Fun times.

Andrew in 1992, I think, was really bad.

The there was another in 2003 in Florida that wiped a lot out. Can’t remember that one. Emily maybe?

Cheers!
 
Had a girlfriend whose family had a vacation home on myrtle beach for a while. Hugo left a toilet and the concrete slab. That one was a nasty one for sure. Almost as destructive an andrew across south fl.
Hugo was one of the few oddball ones to direct hit the Carolinas. Happens.

Seems on average they'll landfall elsewhere, causing indirect damage. Storm surge etc, or landfall South and by the time they reach the Carolinas are far reduced in classification.

My folks had retired to MB area a few years post Hugo. In there 30ish years there only did a further inland evac once, took a mini vacation up to Asheville NC just after coming back from an overseas trip. Forget which storm, but everything was fine for there neighborhood. One storm they did end up sheltering in their storm room (inside room/no windows) once, and did have the kevlar outside window curtains up a couple more times.

So, in general SC is reasonably "safe" just a bit back from the Coast (mile+), while Coastal anywhere can be pretty risky.

Some places tho keep on getting slammed, Gulf area as ex. Hope everyone made it thru this one allrite!
 
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Toured New Orleans one year AFTER Katrina…That city hasn’t been right since ... with this little history, you might see why we people of the middle Gulf don’t get terribly worked up over a cane

Also take a look at the MS coast before and after Katrina ... wiped clean and still bare in many locations.

Rode out Camille, 20+ foot surge, on the MS coast, that one cut Ship Island in half, created a brand new channel big enough for ships to pass through. Nice shortcut on the way to Chandeleur though.

Moved away before Katrina, also 20+ foot surge, but still have family there who evacuated, none of them would have survived if they had not. Most of the people in that area who rebuilt moved north because the new building restrictions are onerous.

Audrey was slightly before my time, technically not as "big" as the other fwo but still dragging 20+ft of surge it wreaked some impressive havoc.
 
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Wasnt the year there were a few back to back in what seemed like a 4 week period. Ifrc they all hit sw fl and turned up the full length of the state for the lost part. Fun times.
SW FL here. My first hurricane, Irma, was a direct hit to SWFL in 2017. We've had tropical storms between that and hurricane Ian, which was also a direct hit to us in SWFL in late Sept '22. And we've had tropical storms since Ian. With Ian we had no power for about 12 days. Most don't realize until they're without power how civilizing air-conditioning is.

Fun times, especially for the storm shutter/window companies, roofers, pool cage guys, whole home generator contractors, and all the other building trades. Contractor prices are crazy and home insurance prems have doubled every year for at least 3-4 years.


**** If you want to build a new home in hurricane country you'd be crazy not to insist on concrete block construction, heavily insulated home throughout, an insulated metal roof, hurricane IMPACT rated windows and doors- all protected by accordion and/or roll down impact rated shutters, a whole home fully automated generator with a 500 gallon storage tank, minimal wood on your exterior, tile/waterproof plank flooring- minimal carpet...

If you want a pool cage and the property isn't in the Miami-Dade zone, insist the contractor spec it with Miami-Dade code materials & techniques, because they're the most durable and many counties outside of Miami-Dade don't require such beefy materials and specs.

If you really want to be safe, you'd build the house on 15 feet tall concrete or steel pillars, and maybe consider a geodesic dome home for the almost indestructible shape. Heck, make the pool cage geodesic too.

If I missed anything I'll add it later.
 
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La Porte area near the bay. We had gusts to mid 70s and high sustained wind. House came through ok. Lost some shingles were the wind funnels down between our house and the neighbor’s.

Ton of trees down on our street. I didn’t lose any trees but did lose a lot of limbs. Number of houses with siding and roof damage. Honestly a little surprising for a weak Cat 1.

All in all, counting my blessings!
 
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Had a girlfriend whose family had a vacation home on myrtle beach for a while. Hugo left a toilet and the concrete slab. That one was a nasty one for sure. Almost as destructive an andrew across south fl.
I might have a picture of that toilet.
I was running boats in 89'. We spent Hugo up in Bucksport. Came down the ICW the day after Hugo on way to Charlestown. One house would be "fine". The one next was a slab and a toilet.
Tough to view.
And then Andrew in 92'.
Fun times.
 
It's amazing how calm it is out here now. Twelve hours ago this place was rocking and rolling. If not for the crap all over the place and all the generators humming in the background, you'd never know it happened.

Nobody in my neighborhood suffered any major damages to their homes or anything like that. I had some shingles peeled back that caused a couple leaks. We'll see what my insurance company wants to do with that.

My uncle across the road lost at least 8-10 trees on his place. I lost 4 that I know of. Probably a half dozen or more tree tops.

Probably a mile of power lines down up the road from me, and three transformers that feed our line are in the ditch, so there's no telling when we'll get power back.

All in all we're good. I'm sitting outside, enjoying the evening breeze, burning some chicken over charcoal, watching my 5 year old son chop limbs with a machete while my wife is chasing my 1 year old daughter around the yard, jumping in every puddle she can find. Life is good.

My helper hard at it.
20240708_193947.jpg


My wild child making a break for the mud. Mom in hot pursuit.
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hiden biden has and his mentor old mama have supposedly authorized billions for rebuilding America. Why heck, they even talk about how biden’s money has done wonders for spreading broadband internet in Louisiana. First I heard of it is when Louisiana got a top accolade for using the money wisely. Gotta love politics.

Getting to the POINT! Isn’t it time that we start moving the electrical grid underground? untold millions has been spent though the years repairing or plainly rebuilding power grids after Hurricanes, Tornados, Thunderstorms, Drunk Drivers, (yep run off the road hit and take out a power pole., it happens a bit too often in our environs.) Then lineman, have to go out in all kinds of weather, at all hours of the day and night, often far from home to try to put the darn thing back together.

I realize this might put lineman out of work, and while I can’t think of a better/worse thing, surely with the long term money being saved, something could be done/found for these men to do at equal or better pay and a safer job with more regular hours. Frankly, they deserve it.

Put Those Damn Lines Underground!
 
hiden biden has and his mentor old mama have supposedly authorized billions for rebuilding America. Why heck, they even talk about how biden’s money has done wonders for spreading broadband internet in Louisiana. First I heard of it is when Louisiana got a top accolade for using the money wisely. Gotta love politics.

Getting to the POINT! Isn’t it time that we start moving the electrical grid underground? untold millions has been spent though the years repairing or plainly rebuilding power grids after Hurricanes, Tornados, Thunderstorms, Drunk Drivers, (yep run off the road hit and take out a power pole., it happens a bit too often in our environs.) Then lineman, have to go out in all kinds of weather, at all hours of the day and night, often far from home to try to put the darn thing back together.

I realize this might put lineman out of work, and while I can’t think of a better/worse thing, surely with the long term money being saved, something could be done/found for these men to do at equal or better pay and a safer job with more regular hours. Frankly, they deserve it.

Put Those Damn Lines Underground!
And there you have it. There's too much money in it for the unions to ever let that happen.
 
Living the off-grid life.

Took a cold shower, dried off super dry, just laid down on top of the sheets next to an open window to the sound of distant generators. Good night’s? ….we’ll see.
Reminds me of when I was a kid.
 
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Hope you guys are safe. We were in Charlotte for Hugo, and what got us was the wind. All of these huge old growth oak trees came down and wiped out the entire power infrastructure of the city. We were very lucky, and had power back in two days, while my in laws just two hundred yards away didn’t have power for almost two weeks.
 
From 2012 I believe....
hiden biden has and his mentor old mama have supposedly authorized billions for rebuilding America. Why heck, they even talk about how biden’s money has done wonders for spreading broadband internet in Louisiana. First I heard of it is when Louisiana got a top accolade for using the money wisely. Gotta love politics.

Getting to the POINT! Isn’t it time that we start moving the electrical grid underground? untold millions has been spent though the years repairing or plainly rebuilding power grids after Hurricanes, Tornados, Thunderstorms, Drunk Drivers, (yep run off the road hit and take out a power pole., it happens a bit too often in our environs.) Then lineman, have to go out in all kinds of weather, at all hours of the day and night, often far from home to try to put the darn thing back together.

I realize this might put lineman out of work, and while I can’t think of a better/worse thing, surely with the long term money being saved, something could be done/found for these men to do at equal or better pay and a safer job with more regular hours. Frankly, they deserve it.

Put Those Damn Lines Underground!
 
hiden biden has and his mentor old mama have supposedly authorized billions for rebuilding America. Why heck, they even talk about how biden’s money has done wonders for spreading broadband internet in Louisiana. First I heard of it is when Louisiana got a top accolade for using the money wisely. Gotta love politics.

Getting to the POINT! Isn’t it time that we start moving the electrical grid underground? untold millions has been spent though the years repairing or plainly rebuilding power grids after Hurricanes, Tornados, Thunderstorms, Drunk Drivers, (yep run off the road hit and take out a power pole., it happens a bit too often in our environs.) Then lineman, have to go out in all kinds of weather, at all hours of the day and night, often far from home to try to put the darn thing back together.

I realize this might put lineman out of work, and while I can’t think of a better/worse thing, surely with the long term money being saved, something could be done/found for these men to do at equal or better pay and a safer job with more regular hours. Frankly, they deserve it.

Put Those Damn Lines Underground!
While all that sounds good, in reality this nation nor its people can afford it. Just look at the cost to run primary from a open transmission line underground to a single home. It sounds simple but I assure you nation wide is a pipe dream do to total cost. EP/D is not as simple as most think. There are times when the end user has to step up and provide for their own comfort & safety, vs always pointing fingers. Its interesting to see 100-500K$ homes with all the toys parked out front to be seen, yet they will not spend a penny on back up power. Whole house EPG is not black magic, plus its not cheap when done correctly either. Easy to justify a jet ski or new ride, vs a quality whole house backup genset. Pointing a finger is cheaper.
Safety & comfort sucks hind tit with most, vs fun, look at me shit.
 
While all that sounds good, in reality this nation nor its people can afford it. Just look at the cost to run primary from a open transmission line underground to a single home. It sounds simple but I assure you nation wide is a pipe dream do to total cost. EP/D is not as simple as most think. There are times when the end user has to step up and provide for their own comfort & safety, vs always pointing fingers. Its interesting to see 100-500K$ homes with all the toys parked out front to be seen, yet they will not spend a penny on back up power. Whole house EPG is not black magic, plus its not cheap when done correctly either. Easy to justify a jet ski or new ride, vs a quality whole house backup genset. Pointing a finger is cheaper.
Safety & comfort sucks hind tit with most, vs fun, look at me shit.
Does the childhood fable, 3 little pigs ring a bell.
Most people like to build their shit out of sticks and straw, not out of bricks.
 
hiden biden has and his mentor old mama have supposedly authorized billions for rebuilding America. Why heck, they even talk about how biden’s money has done wonders for spreading broadband internet in Louisiana. First I heard of it is when Louisiana got a top accolade for using the money wisely. Gotta love politics.

Getting to the POINT! Isn’t it time that we start moving the electrical grid underground? untold millions has been spent though the years repairing or plainly rebuilding power grids after Hurricanes, Tornados, Thunderstorms, Drunk Drivers, (yep run off the road hit and take out a power pole., it happens a bit too often in our environs.) Then lineman, have to go out in all kinds of weather, at all hours of the day and night, often far from home to try to put the darn thing back together.

I realize this might put lineman out of work, and while I can’t think of a better/worse thing, surely with the long term money being saved, something could be done/found for these men to do at equal or better pay and a safer job with more regular hours. Frankly, they deserve it.

Put Those Damn Lines Underground!

Don't the fire ants go after them in Texas? EIther due to the electrical currents attracting them or they like to eat the insulation.

Cheers,

Sirhr
 
Does the childhood fable, 3 little pigs ring a bell.
Most people like to build their shit out of sticks and straw, not out of bricks.
So true. My home is the cheapest in this hood, but its mostly bullet proof as I have always taken safety & comfort over, look at me shit. In 4/2011 Alabama was ripped up by mother nature, while I was out working & helping others, put her back together my family was safe & comfortable while the rest of this hood was setting on their ass bitching about being w/o power. When I came home the second day many wanted to know, what about us, well its going to be 2-3 more days as 500Kv towers don't erect their selves. Why do you have power? Well because I don't own look at me shit, our safety & comfort come first. We're going to get one asap, but like always when the sky turned blue & the power came back, they did not do it. Well except a few new boats, motocycles, jet skies ect. I have lost all compassion for these fucks,...
 
Sister in Richmond. Had a few branches break in her trees that they had to finish cutting. Had some water come down her chimney from sideways rain.

Parents in spring.
Creek next to neighborhood, screenshot from video. Taken after rain let up.
Concrete is 96ft wide. Water normally runs 11ft wide. Not the highest they've seen.
Screenshot_20240709_092932_WhatsApp.jpg
Screenshot_20240709_092911_WhatsApp.jpg

Before
IMG-20240708-WA0005.jpg

IMG-20240708-WA0006.jpg

After clean up. 18 bags and 20 tied branches. They lost power at 6:15am yesterday. Still no power. Dad running stuff off of eu2000i. Has a bigger one that he can run off of natural gas but it's heavier.
IMG-20240709-WA0000.jpg


There was also some big trees down blocking roads. Dad would normally be out helping clean up but he just had cataract surgery on one eye June 24th and his second eye was postponed because of the storm.

Note for emergency prep from my dad. Do all laundry before a storm.
 
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Headed north from Houston this morning. Diboll, Texas was the first town I came to that had a gas station without a line out to the highway. That’s on the order of 175 mile away from landfall. Talked to a guy there from Corrigan 14 miles to the south and lost a bunch of trees. Crazy impact for a Cat 1.
 
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Headed north from Houston this morning. Diboll, Texas was the first town I came to that had a gas station without a line out to the highway. That’s on the order of 175 mile away from landfall. Talked to a guy there from Corrigan 14 miles to the south and lost a bunch of trees. Crazy impact for a Cat 1.
Gas lines in the lake jackson/Freeport area are pretty long as well. Not all stations have power. Bucees in brazoria ran out of fuel yesterday afternoon. Have to get fuel today. Been through roughly 30 gallons so far. My welder/generator eats right at 1 gph. I think I'm going to be looking at diesel machines after this.
Currently at 41 hours without power. Thank God for the generator and a window mount A/C. Got the family camped out in the living room to stay cool.
Thank Him indeed. We lost power Monday morning around 2am.
 
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Headed north from Houston this morning. Diboll, Texas was the first town I came to that had a gas station without a line out to the highway. That’s on the order of 175 mile away from landfall. Talked to a guy there from Corrigan 14 miles to the south and lost a bunch of trees. Crazy impact for a Cat 1.
I'm in Nacogdoches. Lots of areas in town and the surrounding towns are still without power. We had a small tornado touch down on the north side of town. Lots of trees down. I grew up in Kemah / Clear Lake Shores. It's been a long time since I've been through one of these. I forgot what it was like.