Hurricane Florence

Krav

Krav

Joined
Jun 6, 2013
Messages
13,275
I've lived in the chapel hill, Durham, raleigh area since 2011. The forecast is saying the hurricane is estimated to hit land Thursday or Friday. Hopefully it just spins off in the ocean.

I was in a hurricane in west palm beach Florida 2005, that was a cat 3, this is supposed to be a cat 4. That ripped half the roof off the breezeway when the eye came through, and blew it across the street. The breezeway was connected to the front of the church, and led to a kitchen and bathrooms, to give you a little idea of what I'm talking about.
Luckily the church was elevated, and I wasn't so sure I was going to make it out.
I was manning pumps outside as long as I could, the church had a basement that was flooding very quickly. We were without power for 9 days.

North and South Carolina are in its path along with the southern part of Virginia. I'm supposed to be getting a champion 3800w inverter duel fuel generator Thursday. I'm really banking on that, Walmart was the only place that was delivering the generator I wanted in a timely fashion.

Yesterday I had a easy day work wise, so I filled up all the vehicles with gas, filled 25 gal of gas, in gas cans. Places are charging $16 for a empty one gallon gas can, and nobody has anything bigger. Long waits for gas if they have any. Also have 7- 20 lb propane tanks for the generator or the grill. I can also hook the propane up to a duel heater, but it's been a hot and humid summer so far. I have fans. Bought a siphon pump just in case I need to tap into the gas we have in four cars.

ATM was out of money this morning, I found another place that had cash. Stashed about $1000 cash in the safe, have 6 cases of singled bottled water, about 10 of gallon containers of spring water. Before the storm I'm going to clog the drain and fill up the tub with water, I can use this to bathe or put it through the Berkey filter. Hundreds of freeze dried food, fridge is filled along with the freezer, got lots of flashlights, candles, toilet paper, paper towels, bleach, 200 lbs of rice, and some other goodies.

Hopefully this one passes through quickly, they are saying its going to sit over N.C. For 3 days. Everyone in the path of Florence please take caution. What's your thoughts on this Hurricane. How many other people have been in a Hurricane? Am I missing anything of great importance, prep wise?

Be safe friends.
 
Went through Irma last year in NE FL. The max wind gust to hit my area was just a little over 100 mph. Doesn’t sound too fast, but it is fierce and throws lots of stuff around.

Make sure to have lots of extension cords around if your house isn’t wired for the generator. I also used multi plug strips so I could run several items from one power cord. Probably would be good to have a battery powered or emergency radio. Our WiFi and cable tv went out about 8 hours into the tough stuff, so my little transistor radio came in handy.

This year I bit the bullet and went with a whole house automatic generator.

Best wishes to all you guys in the path.....
 
Never been through a big hurricane. Loved in central Florida for about a year and a half in the mid-90's, and the only storm a saw was mild by comparison to anything that makes headlines.

Storms like this verify two things for me:
1 - im not a "prepped", butI'm glad I'm always prepped for the types of events that affect my area
2 - I'm glad I live in Western PA, where we get no hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, wildfires, or other disaster-level stuff. I can handle the occasional blizzard or flooding in the low areas.

Be safe, and good luck.
 
I've been through the tail end of one. It was pretty wet. Cleaned up after a couple (helping friends closer to the water). Still have friends that are going to get some of this. My buddy who has a retirement place outside of Raleigh just took off for 2 weeks in Ireland. My friends over by Hilton Head just finished fixing their place from the last one. If Southport/Wilmington gets hammered I'll probably end up going out there.

I've always figured if I lived where one was headed I'd leave town for a while. Things can be replaced...

Good luck to you all.
 
IMG_1105.JPG There are at least 12 nuclearpower plants in N.C. And S.C. In the projected path of Florence.
 
Stay safe. You sound well prepared but the power that hurricanes bring to bear is awful, especially when they stall.

I always say about Vermont, the weather isn't great, but no hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes or wildfires. Even with the worst blizzard, basically if you stay inside for the worst of it you'll be safe.
 
Stay safe. Leave if you can. Remember category only tells you wind speed and water is what kills in a hurricane. Storm surge first and flooding from the rain after.
 
Your hurricane enduring brothers down in lousiana are watching and waiting to see what y’all need. I know the Cajun navy is already on the way, and food and supplies will follow.

After it passes, don’t be afraid to drive. You may not have good, gas, etc available near you, but generally a 2 hour or so drive will get you to a place that has power and what you need. I have 2 55 gallon plastic drums just to do that for gas about once a week to run the minimum.

We down here praying for y’all now, waiting just like you are. Only we’ll be sending help.
 
IMG_1120.JPG Cool, thanks everyone. Wow, good day, generator came and is up and running.

I can’t seem to post photos right now, keeps saying this?

The uploaded file is too large for the server to process.

Last I heard , Florence will make land in N.C. then go south, south west instead of west. Even then other people are in danger. I am working tomorrow, till 12 then I’m doing last minute stuff, wash any cloths we have. Our House is on a concrete slab, I’ve never seen any flooding in these parts.

I found my renter insurance that’s good for $30,000 I’m not sure If flooding/hurricanes are covered. I have to check, girlfriend has renters insurance also.

Anyone in the Raleigh/chapel hill/Durham area needs anything please contact me. We’ll get you what you need. My girlfriends got a four wheel drive accura mdx that should be able to get around ok.

Still hoping it stalls in the ocean and dissolves.

Thanks again.
 
Last edited:
Hurricane dropped to cat 2 and is stalled in the ocean. Thumbs up, I'll take it.
 
Good luck to those that are close to the coast in the immediately impacted areas of North and South Carolina. It is beginning to happen now. I don't think I would want to be in Wilmington NC right now. Yesterday I noticed parades of electrical trucks headed toward NC along with Salvation Army.

Back up your computers.
 
My friend lives in SC. I asked him if he was evacuating. His adult son just had major surgery and cannot easily be moved so they are going to ride it out. I hope that everyone remains safe.
 
Shann said:
My friend lives in SC. I asked him if he was evacuating. His adult son just had major surgery and cannot easily be moved so they are going to ride it out. I hope that everyone remains safe.
Click to expand...

My girlfriend had a great idea. So I can't run the generator indoors, and if the hurricane slows down it could be a long time without power. We filled up a bunch of empty small water bottles a couple gal filled them about 3/4 to the top and freeze them.

After couple hours I'll pull some out it put it in the freezer, repeat process as much as possible.
Freezer is completely filled. One of my girlfriends customer told her they did this, and it works pretty good temporarily.
 
fell asleep abou 7 o'clock last night, exhausted. Woke up about 4 ish filled the tub with water and walked Jake. We got some light wind, and rain,just started to thunderstorm. Still have power, my understanding is it's not as bad as it could of been. We shall see, stay safe.
 
Thats a good idea. Ready made drinking water when if thaws if necessary.

Also a full freezer will stay colder longer than a half full one because, well, frozen stuff.

I hope its not as bad as they were forecasting.
 
Krav Krav - Fill your bathtub full of water and save/use that water to flush your toilet. If your water authority can't pump water, you'll be surprised how fast a toilet fills up without water to flush so use a tub of water for flushing (forget bathing for the next few days) and save your bottled water for drinking/cooking. It wouldn't hurt to fill whatever clean containers you have for house/faucet water too for drinking. You'd be surprised how much water is used just for drinking in these situations.

I live in a very rural area and if my power goes I can't pump water from our well. I keep 5 7-gallon water bottles filled at all times just for flushing. Our house can be run off a generator - I just don't have the well wired into the house system. Something I should do but I keep putting it off.

P.S.

Don't flush when you pee. Save it for when you poop.
 
Last edited:
  • Screenshot_20180913-190146_Google.jpg Florence is like a nerd who is taking the long route to school in order to avoid the neighborhood bully, it don't wanna catch these hands...
 
Modoc ED said:
Krav Krav - Fill your bathtub full of water and save/use that water to flush your toilet. If your water authority can't pump water, you'll be surprised how fast a toilet fills up without water to flush so use a tub of water for flushing (forget bathing for the next few days) and save your bottled water for drinking/cooking. It wouldn't hurt to fill whatever clean containers you have for house/faucet water too for drinking. You'd be surprised how much water is used just for drinking in these situations.

I live in a very rural area and if my power goes I can't pump water from our well. I keep 5 5-gallon water bottles filled at all times just for flushing. Our house can be run off a generator - I just don't have the well wired into the house system. Something I should do but I keep putting it off.

P.S.

Don't flush when you pee. Save it for when you poop.
Click to expand...

Thanks, tub is full, we are getting small light feeder bands of storms. Thank god, but the next 24 hours could get ugly.
 
The tub thing doesn't work for me as it seems the gasket allows a slow leak. I have quite a few 5 gallon buckets that can be filled with water primarily for toilets and so forth. I also keep a fair amount of store bought bottled water around; usually a couple cases.

The freezing idea is good. My Dad would do that for water he takes on hikes in the summer months. It would work nicely for keeping the freezer colder for a while; probably a couple days if the freezer started out cold.

Lots of rain from this hurricane in the Wilmington NC area. It is hard for me the fathom 30 inches of rain in a single day.

Getting your house wired properly for a direct generator plug in is not real expensive generally if done by an electrician. Don't do the plug into your inside plug approach. You could easily be placing more amps on that plug then it is rated for and potentially start a fire.

Saw on the news that someone's house burnt down because they placed their generator too close to the building. Got to pay attention.

Also saw that they are doing a lot of water rescues already. I don't understand that.... those people should have evacuated or live with their decision to stay put. Life is a fragile thing sometimes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top