[Surf and Snow]

...sucks.

I was supposed to fly out to Myrtle Beach, SC on Friday to surprise my father (who lives there) for his 60th birthday. About a dozen family members from OR, CA, NY, CT, and MD have been planning this surprise reunion for 6 months now. And along comes Florence...

State of Emergency already declared for SC, NC, VA and now MD too. And my dad just received evacuation orders for mandatory evacuation by 12 noon tomorrow.

Looking like it could be pretty ugly for the coastal folks. Besides being bummed about my trip getting canceled, and worry about my dad and his property, I just wanted to wish all you other folks out there GOOD LUCK!

if you haven’t already, fill up your gas tank and extra jerry cans with gas (gas stations will be closed/without power), board up windows, fill up water jugs etc etc. you might be out of power for a week if it’s as bad as a Cat 4 or 5. Even if you are inland, the flooding may be extensive. So be prepared

 

[Surf and Snow]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/1253945002

 

[RikRong]

Sorry to hear about your old man being caught in path, well wishes for him and everyone in the path of this storm.

To those who are out there and plan on staying, don't. If you can afford to evacuate, do it. American shorelines aren't designed to battle a category four or five storm. I know it's not always possible to find an evacuation shelter or fund a last minute trip to get to other family, but if you can, get out of there. The water in this storm is going to do some damage; storm surge and the shear amount of rain. Stay safe out there and please reach out if you need assistance, we have lot of east coast members.

 

[Chug]

Boy that is bad timing.. Hope for the best for everyone east... If your gonna hunker down, make sure above the water line.

seeing the info. looks like Cat 4.. that is nothing to mess with.

 

[Surf and Snow]

Anybody else on here in the evacuation zone?

 

[jsexton]

Some friends of mine are on vacation in the OBX and got the evac warnings.

Also my grandparents have a house in Calabash, NC. Pretty much dead center of that projected path. I should make sure they are in OH.

 

[IM1RU]

So sorry Jay, I hope your father comes through this unscathed. To all you in the path of this monster, my heart is with you. I hope you are all and remain well.

 

[Lowcountry idn]

Sorry to hear your trip was cancelled.

We are in the evac zone - but were like zone E, so were one of the last actual evacuation zones. Were technically supposed to leave I suppose, but where far enough out of Charleston that the surge is of no concern - but the reason the want everyone gone is there will be no emergency services since all the bridges will likely be out. So essentially if you stay plan to be on your own.

I am sure we will be without power for a week or more. The little cat 2 that hit 50 miles away a couple years ago turned the power off for several days, so this will likely be much worse. Our neighborhood is new enough to have all power underground, but the wires getting to the neighborhood are not.

We have dogs, so it makes leaving a challenge, so we haven't decided yet.

Looks like its turning north, which will be bad for your dad (and possibly good for me) - but anyone that tells you they know where a hurricane is actually going to land more than 24 hours out is a fool or a liar.

 

[Lowcountry idn]

An additional note. This website is done by a grad student in meteorology at Univ of Miami. He publishes a youtube video of what is going on with the hurricanes every day. Very informative - without the politics of NOAA, and without the hype of the weather channel, for those geeks like me that want to actually understand what is happening and why.

https://www.tropicaltidbits.com/

 

[TerryD]

An additional note. This website is done by a grad student in meteorology at Univ of Miami. He publishes a youtube video of what is going on with the hurricanes every day. Very informative - without the politics of NOAA, and without the hype of the weather channel, for those geeks like me that want to actually understand what is happening and why.

https://www.tropicaltidbits.com/

I like his videos! I don't claim to understand all he's talking about, but I enjoyed learning what they were looking for a bit more.

We're quite a ways from the coast but they are calling for rain falls similar to what we got locally a few years ago that almost wiped White Sulfur Springs, WV off the map. There's been warnings of flooding in this area for a couple days now, trying to get folks ready for the storm.

We have food put back, two generators should the power go out, I've tuned up my new Poulan saw and I'm going to fire off my McCulloch tonight and let it run a bit, just so I know it's ready. We've got some other things like furniture on the porch, trash cans and my grill and smoker to get indoors. I'm going to get the kids started on doing some of that this evening while I'm checking out the generators and saws.

I still don't have my bumper on the Xterra but I'm trying to get my Tugger Box ready to go should I need to do a bit of winching to clear the road or yard. I'm also going to move my trailers to the middle of the yard out from under the trees should any of them shed a limb.

I'll probably fire up the HF rig this evening and begin monitoring the hurricane nets to see how things are progressing on the coast and along it's path as it moves along the coast.

 

[NOAHVT]

I am just outside Durham. The most recent Euro model that came out this morning is keeping the rain much further south than all the prior ones. It is showing Wilmington getting 4 feet of rain! Fayetteville getting over 2 feet.

All the prior models were showing 20" of rain on my house, which is a scary thought. Keeping a close eye on it.

 

[General_Tarfun]

We're quite a ways from the coast but they are calling for rain falls similar to what we got locally a few years ago that almost wiped White Sulfur Springs, WV off the map. There's been warnings of flooding in this area for a couple days now, trying to get folks ready for the storm.

We have food put back, two generators should the power go out, I've tuned up my new Poulan saw and I'm going to fire off my McCulloch tonight and let it run a bit, just so I know it's ready. We've got some other things like furniture on the porch, trash cans and my grill and smoker to get indoors. I'm going to get the kids started on doing some of that this evening while I'm checking out the generators and saws.

I still don't have my bumper on the Xterra but I'm trying to get my Tugger Box ready to go should I need to do a bit of winching to clear the road or yard. I'm also going to move my trailers to the middle of the yard out from under the trees should any of them shed a limb.

I'll probably fire up the HF rig this evening and begin monitoring the hurricane nets to see how things are progressing on the coast and along it's path as it moves along the coast.

I used to live on the coast down south of Savannah and remember the last big storm we had pass by in the early 2000's. It actually bypassed us (we evacuated) but there were an unbelievable amount of trees/branches down, no power for a week, etc. The coast just doesn't get that kind of wind regularly so trees that are sort-of ok tend to just collapse. You sound like you're in good shape but make sure you stockpile a decent amount of water if you don't have a well, it's crazy how quick it goes.

 

[Longboardr]

One thing that comes to mind watching a program about Katrina years ago, the generators started falling silent not because they were out of gas, but because the oil should be changed out every 100 hours and people either weren't doing it or didn't have the oil on hand for changes.

Good luck to everyone in it's path!

 

[TerryD]

I used to live on the coast down south of Savannah and remember the last big storm we had pass by in the early 2000's. It actually bypassed us (we evacuated) but there were an unbelievable amount of trees/branches down, no power for a week, etc. The coast just doesn't get that kind of wind regularly so trees that are sort-of ok tend to just collapse. You sound like you're in good shape but make sure you stockpile a decent amount of water if you don't have a well, it's crazy how quick it goes.

We're going to fill our two water containers today. That'll be about 10 gallons. That's not a lot to use, but it'll cover drinking needs for a few days. One advantage of living in such a small city with such a large paper mill in it is the mill tends to try to keep the town going so people show up to work. After the Derecho a few years ago, we never lost water thanks to the mill donating a pump and labor to replace it. We were also only without power for about 8 days where some folks were 2-3 weeks without.

My major concerns for my area are:
1. I live down a valley with one way in and out. A mudslide or big tree down could mean hours or days before we could get out.
2. Lots of low lying communities near the river here. My house isn't in danger, but a couple ways out of town, should they be needed, are.
3. Being without power long enough that gas supplies dwindle. Finding gas was hard during the Derecho because only two stores in the county had backup power.

This is all speculative on my part as the storm will most likely die down by the time it gets here. But I don't want to get caught unprepared. Maybe I'll scope out the water at Wal-Mart this evening when I run in to get some more fuel for my stoves and grab a couple extra gallons. I have a feeling we may be a haven for at least one family should it come right down to it. May not hurt to have plenty of extra to go around. I KNOW I'm out of beer though, and that just won't do!

 

[Longboardr]

Beer! Also, fill the bathtub if you've got one.

 

[General_Tarfun]

We're going to fill our two water containers today. That'll be about 10 gallons. That's not a lot to use, but it'll cover drinking needs for a few days. One advantage of living in such a small city with such a large paper mill in it is the mill tends to try to keep the town going so people show up to work. After the Derecho a few years ago, we never lost water thanks to the mill donating a pump and labor to replace it. We were also only without power for about 8 days where some folks were 2-3 weeks without.

My major concerns for my area are:
1. I live down a valley with one way in and out. A mudslide or big tree down could mean hours or days before we could get out.
2. Lots of low lying communities near the river here. My house isn't in danger, but a couple ways out of town, should they be needed, are.
3. Being without power long enough that gas supplies dwindle. Finding gas was hard during the Derecho because only two stores in the county had backup power.

This is all speculative on my part as the storm will most likely die down by the time it gets here. But I don't want to get caught unprepared. Maybe I'll scope out the water at Wal-Mart this evening when I run in to get some more fuel for my stoves and grab a couple extra gallons. I have a feeling we may be a haven for at least one family should it come right down to it. May not hurt to have plenty of extra to go around. I KNOW I'm out of beer though, and that just won't do!

Haha I don't know how I forgot to mention the beer supply, you'll need a healthy supply of that guaranteed. Last time we lost power for a few days I pulled a bunch of those green glow sticks out of our camping gear boxes, a few of those placed around a room or along a hallway provides enough light that you can find your way without having to walk around with a headlamp of flashlight all the time.

 

[TerryD]

One thing that comes to mind watching a program about Katrina years ago, the generators started falling silent not because they were out of gas, but because the oil should be changed out every 100 hours and people either weren't doing it or didn't have the oil on hand for changes.

Good luck to everyone in it's path!

Some folks can't help their situation and MUST run them all day. For the majority of folks though, it's wasteful and unnecessary. It was 100* temperatures during the week we were without power after the Derecho. We simply lived in our basement during the hottest parts of the day. At night, we would open the windows in the house and it would cool off naturally. At dawn, we'd close up all the windows and draw the curtains and limit the amount of going in and out we did.

In the morning, we'd fire up the generator for about an hour and cool down both the fridge and freezer. At night, we'd run it again to cool the fridge and freezer back down and also have a couple house lights and run the ceiling fans to help the house cool down with the windows open. Then it was lights out for the night. We did a LOT of reading and listening to battery radios.

This time of year, in my area at least, it will be easy to get by with just a couple hours a day. I change my generator oil every year whether it gets used in that year or not for just that reason though. I also try to run it every couple months for 10-15 minutes with just a splash of gas in the tank so it pulls itself completely empty in that time and no gas is stored in the tank.

 

[Chug]

Prepare for the worst and live like a king.. But Then the others will spot your Great glowing nest..

Beer, whiskey, gallon of Real bleach. Clean blue tarp, for water collection..

Skywarn nets should be going active soon.. if not already.. Plus, the HF, And 2 meter side.
IF this impacts as a Cat 4.. going to be lots of Grumpy un prepared people, who live on a cell phones Facebook.. With zero stock pile OR common thinking on Prepping imagine that.. haha.

Good Website to watch Wind Patterns:
Linky WWW.windy.com Can Tweak its settings, and see how the winds are flowing to your location as with advance the time frames.. Handy to have. Just looked. Based the path.. Wednesday impact 15:00 Winds 112 mph .. YIKES..

Another live tracking for ALL weather & storms.. Etc..
Linky: Full Screen Radar


Keep safe out that way...

 

[General_Tarfun]

I use an app called MyRadar, I think I paid 3 bucks to remove ads from it but it's worth the $, you can quickly see everything from wind to lightning strikes and everything is animated. Won't do much good without cell signal but those towers are pretty much always on somehow.

 

[Lowcountry idn]

The most annoying thing here after the last hurricane was all the generators. No one buys the quiet ones - they buy the 130db Chinese ones from HF and run them full cycle. It would have been a nice experience - smores off the fire, no streetlights, etc - except for those [email protected]#% noisy generators. The sooner they die from bad oil the better as far as I am concerned.