Hurricane Michael- here he comes

[tevake]

Wow those are some horrific views of Mexico Beach. I'm hearing that it's pretty bad on over to Appalatchacola area. Hard not to feel crushed for those folks over there.

Even as far north as Chippley our county seat a bit to the north east of us there is major damage, even the roof of the police station there is blown off.

I've had some very good news from our place in Ebro, it's all but untouched. A few trees down along the road going into the place. None down on our property. And the shop is intact with very little damage.
A friend stopped and found it in good shape over there. Whew, what a big relief.
There is no power or phones in the area, but apparently not too much big damage.

Wow what a break. I may stay up here in central Ala for a few more days till the services are coming back on.

I wanted to check in with our good news, at least one pelican from the area still has his feathers.
Prayers sent to those just 40 miles to our east that got mowed down by this storm.

I'm feeling really blessed and will try to find ways to help those nearby that are so less fortunate.

Cheers Richard

[wdfifteen]

I have been watching news of the devastation on tv. Horrific! Prayers for the folks down there. I just can not imagine what it is like to have that happen to your life.

[Racerbvd]

Z

[tevake]

I got back to my place just after the last of twilight last night. There was a lot of damage to be seen starting about 75 miles north of my area, and it got worse the closer I got so it may have been a good thing that I ran out of daylight just a bit before driving into the area where Im living.
The dirt road going from the highway about 1/2 mile into my place is covered with debris shredded vegetation, downed branches, some trees down but not across the road. At my place the ground is covered with the same shredded vegetation and branches. Both structures are ok, as is the 911 left tucked In the shop.

There is one small tree down in the back corner near where we had a much bigger tree taken down just last week. Another small tree back there is pretty tweaked and may need to come down too, but these are trees that are small enough and in a location that I can deal with myself.

So all in all we did dodge a bullit, but there is a solid week of cleanup ahead of me.
I got a good start today, started a fire early and kept it going all day from yard debris.
Did a walk along the road from the highway and got a lot of the branches pulled off the road. Trying to make it easy for the elec power crews to get into the area to get our power back on. There is power in most of Ebro just not in this end.

There must have been 40 power company trucks staged at the dog track parking lot last night. We did have a drone fly overhead a few times this afternoon, so It's looking like they may get to us fairly soon.

My Verizon cell phone got signal at midday today. So things are coming back together around here anyway.

Just a little to the east, say 10/15 miles the situation is much more challenging from what Im hearing and seeing on the news. Just that distance makes a big difference in the degree of damage to structures and even more trees.

Its a blessing to be in my motorhome right now, built in generator, lots of battery capacity, full water tank and fuel tank, propane water heater and fridge and stove.
Pretty comfortable for the circumstances.

It will be nice to get the power back on to get the well going again.
And to quiet the chorus of generators going full time all around the neighborhood.

So thats the update from very near but luckily not quite in the path of the beast.

Cheers Richard

[Seahawk]

Hurricanes are so fickle: 15 miles east or west can mean the difference between catastrophe or salvation.

My heart goes out to all those affected by Michael. What a sneaky beast.

Be well, Richard.

[URY914]

Good to hear from you Richard.

[URY914]

Found this on Yahoo...

[sugarwood]

It looks like that silver car was stored in a corrugated metal shed. You can see it is wrapped by the shed on all 4 sides. What might have saved it was the perimeter of the shed might have had space around it.

[KFC911]

Still tens of thousands without power in my county....and this was a minor TS by the time it passed over this area.. We were lucky.... Florence and other recent flood events had cleared out mucho...if not, this event would have been mega-worse. At least it's no longer 90 degrees and humid for the cleanup....no 'skeeters this time either .

[GothingNC]

Horrible storm for everyone caught in it's path :-(

Amazing how much damage it caused in NC and VA after it was downgraded to a TS.

Even VIR was shutdown for the weekend due to flooding and trees knocked down.

[sc_rufctr]

I hope everybody is OK.

Dare I ask a question? Is it just me or are we having more of these events world wide?
Something's not right...

[URY914]

Saw a story yesterday that 46 people are unaccounted for in Mexico Beach. About 300 decided to ride it out and the cops knew who they were but they haven't be able to find them all.

[GothingNC]

Originally Posted by sc_rufctr

I hope everybody is OK.

Dare I ask a question? Is it just me or are we having more of these events world wide?
Something's not right...

Seems like the size and strength of Hurricanes have increased over the years.

Hurricane Sandy was only Cat 1 when she hit the NE but was one of the largest to hit the US.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by GothingNC

Seems like the size and strength of Hurricanes have increased over the years.

Hurricane Sandy was only Cat 1 when she hit the NE but was one of the largest to hit the US.

Sandy was not even a tropical storm when it hit. A "post tropical depression".

And if you look at the data, the USA went something like 15 years without a major hurricane (4 or 5) hitting. I believe Harvey was the storm that broke that drought.

Michael was a freak that had JUST RIGHT conditions for strengthening. A little to the west and the dry air would have killed it. A little to the east, the Florida coast would have reduced it.

The best news, it was a fast mover that hit and got out. And like Harvey, the major damage from the wind hit in the lower populated areas. If it had been centered 20 miles to the West, Panama City would have looked like Mexico Beach. The east side is always the worst.

Florence, Like Harvey, caused most damage with lots of rain and flooding. Same issue, a blocking system did not allow it to proceed.

[URY914]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/14/us/hurricane-michael-florida-mexico-beach-house.html?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=quora

One house in Mexico Beach made it through.

[JeremyD]

Gotta wonder why they don't have tougher building codes there - I know we do in St. Pete

[tevake]

IN a lot of the smaller towns af round here most buildings are a bit old to meet new building codes. Especially in the little beach towns, lots of fishing cabins and small second homes , Fla cottages. Many single wall construction from the fifties or earlier.

No doubt they will have to be rebuilt to modern codes, with many probably built to exceed those standards by folks that are now working their way thru this disaster.

Cheers Richard.

[Jims5543]

Through my affiliation with Chive Charities
https://chivecharities.org/

I found out about this fund raiser.
https://www.crowdrise.com/o/en/campaign/triplegreliefhurricanemichael


In a nutshell Triple G is the same group that went to small towns in Texas after floods, they went and found the outliers that were not getting help and fed them 3 squares a day.

They are now in Mexico Beach doing the same. I donated last night, I also took some supplies to a local brewery a couple of weeks ago to be loaded up and sent up.

I thought I would share here, just in case anyone wants to pitch in a little and help.

[Jims5543]

The call for help went out in the Chive on Monday afternoon. 24 hours later, 30k was raised.

Additionally many stepped forward and asked if they could volunteer to help at camp Happy Tummies.

In a world full of bad news the Chive never lets me down when it comes to restoring faith in humanity.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

[nota]

Originally Posted by JeremyD

Gotta wonder why they don't have tougher building codes there - I know we do in St. Pete

do you really
I have been pushing the limits of the code here in dade
we have the strongest wind code
and it is good for a cat 1 or 2 marginal in a cat 3 and not good for cat 4 or 5
they still require ONLY one layer of plywood roof sheathing nailed on
then the tar paper [with extra nails close spaced ] then allow shingles
rate to 120 mph nailed on or cement or clay tile

I am current working on my roof
plan is 3 layers of 5/8 ply staggered 2 ft so no leaks even if the required tarpaper blows off
screwed and glued not just nailed so far stronger and thicker and leak proof
then topped by a screwed down metal roof
held in place with 1/4 thick steel channels on the edges and peak
then run under the concrete slab and the hole dug to place the steel filled with concrete
I plan on a 1 3/4 thick triple layer not code required single 1/2 plywood
or the code required nails but screws and glue maybe 5 time stronger then code
then after the to code metal roof add not in the code steel strapping to insure the roof does not leave or leak
I am trying to build for a cat 5 not to the south fla code that may survive a cat 3

btw ANDREW came to my area with a cat 5 eyewall