Hurricane ida safety check.

[pucho812]

Hope any and all of our diy members in the path of the storm are safe.

 

[JohnRoberts]

New Orleans lost power and took a serious storm surge but the levee system and pump improvements after Katrina appear to be holding. The older than 1970 drainage pumps run on 25 Hz power that require their own boilers to make power. I'm sure the pumps run on generator power.
==

Tropical storm Ida is passing directly over me right now. What is left of the eye is perhaps 100 miles due west of me, putting me smack in the middle of heavy rain bands. (Katrina's eye passed directly over me 16 years ago. )

I just checked my rain gauge and only 1" accumulation overnight, but it is forecast to continue raining all day. Tropical storm warning until 3pm, flash flood watch until 7am tomorrow. This would feel like a normal rain storm except for the constant wind. So far no major tree limbs down (Katrina dropped about a half dozen trees on my property.) Much higher wind gusts are forecast for mid afternoon (60-80 MPH), so that will probably tear off some tree branches. Maybe even interrupt power. I can hear the wind picking up so I'll stop downplaying the weather now.

Not my first rodeo so my fridge is full of beer. I even put some water in the freezer to make ice in case I lose power. I don't want to temp fate by saying this storm is nothing much, already reported deaths down south of me. Good luck to New Orleans, and gulf coast residents who got the worst of it (some oil infrastructure in the storm path).

JR

 

[scott2000]

Good luck.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Thanks, hurricanes are slow moving storms so they can't exactly sneak up on you. Their storm path projections this time seem a little more accurate that usual.

I just walked across the street to the post office to get my mail and the wind is blowing pretty good. Mainly small branches on the ground so far. Forecast calls for higher wind gusts over the next few hours.

So far so good...

JR

PS; I hate it when weather forecasters exaggerate storm potentials. First they were calling Ida "near Cat 5" (it was cat 4 at its max and is now just a tropical storm). Katrina was cat 5 and this is no cat 5. Another news talking head yesterday said that Katrina was only cat 3 when it first made landfall to make Ida at cat 4 seem worse, but Katrina, stalled just offshore and gained strength up to cat 5. I guess they think they are helping an ignorant public by scaring them with misleading information. We already get too much of that. Then there are the weather clowns who have to stand out in the wind/rain to make the storm appear more dangerous.

 

[pucho812]

I caught the news of the lost power and levees last night. I have seen my share of hurricanes growing up on the Texas gulf coast. They can be serious but at least you see them coming. Growing up it was the big leave or stay decision, if you evacuate you may not get back for weeks. Tough calls, luckily I didn’t have to make them. We had 2-3 potentials this year that all changed path mid stream and ended up elsewhere. The predicted paths of hitting south Texas all move and they hit Mexico. Luckily for mexico they were only tropical storms and not full blown hurricanes.
stay safe out there.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I am pleased to report that 3" of rain in mid MS is not exactly a news headline.

That said condolences to those in Nawlins and down on the gulf coast who suffered storm surge, loss of power, etc.

And, good luck to our friends up north in TN who have already suffered flooding who don't need more rain.

JR

 

[JohnRoberts]

The sun finally came out late this afternoon... usually the morning after a hurricane we are greeted with brilliant blue skies and bright sunlight. This time took almost a day longer than usual but finally clear skies.

Of course the storm system is still dumping water up north. Good luck ya'll

JR