Posted on 07/08/2005 5:51:38 AM PDT by Gabz
I hope everyone had a safe and pleasant Independence Day weekend.
Being scattered all over the country, we all encounter different forms of the wrath of mother nature, be it hurricanes, blizzards, tornados, earthquakes, flooding or what have you and we all deal with them differently.
In honor of the fact that Dennis the Menace is now on the verge of becoming a Category 5 Hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, I thought sharing preparation plans would be a good idea, not just for 'canes, but anything else Mother Nature dumps in your neck of the woods.
Gee, thanks!
However, it's not an original idea. Lots of folks around here do it. You feel kind of lazy dumping your patio furniture into the pool instead of carrying it into the house or garage, but it's a chore to get it out.
The winds can't pick it up when it's under water, so it works!
His point is that if the house has collapsed on top of the saved water, what's the point. Sheesh!! Sorry I brought it up.
On one occasion, we went a week without power... it was depressing! I ended up going out of town with our little one. My neighborhood was among the very last to get power restored, so frustrating to pass all these lit up areas, then home into the darkness (and cold water!). Since then we've acquired a generator, so Murphy's Law suggests we will never lose power again. True to form, power went out for a few hours recently, and my husband got concerned about the refrigerator (after about five hours) so started hooking up the generator. Sure enough, soon as he started to get it out, the power came back on!
Isn't that always the way?
When Isabel was headed in this direction we had prepared for all eventuallities, including FReeping with no power.........well we thought we had prepared for everything. The phone lines went out........so no FReeping, even though we never lost power :(
I get it now--I wasn't trying to take you to task.
Great suggestions!
Hubby was blessed with extreme worry wart parent who I refuse to tell about anything slightly negative going on because they jump to the worst possible conslusion about everything. (Got a cold? You're dying of pneumonia!! Either that or mono!) SO hubby and I generally are rebellious about that kind of stuff and I'm sure that's his motivation for saying drink out of the pool, etc.
No offense taken.
My mother was famous for her "freak accident" stories... did anyone else get those? You know, the people who got grievously injured putting their head out the car window, choking on food, or doing anything you happened to be contemplating or doing at that very moment. It was suspicious because it never happened to anyone she knew personally; it was always her sister's driving instructor's daughter or the neighbor's in-law or something. I think either she hung around emergency rooms or she invented the urban legend.
ROFL!!! Are you related to hubby?? He he he!!!
Really though, there are tall tales on my side as well. One of the most famous: My mom's great uncle was a wart looker. He could make your wart disappear just by looking at is.
And then there's the story about my Great Aunt who had a baby born with Downs. While she was pregnant, there was apparently a horrendous small plane crash in their field and she and Great Unc went to check on the pilot/inhabitants of the plane. She had nightmares because of what she saw, and then my cousin was born with sort of gnarled hands, and Downs. My family believes it's because of the nightmares. I'm not so sure I totally blow that one off though. The mind is a terribly powerful thing.
While seemingly off-topic, there is a lot of information here if you use all the links within links:
Everything from NBC warfare to storms & quakes can be accounted for there.
Funny you should mention power-- I'm in the middle of building a 10,000 watt standby generator for hurricane season here. My wife- the lovely Emily- simply refuses to evacuate ( for a variety of fairly sensible reasons ) and this old house is almost unfit for habitation without some electric power, so I'm rebuilding and old, defunct welder chassis with a new generator head. One criteria for a plant is that has to be easy starting ( electric start ) and simple to use, which the welder's engine end was when it was in service.
And naturally, like any home manufacturing project, everything is running behind schedule- wrong parts shipped, parts missing, the lathe I use for turning down the old armature shaft died two days ago, and I just got it swung out enough from the shop's back wall to gain access to the electric panel, where I think ( hope! ) the fault lies. I do have a much smaller metal lathe that- in a pinch- can turn the shaft, one tiny pass at a time.
Once that is done, a keyway is cut in the shaft, a subchassis of angle iron welded to hold engine & generator, the rotating assemblies mated via a flexible coupling, another subchassis for the generator welded up and joined to the engine subchassis- then we test her and see if we have a practical powerplant.
I pulled that list off the web. I would add
candles or kerosene lamps
Rubber boots and raincoat
If you have a big tree in the yard that looks like it might topple, tie it to another tree to make it fall sideways instead of on the house.
Invite any older single people in the neighborhood to stay with you while the storm passes over. Be sure to get their meds!
Protect livestock from direct wind even if it means herding them into an adjoining forest. They'll be glad to come back to their pastures when the storm is over.
Gather together all the real important papers and put them in a plastic bag, then inside a suitcase or backpack.
Keep a firearm handy for the looters and other sick scum.
Wish I could remember how to set up an actual link. This website is dedicated to the tornado outbreak of April 3-4, 1974. The storm system responsible stretched from Ontario, Canada, all the way south to Alabama and Mississippi. I can't remember its westernmost edge, but the system remained intact right through to the Atlantic coast. Over 300 people died in the outbreak; more than 50% of the town of Xenia, Ohio, was destroyed. If you have never seen footage or photos of what happened to Xenia, take a look. Absolutely devastating. I was with my family in Windsor, Ontario, when the storm struck. We lived in suburban Detroit back then and had taken a day trip to an outdoor fair in Windsor. I was five years old--this was 30 years ago--and I will remember every moment of that storm for the rest of my life. As bad as you may think a tornado is, it is worse. I shudder to think what an F5 would be like.
I do not get hysterical when the alarms go off here, as they frequently do during tornado season. Freaking out accomplishes nothing, it would just terrify my kids. They are growing up with a very healthy sense of how destructive and deadly nature can be, and how important it is to react to warnings calmly and quickly.
BTW--8 died in the Windsor tornado. At least two of the fatalities were at the park where we were.
Just wanted to let everyone know that I started up a Freeper Kitchen at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1439671/posts. I would have put it in chat myself, but I don't know how. Spread the word. I could also use some tips on the ping list thing Gabz. Thanks
Morning friend - I'm sorry, but, your link isn't working...........
Change from what? ;o>
Hi..I would love to be on your ping list for the recipe thread if you start one. Thanks!
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