Posted on 10/23/2005 2:50:03 PM PDT by backhoe
Our last hurricane was a brush-by – Hurricane Isabel. The water came up to about half a block away, with several neighborhoods being flooded. We lucked out with the wind also. We had a few trees downed in my neighborhood, but none hit cars or buildings. They were nice and just fell in the open and across the road. We lost power for about 36 hours when others areas here lost it for weeks.
I don’t think I will push my luck next time as I no longer have a wife and dog to listen to.
Having grown up in California and lived there almost my entire life I learned to be prepared for anything and everything but particularly earthquakes. Even though I'm in Texas now, I still have a lot of water, canned and dried food stashed. One never knows these days what will happen next. It's a habit and a good one that every one should learn.
Thanks for the info, there's always new information to learn.
Ping....to a few FRiends.
Dora ( 1964 ) had the ocean advancing to our beach house; that's when we piled in the VW and headed for a house on the Island's only hill. Fortunately, it stopped before reaching the house- still, I have never seen anything more fearsome than that endless angry grey water coming relentlessly forward.
The situation I have is that my wife probably would not leave anyway, but when you add her Mom ( elderly, disabled, and she is not going anywhere, by gum! ) and her animals ( and we don't have children to look out for ) she simply won't budge, and of course I won't abandon her to a storm.
Now whether the house is up to it is anyone's guess- the Great Hurricane was in 1898, and the house was new, and had shutters ( long gone to rot ) on every window. It's held together with 16-penny, wedge-shaped iron nails, and those that are sound, you have trouble pulling with a four-foot crowbar. But some- you can pluck with your fingers...
At least it's high- most buildings here are single-story, this old pile is four feet off the ground, with two twelve-foot floors above that, and an attic equally tall. If it just holds together...
Thanks- and the pings are appreciated.
That sounds like the old family house back in Pennsylvania. It was built in the early 1800s. The frame is of red oak, lath and plaster with cut nails. Even hanging a picture was a bear, and forget about hanging shelves.
It makes repairs and remodelling "interesting," to say the least.
The lumber sizes actually were planed to "standard sizes" for their day, it's just that they were all bigger sizes-- the joists under the porch are 8" deep and 5" thick, and the walls are framed with what was called 5/4's... rough-cut to 5" x 4" and then planed down smooth.
The wood is stuff you can't even buy anymore because it's not grown for lumber-- oak, and long-leaf yellow pine, which is nearly as strong and hard as oak.
The last time I replaced some siding, I literally had to chin myself at the end of the crowbar to extract those 16-penny iron nails.
Got a longer wrecking bar after that episode.
Yep. Think of how much it would cost today to build that same house.
I think this is also a good time to review Appalachian Dweller's comprehensive survival list:
http://www.freerepublic.com/~appalachiandweller/
535 posted on 08/09/2006 10:19:08 AM EDT by Velveeta
B.H., I am going to ping you to a thread in a minute, seems it might be of interest to you.
jm
SO WHEN I WAS AT THE MALL THE OTHER DAY, I saw that Eddie Bauer had a prominent display featuring this Disaster Emergency Kit for 2. It's not bad, especially for a car or apartment, though I'd certainly want to supplement it.
But what struck me more than the kit itself was the prominence of the display. Put that together with the fact that Target is marketing survival kits with the American Red Cross, Slate has run a series on disaster survival, and Consumer Reports is pushing disaster preparedness and it looks like we've got something of a trend. (Popular Mechanics is on the job, too, but you expect that from them.) And walking through J.C. Penney the same day I saw hand-cranked dynamo lanterns and radios prominently displayed by the entrance.More on disaster preparedness here and here. Remember, though, it's not just about buying things -- it's about learning things, too.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Blue Crab Boulevard reports: "Cheaper than Dirt has some survival kits that are, well, cheaper than dirt."
And Eric Klien of the Lifeboat Foundation sends a link to some really serious disaster preparedness.
BTTT, general bad times preparedness link.
That's kind of cool. Though in PDF it's a pretty big document to store on most cell phones. Maybe converted to HTML or text, though.
Every home in America is entitled to one free copy. (Your tax dollars hard at work)
L
Good link. Slow server.
I also recommend any edition you can find of "Fieldbook for Boys and Men" published by BSA.
Don't forget the fishing stuff, I have 3 collapsible poles all set with 5-19 lb test line. Bluegills are bony but quite tasty.
And I saved just about all the seeds from my garden last year, alot of lettuce, cabbage, carrot, onion seeds.
In the northwest theres about 3 species of wild lettuce, bitter if it's old, but best while young.
And dandelion is perfectly edible. In fact it's quite good for you.
Appreciate the information- thank you.
Thanks, I'll take a look.
Every household in America is entitled to one free hard copy.
This is one area the Feds are Constitutionally authorized to be working in and I'm pretty darned happy they finally seem to be taking it seriously.
L
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