Hurricane Matthew's track changed, for the WORSE!

[BUTCH1]

Man, if you owned a generator company and a weather station you could make a MINT!! Manufacture generators, ship tens of thousands to HD, Lowes and Wal-Mart and then forecast a hurricane. They'll all sell at any price.
I'm in the area that got hit hard by Sandy and we were lucky, we only lost power for about 48 hours. Most of the food survived and many many people had it worse. Power out for weeks or even months. My sister lost power for more than 2 weeks in the great Halloween Nor'Easter/Blizzard of 2011. What a mess that was. Now whenever there's even a chance of a major event like a hurricane generators sell out a week in advance. Home Depot unloads the truck, wheels them onto the sales floor and they're gone in 5 minutes. Like the hot Christmas toy of the year only the fights for them are more violent. People are buying them from HD or Lowes for $500-$1000 and then putting them on Craig's List for $3000 to $5000 and getting that because they're not available anywhere else.

Yup, although I have to LOL when I see someone at HD or Lowes with a genny and ONE 5 gallon gas-can, these people think it's like running a lawnmower, it's not, these guys work their ass off and gulp fuel accordingly. People also have unrealistic ideas of when their power will return, when someone hit's a pole down the block it's back up in a few hours but when NINETY EIGHT% are without power in the county it's gonna be at least a week and probably much closer to 2 weeks. A quick check on CL and yup, price scalping a-plenty to be found. Another issue most f**k up on is oil, units ship with a small bottle for the initial fill but of course most never read the owners manual that will recommend replacement at 50 hours run time, again, this is NOT the same as a lawnmower!. In '04 they had a small-engine repair shop on TV with dozens of units 3 weeks old with ruined engines NOT covered under warranty!, folks just ran them hard 24/7 and never bothered to even check much less change the oil. One was chained with a massive lock to run the traffic lights, it was a Honda 2K watt job, told wife it wouldn't last 24 hours, I was correct. My all-time favorite theft was when in the wee hours of the night a dude arrived with a POS $30 lawn-mower at someone's house and had it running as he stole the genny, gotta give credit for creativity LOL.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

THAT was dicey! Neighbor down the street had a birch tree in their front yard snap, but it did not hit anything. It covers most of their front yard though.

I had no damage, but it was a rough ride. Cocoa Beach dodged the terrible erosion, so that was a dose of great fortune. Hopefully folks there suffered minimal damage. I also hope the bridges and beaches will be open pronto. The surf is calling me.

And I am stoked to read my Fl. Anandtech brothers and sisters are all safe and doing well!

 

[Aikouka]

One thing that I've considered doing is going with one of those whole-house generators. Now, the reason why I haven't is because we don't get power outages that much to really justify spending $5k+. Although, when it happens, you'd be sitting mighty fine. Anyway, what I was wondering about is these units use fuel (LP or NG) from the your gas line, but something has to pump the gas through the lines. How often do those pump stations go down in these large scale events?

 

[Puffnstuff]

I prefer the whole home generator with automatic disconnect approach as the unit is anchored down outside and kicks in automatically when it detects a power fluctuation disconnecting itself from the utility. I would want it running on natural gas which usually remains pressurized during a storm. I got lucky this time and never lost power although there were moments when it was fluctuating making the APC's kick in on the computers and the lights in the house flickered. If the eye had made landfall it would've been considerably worse and the damage to property would be catastrophic.

I was in Pensacola back in '04 when Ivan tore through and I suffered almost $30k in damages to my house which was well inland and on high ground so I never had a flood issue. Everything was wind related including the quick spin tornado that passed over my next door neighbors house ripping the top of his oak tree off and tossing it onto my roof. It then pushed two of my live oaks over on a steep angle and behind me it pushed a very large live oak over onto their house as it made its way across the street. At that home it actually stripped all of the bark off their live oak tree and didn't do anything to the structure of the house.

I was also in Pensacola when Camille hit the gulf coast back in 1969 and I still remember how strong the winds were even though we were that far away from where it made landfall. The damage from that storm was mind boggling. My aunt lived in Gulf Port, MS and we went to visit her afterwards and the storm surge had lifted the sea side lanes of the main highway bridge up about 4 feet but the DOT was allowing traffic over it. There were beached ships everywhere along the intercostal and then once we were heading into town there was a tug boat along with a two story house wrapped up in an enormous oak tree. The storm beat down interstate 10 so hard that the road surface was wavy and stayed that way for decades until l was reconstructed. I'm glad that we didn't get it any worse than we did back then and this time too. People who live right along the coast in the past of a hurricane and refuse to leave are idiots.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

People also have unrealistic ideas of when their power will return, when someone hit's a pole down the block it's back up in a few hours but when NINETY EIGHT% are without power in the county it's gonna be at least a week and probably much closer to 2 weeks..

My sister was in the area hit worst by the Halloween Nor'Easter of 2011. Freak storm dumped a foot or more of heavy wet snow on New England while the trees still had leaves. Most of the trees came down and in the worst areas of the state there were multiple instances of trees taking out wires on every block. It took three sets of crews to repair every break. Snow removal crew had to clear a path to the tree. Then the tree crew had to remove the tree. Then and only then could the power guys re-string the cables. Shift 50 feet down the block and repeat. Shift 50 more feet and repeat. It would take those three crews an entire day to go a block or two. We had emergency repair teams sent in from all over the country and still for most people it was two to three weeks to get power restored. You have no idea how long two weeks is until you try to live without power.

 

[Puffnstuff]

We had emergency repair teams sent in from all over the country and still for most people it was two to three weeks to get power restored. You have no idea how long two weeks is until you try to live without power.

After Hurricane Ivan it was Hydro Quebec crews that restored power to my neighborhood after 21 days without it. At that point I was grateful for the French speaking linemen from Canada who rescued us from the stone ages.

 

[bruceb]

Florida took a good hit from Matthew as did Haiti ... Also South Carolina is not doing so good. Over 380K people without power. News did not mention flooding, but it is bound to be happening. Also a lot of cell sites are off the air in the area. Up here in Apex, NC, just very heavy rain, but not torrential and not too windy as of now.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

After Hurricane Ivan it was Hydro Quebec crews that restored power to my neighborhood after 21 days without it. At that point I was grateful for the French speaking linemen from Canada who rescued us from the stone ages.

Oh yeah, they came from all over. To clean up from the Halloween Nor'Easter Connecticut and Massachusetts had crews from Canada and as far away as California, Arizona and New Mexico. If trucks could have driven here from Hawaii they would have come too. It was a goldmine, any crew that showed up was getting paid for 16 or 18 hour days 7 days a week. 40 hours of straight time and 50-60 hours of golden time. KA-CHING!!!

 

[bruceb]

Yes, the pay would have been great. But it is very hard work and in some cases, very dangerous.

 

[jpiniero]

Really does seem like the Carolinas are getting it worse than Florida did. That's really strange. The current forecast has it going out to sea and dissipating instead of heading back down toward the Bahamas.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Really does seem like the Carolinas are getting it worse than Florida did. That's really strange. The current forecast has it going out to sea and dissipating instead of heading back down toward the Bahamas.

The more powerful east side of the storm made landfall. That is why it is worse there than here in Fl. All that extra rain is causing horrible problems.

Best wishes to everyone in its path. I have some relatives in N.C. and we have not heard from them, must not have power or cell service. This storm is a beast, and we can only hope it does indeed start dying out. The idea of this coming back to Fl. makes my stomach churn. I have been through quite a few systems being a lifelong resident, but none of the ones that hit my area induced anywhere near the pucker factor this one gave me. I think I aged 10 yrs the other night.

I have to get in the attic and add some extra reinforcements to the trusses and some more hurricane clips. The back of the house was making creaking and groaning noises I never heard before. And I fear all the high winds that this house has experienced since being built in 1980 have taken their toll.

 

[highland145]

For us, S.C., looks like the upside was that the gov got ahead of this and evacuated. People bitched but so far I haven't seen any reports of dead. Locally, it's been a boon for local businesses. I had to forgo sushi and eat at a friends fish fry.

 

[lupi]

Heavy thunderstorm like rain for a couple hours now. Getting windy but not anywhere being a real worry yet. Heard a couple isolated power outages on the outlying areas along with flood prone areas doing so.

 

[lupi]

So the tracks are finally stopping that ridiculous 180. Will say though that it's a bitch trying to use the smoker today, wind making it about impossible to maintain a set temperature without babysitting it.

 

[bruceb]

My area, Apex, NC did fairly well. Just very heavy rain and some wind. No power loss. But people in parts of Raleigh, Fayetteville and Fuquay / Farina all of which are about 10 - 15 miles East of here, got hit bad. Lots of flooded streets, one area lost a small dam and there were over 350 thousand without power in the state. A friend who lives in or near Clayton lost power at 6PM yesterday. It was not back on by 9AM, haven't heard yet if it is fixed.

 

[VirtualLarry]

But people in parts of Raleigh, Fayetteville and Fuquay / Farina

How, exactly, do you pronounce, "Fuquay". Cause I can just imagine how I would say it, and it wouldn't be acceptable in pleasant company...

 

[dmcowen674]

My area, Apex, NC did fairly well. Just very heavy rain and some wind. No power loss. But people in parts of Raleigh, Fayetteville and Fuquay / Farina all of which are about 10 - 15 miles East of here, got hit bad. Lots of flooded streets, one area lost a small dam and there were over 350 thousand without power in the state. A friend who lives in or near Clayton lost power at 6PM yesterday. It was not back on by 9AM, haven't heard yet if it is fixed.

Hi Bruce, when did you move to NC?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Wow damage looks pretty bad but not as bad as one would expect, the wind damage does not seem as bad as the flood damage. They were showing houses on TV where it got washed out all the way down to the footing and you can see the weeping tile pipes just hanging. I wonder if those foundations are now considered compromised even though the house itself is ok.

 

[bruceb]

Came down end of Jan 2016 into a newly built 5200 sq ft house. Taxes here are around $8,700 per year compared to almost double that when I was in Wayne, NJ with a 3100 sq ft house. All other expenses here are similar in price.

 

[allisolm]

How, exactly, do you pronounce, "Fuquay". Cause I can just imagine how I would say it, and it wouldn't be acceptable in pleasant company...

When I lived in Fayetteville, I heard it said as few-kway.

 

[bruceb]

allisolm, glad you got out of that town, they got hit hard with Matthew. Where are you at now ?

 

[Darwin333]

Yup, although I have to LOL when I see someone at HD or Lowes with a genny and ONE 5 gallon gas-can, these people think it's like running a lawnmower, it's not, these guys work their ass off and gulp fuel accordingly.

I live in NOLA and have been through quite a few hurricanes, including Katrina. Well, I got the fuck out of the way for the actual storm but I was back in the following day with the other tier 1 companies/responders, basically I was in the same caravan as the first electric vehicles. The amount of people who bought gennies and one or two 5 gallon cans of gas was just crazy. I had over 150 gallons of gas already stocked in my backyard that I constantly rotate into my truck. Still, I had the entire back of my truck filled with gas cans on my way back in because it took too damn long to leave town to get stuff and get back in and gas was the most precious and fastest consumed commodity there is in situations like that. I tell everyone that will listen to stock up on a few days of food and water and as much gas as you possibly can. Fuck stocking up on gold, extra guns, massive supplies of ammo, tons of food, etc.... During Katrina I could trade gas for ANY of that stuff and at absurd exchange rates in my favor. Hell I had one guy offer to let me sleep with his wife for a few gallons of gas!! I feasted like a king for a two weeks straight in exchange for filling up two #5 bottles of propane, I'm talking huge steaks, ribs, shrimp, etc... All of this at a time when everyone else was eating MRE's. I actually did trade some gas for a nice gold chain, cost me $35. I could have gotten all the guns, ammo, food, water, gold, sex or whatever else I wanted with gas and I got to set the terms. OTOH if you wanted gas you were almost always shit out of luck because everyone was low and needed what they had, hell most needed more. You had to find someone with some they could possibly spare AND you had to make them an offer they couldn't refuse for them to even consider it.

It generally takes the national guard days to arrive and start giving out free food (MRE's), water and ice. Power, including the power for gas stations, takes much much longer. In post hurricane areas gas is KING. Period. Full stop. End of discussion. A single cheap pump action shotgun is plenty adequate to protect you and said gas. Even during Katrina simply having the gun visible (slung over your shoulder) made the roving groups of thugs and bad guys go the other direction and not mess with you, again this is from actual first hand experience.

One tip I will give people that not many people noticed. The power comes back on sporadically in areas and people would assume that since the gas station was closed they couldn't get gas. If you see the power is on then pay at the pump almost always worked regardless if the store was open or not.

 

[Darwin333]

We had emergency repair teams sent in from all over the country and still for most people it was two to three weeks to get power restored. You have no idea how long two weeks is until you try to live without power.

This can not be stressed enough. Even for those of you who aren't worried about being killed or hurt by the hurricane you really don't want to live through the shitty aftermath. I live in NOLA so I have no idea how it would be in the winter but most of our hurricanes happen in the dead of the summer. Hell even with power, two weeks in august without just air conditioning is just flat out miserable. Hell it still sucked pretty bad for me and I had a genny and a window unit so one room of my house was cooled and not humid as fuck.

 

[bruceb]

So that would be New Orleans. They have some interesting areas down there, such as The French Quarter and Bourbon St, food is said to be very tasty, but not safe from hurricanes and floods.

 

[Darwin333]

So that would be New Orleans. They have some interesting areas down there, such as The French Quarter and Bourbon St, food is said to be very tasty, but not safe from hurricanes and floods.

Yes, or N'awlins as us locals call it. Sorry, I forget that not everyone knows what NOLA is and yes we have the best food in the country and the hurricanes suck but the smart ones among us just get out of the way. Up until rather recently 100% of my work has been commercial roofing so they are really good for business though. Will delve into residential on the side after a storm, can make a few grand by just making one site visit, making a few phone calls to coordinate the subcontractor and materiel delivery and fronting the money for materials and labor a week or so. Don't even have to really measure the roof since the insurance adjustment has all the quantities and footage on it. Really freaking easy and quick money when I can fit it in with my swamped schedule from my day job. Next hail storm I think I'm going to find a hot young chick and pay her a few hundred dollars per signed contract, wouldn't take me more than a few hours to train her how to quote it based off the insurance adjustment and since the homeowner isn't coming out of pocket it's easy as selling water in a desert.