Official Hurricane Florence Thread

[K1052]

Going by social media anyway it looks like a lot of people in costal SC are going to ignore the evac order and try to ride it out. Lots of population growth since Hugo.

 

[vi edit]

I've been talking to a friend in Raleigh area who has inlaws in Wilmington. He's pleading with them to leave but they are staying put.

 

[highland145]

I've been talking to a friend in Raleigh area who has inlaws in Wilmington. He's pleading with them to leave but they are staying put.

WTF? Ground zero. Hope he's got their life insurance policies.

 

[vi edit]

Yup. Hurricane casual.

 

[BoomerD]

I get not WANTING to evacuate...so many dickheads see evacuated neighborhoods as easy pickings for burglaries, but what’s more important...Your stuff or your life?

 

[vi edit]

Question - how are the building standards in NC/SC? Are many structures up to snuff for something like Cat4/5 winds?

 

[snoopy7548]

Question - how are the building standards in NC/SC? Are many structures up to snuff for something like Cat4/5 winds?

No idea, but my mom said the windows in their new townhouse is rated for up to Cat4 winds. Not sure about impact, though.

My brother's house a short drive from downtown Charleston and was built ~10-15' up on piers or whatever. They had massive flooding last year at this exact time (Irma I think) and the water came up to the top step of the porch but everything else was fine.

 

[Darwin333]

Just keep @Darwin333 away from the helm....and the beer...and the galley....hell, just leave him at home.

I am always in charge of the beer.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Question - how are the building standards in NC/SC? Are many structures up to snuff for something like Cat4/5 winds?

For SC, totally depends on the area. I have a property in Sumter SC and they had a severe storm there a few years back, drowned like half the city that was below/on the flood plain, but mine was fine. Lots of older buildings above flood plain got rocked by winds though.

Inlaws are on Hilton Head Island and they got rocked by that hurricane a year or two back, their house was fine but a LOT of places got wrecked from trees falling on them due to local codes preventing their removal... hurricane must've done a lot of paperwork on the way in.

 

[highland145]

I am always in charge of the beer.

Guess it's BYOB then for me.

 

[Darwin333]

https://youtu.be/-Kou0HBpX4A

Crazy video if y’all want to see how real things got during Katrina

Yeah, storm surge is a serious bitch. And those guys are a lot braver and/or stupider than I am. Even after you get through the storm you have to wait out the aftermath, it can be many days before you can travel to a non-fucked up area and that's assuming they were somehow able to get their vehicle much farther inland. If not it will be even longer before they allow people in so they can be picked up, which is probably the same if they were able to get their vehicle inland. Stuck in a nasty ass flooded out hotel with no power on the Gulf coast in friggen August and only the supplies that you brought with you. Fuuuck that shit. I was back into the NOLA area a day and a half after Katrina hit, we were well prepared too, and it still sucked huge balls.

 

[bruceb]

Wilmington and the coastal areas are going to get real hard. Apex, Raleigh, Holly Springs areas will get a lot of rain and some wind. Hopefully this storm takes a more easterly turn.

 

[Darwin333]

I cant believe there’s people wanting to ride it out. Wtf is the point, you can’t save your property anyways and all it’s doing is putting the inevitable rescuers lives at risk. If you have to get saved from this it should be a requirement that you get your ass whipped.

Not me man. I lived through Andrew and dealt with the aftermath of Katrina. You aren’t stopping a wall of water, it will always win. It’d be like standing out in the middle of the traffic just because. It’s pointless.

It's probably that completely irrational hope people have for some reason, like running after a car that's rolling down a steep hill thinking they'll somehow be able to stop it.

From my experience you have three types of people that tend to ride it out.

1. The idiots that say they made it through XYZ storm so they will be fine.
2. The idiots that stay to make sure the looters don't take their shit because their house is obviously at the top of their list instead of actual stores.
3. The poor bastards that just can't afford it, don't have transportation, etc... I know the government usually has accommodations for those people but after hearing and reading the horror stories of the people evacuated by the government during Katrina riding it out might seem like a better option.

 

[Darwin333]

Man, last Hurricane that came through Raleigh was Fran in 96. That was a bitching time....My mom is still in Durham, she's got her lanterns, water, and dry goods for a few days, could drive further west if need be a couple of days after it its, assuming that's possible. Told her to get her ass up here but she doesn't want to be that far away in case things go to shit. that's kinda the point, I said....She lives in the woods. Place is surrounded by tall pines and soft, wet soil. Her power goes out once a week because of falling trees. On any old day. FFS.

Family friend has his big-ass house out on the marsh in Hamstead, just south of Topsail Island, and which is basically Wilmington. Their backyard is the intercoastal waterway. I'm guessing they are hosed.

extensive marshes are a really good buffer for flooding though, and it probably won't be as bad as it could be for them, but we'll see. It's coming dead on through the house and likely not running up the coast, so that's probably different.

If that was my mom I'd be dragging her out of the house wheater she wanted to go or not.

 

[K1052]

I've been talking to a friend in Raleigh area who has inlaws in Wilmington. He's pleading with them to leave but they are staying put.

One of the most recent precipitation models shows Wilmington receiving almost 4 FEET of rain.

 

[vi edit]

Somebody probably looking at map....4'...4 inches ain't bad.

 

[zinfamous]

If that was my mom I'd be dragging her out of the house wheater she wanted to go or not.

sounds like she got the message and is heading west today or tomorrow. Though I worry that it still might be too late with traffic. I'm going to bother her some more in a bit. Problem is, I can't really get down there and drag her out right now.

 

[Darwin333]

Question - how are the building standards in NC/SC? Are many structures up to snuff for something like Cat4/5 winds?

There aren't many buildings that are up to snuff for Cat 4/5 winds. We put the roof on an EOC center that was designed to withstand a Cat 5 and the amount of engineering that went into it along with the construction was insane. It is virtually impossible to accurately test all of the components of a building to ensure it will survive winds like that, especially since most structures like the roof are tested individually but rely on other parts of the building not in the scope of roofing. I can install a roof that will survive a Cat5 but if what I install it to isn't engineered to survive it and what it is installed to isn't engineered to survive it and if all of those systems don't work perfectly in sync you can still have a catastrophic failure.

Then there is the fact that the building standards for wind speed have only increased relatively recently and most buildings are older. I often get asked to price out a roof to the required uplift rating and a roof to a higher uplift rating. In all but a single case they went with the cheaper option.

 

[Darwin333]

Guess it's BYOB then for me.

Hey, I take my responsibility seriously thank you very much. You'll get your fair share and I always make sure to bring backup booze just in case. If the situation gets really dire I might even share some of my personal backup backup booze with you.

 

[Paratus]

WTF? Ground zero. Hope he's got their life insurance policies.

Yup. Hurricane casual.

I get not WANTING to evacuate...so many dickheads see evacuated neighborhoods as easy pickings for burglaries, but what’s more important...Your stuff or your life?

Having lived through 3 different hurricanes (Rita, Ike, and Harvey) and evacuated for two of them (Rita and Ike) let me offer my thoughts on evacuation vs staying put.

There’s actually significant risks to both staying or leaving depending on the situation

In general if you are somewhere that has a risk to see high Cat2 + winds or are in an area that will see storm surge and it’s 72 hrs or more away be prepared to leave.

If it’s less than 36 hours - leave.
If you are ordered to leave - leave.

This is what can happen:

If you get into trouble there will be no emergency services that can get to you and if they try you’ll be putting them at risk due to your stupidity.

Even if your house is ok there will be no services and you’ll likely be without power for days or weeks.

What if you’re in the the area that will see tropical storm conditions should you leave?

Consider staying or either leaving very early or very late. If you leave at the wrong time a 3 hour drive can turn into 14.

More people died in the Rita evacuation than died due to the storm. 100,000s of people outside the mandatory evacuation zones decided to evacuate and created one of the worst traffic jams in history. (It took a friend 40 hours on the highway to drive the 250miles to Dallas)

Finally what about massive rains like in Harvey?

If the predictions show you getting record amounts of rain consider leaving. Especially if you are in 100year flood plain and live in a single floor structure. If you stay never go into the attic if floodwaters enter your home without a way out. Consider taking a hatchet or axe to cut your way out if you do.

 

[Paratus]

One of the most recent precipitation models shows Wilmington receiving almost 4 FEET of rain.

Been there done that. Have the PTSD to prove it.

 

[highland145]

One of the most recent precipitation models shows Wilmington receiving almost 4 FEET of rain.

Just talked with a customer whose Mom is in Wilmington. She's going to ride it out because his sister won't leave. Told him to get the insurance policy #s and tell them to break out the sharpie so their bodies can be identified later.

 

[Darwin333]

sounds like she got the message and is heading west today or tomorrow. Though I worry that it still might be too late with traffic. I'm going to bother her some more in a bit. Problem is, I can't really get down there and drag her out right now.

Yeah I'd definitely bug the shit out of her to leave today, not sure how the exit routes or the number of people leaving over there but Katrina was an absolute clusterfuck of traffic. Katrina was kind of a special situation for us because it wasn't supposed to hit us and then relatively late in the forecasting it shifted straight to us. Still, everyone tends to wait as long as they can to leave so no matter what the longer you wait the worse it will be and since she isn't even paying for a hotel she should GTFO now. I assume she already has her important stuff in a big Tupperware box, I pack mine up at the beginning of hurricane season. I can be out of my house in under 30 minutes and half of that is getting the dog and his stuff together.

 

[Darwin333]

If the predictions show you getting record amounts of rain consider leaving. Especially if you are in 100year flood plain and live in a single floor structure. If you stay never go into the attic if floodwaters enter your home without a way out. Consider taking a hatchet or axe to cut your way out if you do.

Even though I always evacuate for major storms I have a hatchet mounted in my attic with a cheapo flashlight up there that I replace yearly in the absurdly unlikely event that I lose all of my flashlights/lanterns/headlights. Worst case scenario the whirly bird vents are fairly easy to bust out from inside and most people should be able to brute force the hole big enough to get through or improvise some sort of tool with what you have in the attic assuming you have a light source.

 

[Darwin333]

Just talked with a customer whose Mom is in Wilmington. She's going to ride it out because his sister won't leave. Told him to get the insurance policy #s and tell them to break out the sharpie so their bodies can be identified later.

Don't forget to have them put all their jewelry and valuables in a tupperware box and go around it a few times with duct tape so he can retrieve them later.