Storm Season 2024

Probably should have opened this thread a few weeks ago.

Several rounds of storms have crossed the US in the past few weeks, and two days ago several rounds of them came through the Midwest. There were 8 fatalities, that I know of, probably more. You can't really prep for that (other that have your will and stuff up to date), but there were also about 40,000 power outages. Some lasting for days. (I was fortunate: my power was only out for 19 hours.)

You can prep for that.

In fact, that might be the first thing people should prep for.

This is the later half of the tornado season, but Hurricane season is just beginning. If you are in middle or norther half of the country, it is still tornado season, possibly for the rest of the year.

For those with in 100 miles of the Gulf or Atlantic coasts, prepping for hurricanes is the thing.

For people 100 to 200 miles from the coast, floods, power outages, and refugees.

For those further inland, prepping for power outages in the summer heat, might be the most important thing.

After a major storm, there will be shortages of several things.

Everyone knows about water and batteries. Anyone living in a hurricane affected area knows that generators sell out.

But, I wonder if anyone knows about tarps selling out. And chain saws. (Makes me wonder how many will cut their foot off.) A lot of people had trees fall on their houses.

I got a little bit of real world experience with a portable generator.

If you have a portable gas generator, and intend to use it to run a window AC, the wattage of the generator needs to be at least equal to the BTU's of the window unit.

Once the AC is running, you can add things like a fridge, radio, and fan. But you need to start the biggest one first, and that is the window AC.

If you have a 6000 BTU window AC, you need at least a 6kw generator. You might get away with a slightly smaller one, but once in a while you will get an overload fault, and have to restart everything.

(Remember to let everything rest for at least five minutes, when you restart things.)

TRex2 wrote:I got a little bit of real world experience with a portable generator.

If you have a portable gas generator, and intend to use it to run a window AC, the wattage of the generator needs to be at least equal to the BTU's of the window unit.

Once the AC is running, you can add things like a fridge, radio, and fan. But you need to start the biggest one first, and that is the window AC.

If you have a 6000 BTU window AC, you need at least a 6kw generator. You might get away with a slightly smaller one, but once in a while you will get an overload fault, and have to restart everything.

(Remember to let everything rest for at least five minutes, when you restart things.)

Yeah, you're running into the surge rating required for motors to start. When a motor kicks on it draws two to three times the normal power, so if your generator is sized to run things without extra surge capacity then it will probably trip out.

In my office I have a dorm sized fridge, a 1200 watt microwave and a toaster oven all plugged into the same outlet. If the fridge is cooling I can run both the microwave and toaster oven at the same time, but if the cooking appliances are both running and the fridge kicks on then the circuit breaker will trip because of the extra starting power required for the compressor.

Some generators will have an additional surge rating which is meant for these brief extra power draws, so it's worthwhile if you're looking at a replacement generator to look for a surge rating in addition to its normal rating.

dmwalsh568 wrote:
Yeah, you're running into the surge rating required for motors to start. When a motor kicks on it draws two to three times the normal power, so if your generator is sized to run things without extra surge capacity then it will probably trip out.
....

Yep. That is exactly what it is.
And the 5 minute rest is because many things (AC and Fridge especially) don't restart easily, unit they get that rest.

At my last job, we had a power outage that lasted for about 2 seconds, and one of the AC's began buzzing loudly afterwards. Everyone panicked, except me. I turned it off and told them it would be ok after a 10 minute rest. It was. (Compressor had stalled.)

Forecasting fuel requirements gets into a little math.
(These are my own estimates, so if anyone knows something better, let me know.)

Using the KW rating of the generator, and then assuming you will run it around half load or less, most of the time, you can get a ball park estimate.

Generally speaking, you can get about 10 hp (or 8 KW) for an hour, out of a gallon of gas.
(Based on gas mileage of a '79 VW Rabbit, so this is very roughly speaking.)

So, with the 6kw generator we previously used, as an example,
half load would be 3kw.  Then calculating for 24 hours:

3(kw) x 24(hours) / 8(KW) = 9(gal).

So, you shouldn't need more than 9 gallons of gas per day.
The real amount is probably somewhat less.

For propane or city gas, divide by 5 instead of 8.

(These are my own estimates, so if anyone knows something better, let me know.)

.

We had a couple outages during the tornadoes happening for the previous 2 weeks. None near us, just high winds and lots of rain. The outages didn't last more than 2 hours. The manual well pump worked just fine to keep the toilets running, and we had jugs of water for drinking and dishes. The butane stove was easily used for cooking.

A few years ago, we had a crew come in and cut down the trees that were insect riddled, and trees too near the house. The crew also elevated the rest of our trees, cutting off problem branches, and creating channels through the others so wind would blow through instead of blowing them over. So far, it all seems to have worked well, even with high wind, we've not had much except small bits come off the trees in the yard.

One day last week, I thought I saw an intruder on our back acreage, but it could've been a trick of the light. Told Husband and he was immediately concerned, because 2 days before, he thought he'd seen someone back in thick brush in the same spot! So, we now have a camera back there.

We've had a lot, and I mean a lot, of new people moving out of the city nearby, and building homes/placing campers on some of the land around us that has been empty for decades. Just in a 30 mile radius of us...I'd say there are at least 25 new dwellings - which in our little town of 800+ is a lot! Most appear to be good neighbors, we've not had any incidents, but the intruder was cause for concern, because we do have posted No Trespassing signs back there.

Other than that, we are as prepared as we can be for natural disasters for the summer, and the coming winter weather later.

TRex2 wrote:This is the later half of the tornado season, but Hurricane season is just beginning. If you are in middle or norther half of the country, it is still tornado season, possibly for the rest of the year.

For those with in 100 miles of the Gulf or Atlantic coasts, prepping for hurricanes is the thing.

For people 100 to 200 miles from the coast, floods, power outages, and refugees.

For those further inland, prepping for power outages in the summer heat, might be the most important thing.

I forgot to mention, if you have been thinking about buying a generator, you should probably do it now (this may even be a bit late) since, once the first hurricane hits, there is usually a shortage of them, until around March.

And the first storms in the Atlantic and Caribbean are already stirring up.

Cinnamon wrote:...
A few years ago, we had a crew come in and cut down the trees that were insect riddled, and trees too near the house. The crew also elevated the rest of our trees, cutting off problem branches, and creating channels through the others so wind would blow through instead of blowing them over. So far, it all seems to have worked well, even with high wind, we've not had much except small bits come off the trees in the yard.
...

I should have done the same here.

I have said, for a while, that God made me blind to some of the problems with this property, since at least a couple of those problems were actually on my list of things to watch out for. He must want me here.

We had four ash trees overhanging our house, and I didn't think much of it, because I had always heard that ash is a "hard wood" and figured they wouldn't cause any problems. Well, coming from Central Texas, where trees rarely top 25 feet, and where Live Oak is virtually indestructible, I was not well informed on the matter. These ash trees were 85 feet tall and nearing the end of their life.

I had two of those trees taken out within two years, and a third one last January. (Would have been sooner, but every person who can take out such a tree was already booked up, months in advance, due to the past two years of storms.)

Still have one, but I am going to gamble that it will be here longer than I will be.

Trees and power poles are the issues. My sister in Oklahoma was without power all night 2 days ago. At last count 49 power poles were down. They have power now, but she said it was a very hot, miserable night. Plus tornado watch...

Out here where we live, if a tree comes down across a road, the locals are likely to get it cut up and out of the way faster than any government entity. This happened when a tree came down on our main road out of the area. Two neighbors took care of the issue and had it cleared within minutes by dragging the tree off the road, and then they cut it up into sizeable chunks to burn (it was rotten).

We just assume we're on our own, and take care of ourselves and each other.

Cinnamon wrote:Trees and power poles are the issues. My sister in Oklahoma was without power all night 2 days ago. At last count 49 power poles were down. They have power now, but she said it was a very hot, miserable night. Plus tornado watch...

Out here where we live, if a tree comes down across a road, the locals are likely to get it cut up and out of the way faster than any government entity. This happened when a tree came down on our main road out of the area. Two neighbors took care of the issue and had it cleared within minutes by dragging the tree off the road, and then they cut it up into sizeable chunks to burn (it was rotten).

We just assume we're on our own, and take care of ourselves and each other.

That is a good thing about small towns and rural counties. The higher the population of an area, the more people will become like Barney Fife and Ginger Rogers.

Husband and I drove a different route to the big city and had no idea that a swath of land about 8 miles from us apparently experienced a microburst. A lot of snapped off trees, some had been cut to clear roads. Happened with in the last few days as I drove that route last week.

While we aren't currently under any tornado watch, south and north of us are...

Our kid in Houston just got power back after 12 days without it. She and the dog camped at a friend's house because she is currently in a sling due to arm surgery.

I've offered to visit to help her out, but not sure what she'll be doing. The friend has offered for her to stay as long as she wants...but at some point that fridge and freezer in her home will need to be cleaned out.

Cinnamon wrote:Our kid in Houston just got power back after 12 days without it. She and the dog camped at a friend's house because she is currently in a sling due to arm surgery.

I've offered to visit to help her out, but not sure what she'll be doing. The friend has offered for her to stay as long as she wants...but at some point that fridge and freezer in her home will need to be cleaned out.

I would have camped out somewhere, just because of the heat.
Houston is unbearable without A/C.

(Almost unbearable with A/C )

But, I am glad to hear she survived.

I stand corrected.

She and the friend cleaned out her fridge and freezer BEFORE they left her abode. So she came back to no need to clean out a mess. They brought some of her food back and got more, too.

She is happily back in her home with dog, and doing well.

Cinnamon wrote:I stand corrected.

She and the friend cleaned out her fridge and freezer BEFORE they left ...

Thank God.

There are some smells you just can never get out of a refrigerator.

The SouthEast is still suffering from the two major hurricanes that went through Florida, in Late Sep and Early Oct.  

N. Caroline still has about 8,000 customers (translates to about 24,000 people) without power. Florida, about 55,000 customers.

We hear about the numbers of deaths, but they aren't that meaningful if it isn't one of us. The author of Avian Flu Diary hasn't been heard from, since the storm. Hopefully that just means he doesn't have a good Internet connection.  

He lives in a mobile home, somewhere inland, and planned to move to a friend's (sturdier)place, in the last 24 hours before the storm hit. He expected the drive to be slowed by heavy traffic.

https://afludiary.blogspot.com/

Threat Level - Potential ...

*Some roads impassable from large debris, and more within urban or heavily wooded places. Several bridges, causeways, and access routes impassable.

*Large areas with power and communications outages.

Communications are important.

Milton updates:

My Florida friend went three days without power, but other than trees down all over the yard, they're OK.

Western North Carolina is in desperate need. The little farming community where I live is gathering up spare hay bales to take to the farmers/ranchers in WNC. Convoy Of Hope is working on relief supplies, too.

Getting conflicting reports on what FEMA is doing as far as disaster relief.

TRex2 wrote:... The author of Avian Flu Diary hasn't been heard from, since the storm. Hopefully that just means he doesn't have a good Internet connection.  

He lives in a mobile home, somewhere inland, and planned to move to a friend's (sturdier)place, in the last 24 hours before the storm hit. He expected the drive to be slowed by heavy traffic.

https://afludiary.blogspot.com/

Threat Level - Potential ...

*Some roads impassable from large debris, and more within urban or heavily wooded places. Several bridges, causeways, and access routes impassable.

*Large areas with power and communications outages.

Communications are important.

After 8 days with no communication, he is back on line.

Cinnamon wrote:Milton updates:

My Florida friend went three days without power, but other than trees down all over the yard, they're OK.

Western North Carolina is in desperate need. The little farming community where I live is gathering up spare hay bales to take to the farmers/ranchers in WNC. Convoy Of Hope is working on relief supplies, too.

Getting conflicting reports on what FEMA is doing as far as disaster relief.

We need reliable reporters, on the ground. We have reporters on the ground, but they are not reliable sources. (Many of our reports are coming from people with an ax to grind.) The government, OTOH, is never to be trusted.

Apparently, a group called Cabins For Christ has sent a bunch of Amish people (who are living in tents) to build small homes in WNC for the people who are now homeless. I've not found a reliable news source for this - only the repeated Instagram/TikTok posts. So not real sure if this is happening, or if someone is spreading false info (of course, that could apply to me, too, I guess, with this post).