Here Comes Ivan!

[Tom LaRussa]

Well fellow Florida Creekers, here we go again!

Thought I'd start a new thread so we don't have to scroll endlessly through the old one while simultaneously dodging flying trees and such. :o

Decided to board up the old homestead for this one. (Dodging three bullets in a row is just too much to ask, IMHO.)

Problem: BORG & Lowes selling out of plywood faster than they can get it in, and didn't have time to spend all day in line, in the heat, only to find wind up going away empty handed -- especially since I would need to rent one of their trucks to bring the stuff home, and there is about a six hour wait for that alone!

So, I wound up punting...

Putting my (limited) woodworker's knowledge of plastics to use, I decided to buy a bunch of polycarbonate roof panels rather than waiting all day for mythical plywood. When I got them home, I stretched one out between two hard surfaces about 4' apart, had a person sit on each end, and then whacked at it with a 3 lb sledge hammer. The stuff bent but did not permanently deform, let alone crack.

So, I figure that stretching this stuff across a framework of 2x4s should do the trick on anything but the heaviest objects traveling at extreme velocities. Oh, and just in case, I'm also adding a layer or two of plastic mesh screening between the frame and the polycarb panels -- to act as sort of a flexible catch fence.

The idea here is simply to keep wind-driven rain out of the house. Any heavy object flying at the house will probably go ahead and take out the window, but glass is easily replaced.

Reluctant Gloat:

There is not a concrete anchor to be had in the greater Tampa area, so far as I can tell, so I'm having to punt in that regard as well. So I'm taking the advice of an epoxy company and epoxying 1/4" nuts in 5/8" holes in the stucco exterior of the house. A carriage bolt, with an extra nut and washer threaded all the way to the head, will go through a hole in the 2x4 frame of the protective panel and screw into the nut epoxyed into the wall. The extra nut will then be tightened against the wood, thus creating a sort of compression fitting. The idea is to do this in such a way that it can be repeated in the future, but without necessitating leaving bolts sticking out of the house all over the place.

Which brings me to the reluctant gloat.

In order to drill all these holes in the stucco, I need a much better drill than the 10-year old, badly abused, $30 Ryobi that I generally make due with. So, after considering all the issues -- such as the need to be able to use this thing quickly, and in the rain, preferably without electrocuting myself, and the fact that all of the DeWalts were sold out -- I settled on the 18 volt Milwaukee hammerdrill -- for the measly price of $249! :eek: :eek: :eek:

I know that for some of the folks around here $249 is not a lot to pay for a good hammerdrill/driver/thingie, but that $249 price tag makes it the second most expensive tool in my shop, after my Griz G0555. What really chafes is that just a few weeks ago Lowes had all kinds of closeouts on such items, and I happily ignored them, since I had no need for such a tool. :mad:

Oh well...

[Jim Becker]

Take care, Tom. The 'rents, who live just south of Ocala, are debating whether to bug-out this time around. They only had some minor roof damage from Franie, but my dad is getting a little panic-ey and with major bypass surgery only a couple of months ago, he really doesn't need this stress!!

[Tyler Howell]

Hang on guys I'm sending help. I volunteered to come down and get the planes flying again. Two of my crew are on the way but I haven't gotten the nod yet. Been a long time since I've done any real wrenchin on equipment but It's like riding a bike. I've stayed current in most of my certs and big wrench stuff, I can do in my sleep. We haven't forgotten you, and we will do our best.

Got your back;)
PS That's a goat Tom, but we'll fore go pix till things calm down:cool:

[Tony Falotico]

The 'rents, who live just south of Ocala, are debating whether to bug-out this time around.

Jim, if they are leaving get 'em out of here tomorrow. We (FDOT) went into evacuation mode on the interstates today. When I went to get my Aunts in Titusville last Thursday, it took 3 hrs to get there, a little over 8 hrs to get them back up here. The airports are jamming up also.

The general mood in FL is very tired, cranky and ready for this all to end!

[Dan Mages]

I've never lived in Hurricaine territory, so please excuse my ignorance. Why do you use plywood instead of purchasing some sort of permanent storm shutter system?

Dan

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Tony....keep us posted on your condition....you and others will be in our thoughts and prayers!

[Doug Jones]

Take care, Tom. The 'rents, who live just south of Ocala, are debating whether to bug-out this time around. They only had some minor roof damage from Franie, but my dad is getting a little panic-ey and with major bypass surgery only a couple of months ago, he really doesn't need this stress!!

Jim,
My Grandfather lives in the Ocala/ Silver Springs area. How did that area fair after Fransis went through? I still haven't been able to get word to or from him. I thought that with your parents being down in that area you might know something.
Thanks for any info, Doug

[Jim Becker]

Doug, my parents are just south of your Grandfather in Summerfield...about 15-20 minutes or so. They had some roof damage where a bunch of their 12-year-old shingles went "bye-bye" with the resulting leaks, but no other damage. They lost power for about 20 hours and phone a little longer, but all was restored early in the week.

I don't know why you wouldn't be able to reach your GF as the phones seem to be working in the area, at least for the calls I've made. I spoke with my mother yesterday morning, as a matter of fact. Of course, as I write this, they are not answering the phone...perhaps they bugged out from the "Ivan party", but it's weird that they wouldn't call before hitting the road if that's what they did. I'll have to try their cell.

[Michael Barry]

Tom,
Good luck with those epoxied nuts. Tough not being able to find any concrete anchors. If it's any consolation I use Redhead bolts with the expansion sleeves on my house and they tend to come loose. I ended up putting a few extra tapcons in a few boards.szzzzzzzzzzzzzv vddddddddmsxaxxxvvvccvn bh bvv v he f frt hbtgnnnnnnnnnnnn Vvbb b V

[Michael Barry]

Tom,
Sorry about my last post. My 1 year old grandaughter was sitting on my lap and thought to add her own comments. Any way what I was getting at about the tapcons was that the ones I used were the generic bronze ones HD and Lowes sell for anchoring patio screen enclosures. They have bags of bronze and white ones back by the screen stuff and not everyone knows they are back there. Maybe if you are lucky there will be some left.

Dan,
My plywood is a permanent storm shutter system. Cut to fit my windows and anchored into my block walls. 3/4 inch ply is very resistant to impact, stores in my garage and is a lot cheaper than those corrugated steel shutters you see bouncing down the street in video of every hurricane. And my plywood shutters go up faster than my neighbors metal ones. Did I mention plywood is cheaper?

[Jim Becker]

Well....just got a call from the 'rents. They are just south of Richmond "as I type" and headed here to totally avoid whatever form the storm takes in Florida. I've been calling for days, both on the land-line and cell with no success and was getting a little "itchy". Apparently they've been having communication problems. At any rate, at least I know where they are, where they'll be and that they are fine.

[Tony Falotico]

They are just south of Richmond "as I type" and headed here to totally avoid whatever form the storm takes in Florida. ..........At any rate, at least I know where they are, where they'll be and that they are fine.

Jim, glad to hear they are safe, haven't left the house today so I don't know what the interstate is like, I think everyone is taking a wait & see attitude on Ivan. NOAA keeps moving it west every update, so maybe the peninsular will be spared this one.

Unfortunately, it's heading straight for Ken Wright in Thomasville Georgia. You OK Ken, haven't heard from ya in a few days......

[Jim Becker]

They just arrived, Tony. The traffic from Washington DC north was hellacious due to the normal Sunday evening migration north plus the extra traffic from northern folks leaving the south due to the storms. It added an extra two hours to the normally 6.5 hour ride from just below Richmond where they stayed last night.

[Ken Wright]

and thanks for asking ... for the last couple of days been in the "shell shocked" mode that Mother of all Storms this season has been aimed at us up here. Fortunately they've moved the track over to Mobile and now back to Ft Walton but I have no confidence in prep for the immediate future. Have spent a couple of days trying to find wide open pastures for the horses and have failed miserably. Everything is either barbed wire or has as many potential pine missles as mine. Daughter standing by to come down from Atlanta with her 6 horse trailer and move them to her place but we can't get enough definitive info to pull the trigger on the LONG turnaround on that trip.

The biggest problem for me is to understand what I'm facing ... if it swings again and its a head on its a no brainer ... get the heck out of here... But .. if it comes in between Ft Walton and Panama City I really cannot fathom what my risk will be ... at least with the current info.

Oh well ... on the gloat side ... I did buy the Shop Fox 2HP Shaper on Friday giving Miller Hardware the instructions that I would not pick it up until AFTER Unca Ivan played his hand. As some of you may know .. my shop is in one end of a horse barn and pretty much subject to the elements. Have given up on trying to even think about moving my Shop Fox Cabinet saw, the bandsaw, drill press etc. :confused: :confused: :confused:

[Ken Wright]

to be the one to post the 13th reply didn't I????? :eek: :eek:

[Jim Becker]

to be the one to post the 13th reply didn't I????? :eek: :eek:
Yes, but I had the 13th actual post in this thread...I better be carefull where I walk tonight!

[Tony Falotico]

The biggest problem for me is to understand what I'm facing ... if it swings again and its a head on its a no brainer ... get the heck out of here... But .. if it comes in between Ft Walton and Panama City I really cannot fathom what my risk will be ... at least with the current info.

I hear ya Brother, Hard to tell what to do. I'm off to Orlando today for the rest of the week, not extremely comfortable about leaving right now, but we'll keep an eye on the storm and can be back here withing a few hours if needed. Looks like it's going west of you, but you will still feel it.

Hang in there Ken, a few weeks we'll be laughing and joking about all this.........

Tony

[Ken Wright]

we're off the hook this morning but unfortunately at the risk of a great number of others including a dear friend and 22 year boss .. Bob Pittman over in Mobile.

There's a lot to be thankful for every day ... but particularly this morning.

[Earl Kelly]

Well guy's I haven't posted in a bit, and thought I'd get a post in before we get realllly busy around here. Yesterday they had the track coming within a few miles of my place here in P'cola. It's been fluctuating to the east and west of us. This morning it's over in baldwin county,next door, about 20-30 miles. I've ridden out Frederic, Opal and Erin in the last 20 or so yrs. I've not seen any models or forecasts that would indicate the storm is going anywhere but up here on the central gulf coast. It's as large as Francis and will be as strong as Charlie. So everyone from New Orleans to Cedar Key is going to feel some of it.

Wish evryone well and hang on to your hat it's gonna get windy.

[Ken Wright]

appears that you've been tagged ... if there's anything I can do give a shout ...

[Pete Lamberty]

Hi Tom, I hope you and your family will be safe. I do have a couple of questions for the people who live in Florida. Aren't all of the houses supposed to have hurricane shutters? Don't they just close over the windows and therefore make it unneccessary to "board up"? Also I would think that if I lived there I would have have cut up plywood, long ago, to fit each window and just store it in the garage. Then it would be there when I needed it. Evidently no one does this. Obviously I know nothing about living in hurricane territory. I live near Chicago. Just wondering, and good luck.

[Earl Kelly]

Ken,thanks, for the offer. Power co. says be prepared for up to 3 wks. without if it's a bad storm. We'll just have to see how bad it is afterwards. Just hope my house and shop survives intact.

Pete, some people do have ply already for windows. And some have never been through a Hurricane before. It would be nice to have some really strong shutters you could just close. The hurricane shutters that you put up when a storm comes, the cheapest aren't. My SIL paid $5000.00 for her house shutter and it takes about 4-6 hrs. to put them up. The more expensive houses on the water have powered rolldown shutters they activate before they leave.

[Kevin Arceneaux]

New Orleans is bugging out. What a mess, it took our operations manager a hour extra to drive from Morgan City up here to Lafayette. But southern Plaquemines, Terrebone, and La fourch Parishes are a whole 3 feet above sea level. It is time for them to go.

Earl, one of my testers went through Opal in P-cola. He ended up with 7 feet of water in his house. Be Safe!

For those interested, this is a link to the I-10/I12 webcam in Baton Rouge. Normally the westbound side is pretty empty in the afternoon, it is inbound to downtown.
http://www.2theadvocate.com/traffic/tower.shtml

[Chris Padilla]

Wow...these hurricanes are nasty suckers. Imagine if we could harness the energy of those storms to turn generators for electricity....

I live in Japan for 4 years (6-10 years old) from '75 - '79 and went through a few typhoons (I'm guessing the Pacific Ocean equivalent of a hurricane?). Pretty scary as a child....

[Michael Barry]

Pete,
In response to your question about shutters. There is no law or insurance requirement to put up shutters of any kind. Down here in South Florida builders have started to include them in new construction but older homes don't have them.
Many people have plywood cut to fit their windows as I do, but many other newer Florida residents don't as yet. Some others don't like to save the plywood from storm to storm. South Florida is not famous for the intelligence of it's inhabitants.
To all the Creekers in Ivan's path. STAY SAFE!

Mike

[Kevin Arceneaux]

I was talking to a couple of people this morning at the store, second exit north of I10 on I49. They left New Orleans last night at 9 and arrived there at 7 this morning. This is normally a 2 hour drive.

My wife looked this morning, the closest motel room was Corpus Christi, Tx.

Looks like all I am going to get is 20-40mph winds.

[Ken Salisbury]

Huntsville Ala expecting 40 - 60 mph winds and 3" - 6" of rain Thurs PM - Fri

Looks like I should have left for Terry's BBQ instead of staying here for the Craft Show Fri, Sat & Sun. I suspect attendance will be drastically affected :) Oh well !, what the heck - it's only money

[Chris Padilla]

Yeah, Ken! I thought you were going at one time, then a change of plans cropped up, and Mother Nature intervened and now you wish you had taken off for Arkansas! :) Funny how things work sometimes.... Best of luck at the show...hope you get something out of it.