Hurricane Florence is looking more and more like a major threat to the Carolinas. Just thinking of those in its path.
[OP]
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Are You In Flo's Path?
Hurricane Florence is looking more and more like a major threat to the Carolinas. Just thinking of those in its path.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness..." - Mark Twain
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We are not, but Professor Dr. SWMBO's brother and SIL live in Wilmington NC...which is nearly on the centerline of the currently projected path of the storm.
--
The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
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Living with the possibility of an earthquake is nothing when compared to living with the likelihood of hurricanes. It is not my cup of tea.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
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You can prepare for hurricanes. Even after all I went through with Irma and Maria, I'd rather have that than an earthquake. Also I'll take hurricanes over tornadoes for the same reason, although hurricanes typically spawn tornadoes, and the worst damage we had here was from tornadoes. Still, I'd rather have one sprout in a hurricane that I prepared for than to pop up unexpected during a rain storm.Originally Posted by Jim Koepke
I am very fortunate not to be in the path of Florence. Bermuda also is very fortunate that Florence took a different path than initially expected. As for me, Isaac is tracking to the west, and if he keeps that track I will be OK. It is still possible for a turn to the north, which would be troublesome for me. Please pray for Dominica, where I have many friends. This is set to direct hit them, and they were badly damaged by the hurricanes last year. This is going to be bad for them. Note: This is Dominica, not the Dominican Republic. Dominica is a beautiful island in the Lesser Antilles between Martinique and Guadeloupe. They have one of the largest numbers of centenarians per capita of any country in the world. They are also some of the friendliest people you'd ever want to meet- always smiling. I believe the two are related.
Member
God speed all in the path. Thankfully, it's not me. I was technically (just) within the cone earlier, but it has moved north and I'm out of it now. Will probably get a bit of rain and a bit of wave and a bit of surge, but hopefully not too much.
Fair winds and following seas,
Jim Waldron
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No, but I seem to be seeing a lot more Progressive Insurance ads lately.
(Oops, sorry, wrong thread.)
Yoga class makes me feel like a total stud, mostly because I'm about as flexible as a 2x4.
"Design"? Possibly. "Intelligent"? Sure doesn't look like it from this angle.
We used to be hunter gatherers. Now we're shopper borrowers.
The three most important words in the English language: "Front Towards Enemy".
The world makes a lot more sense when you remember that Butthead was the smart one.
You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much ammo.
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I wouldn't want to be around for the big one: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...really-big-one
Contributor
I've lived in both Florida and California, and there's really no comparison of the relative risk. In 40+ years here, I've witnessed exactly two earthquakes that did what I'd call serious damage (Loma Prieta in 1989 and Northridge in 1994). Pretty much any Atlantic or Gulf hurricane that makes landfall does the same order-of-magnitude damage as both of those earthquakes combined. Not to mention the near-hits and downgraded storms that cause massive flooding hundreds of miles from their "epicenter" equivalent.
And I really question the amount of effective preparation you can do for a Katrina/Sandy/Harvey-sized storm, unless you define "preparation" as "evacuate, return, and rebuild". YMMV.
Yoga class makes me feel like a total stud, mostly because I'm about as flexible as a 2x4.
"Design"? Possibly. "Intelligent"? Sure doesn't look like it from this angle.
We used to be hunter gatherers. Now we're shopper borrowers.
The three most important words in the English language: "Front Towards Enemy".
The world makes a lot more sense when you remember that Butthead was the smart one.
You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much ammo.
Contributor
Maybe. We have 150 acres of Pine trees that we had thinned a year and a half ago. I let them grow tall enough while they were thick until all the limbs fell off below 35 feet. The plan was to get some good, clear saw logs rather than get the maximum tonnage per acre like the vast majority of timber growers go for these days. They're still pretty spindly, with high canopies, but the canopies are still small enough that we're hoping they can survive.
My worry the first year after thinning was ice storms, but now it's hurricanes.
That stand was one of the last big log stands around, but after Hurricane Fran dropped a large percentage of it, we were either going to lose it all to rot, and bugs, or have it clearcut, and start all over again, so that's what we did.
Contributor
I think you should Google the ten deadliest hurricanes of all time and the ten deadliest earthquakes of all time and compare the casualty counts.
I believe you will find that earthquakes can be remarkably more lethal than hurricanes. As an example, the death tolls from the Northridge and Loma Prieta earthquakes you mention were about 60 people each while the Tohoku earthquake in Japan in 2011 (the one that took out the Fukushima nuclear power facility), claimed over 18,000 lives. The 2004 earthquake in Sumatra that caused the great Tsunami claimed 227,000 lives.
Hurricane Katrina claimed about 1800 lives, and Hurricane Harvey about 80.
None of this is to suggest that either type of disaster should be taken lightly.
Edwin
Contributor
I'm in the path, probably. About 20 miles southeast of Raleigh. Expecting 12-18 inches of rain. Gas stations are running out of gas here and bread is the thing of the past. I'm pretty much prepared - gas in the generator - loaded up with basic food - plenty of water - fresh propane tank. All this, of course means it will change course in the next day or so but at least I'm ready. House is surrounded by tall pines but nothing i can do about that. We're close to the Neuse River but it would have to flood around 50-75 feet to scare us. This is the third hurricane since we moved here in 2001 but the others were more a Weather Channel event than anything else. We treat each one as if it were the real thing. We just returned from a 2 week vacation on the North Carolina coast which has now been told they need to evacuate inland. Plenty of projects in the shop to keep me busy and hopefully dry.
Contributor
Call me a chauvinist, but I thought we were comparing US earthquakes with US hurricanes: it clearly makes a lot of difference where such events occur.
As a random observation of no particular relevance, I would point out that, on average, the death tolls from earthquakes and hurricanes combined are a small fraction of the death toll from motor vehicle accidents, both here and world-wide. And no, I have no idea (1) how many people die in motor vehicle accidents during hurricane evacuations or (2) whether they are included in the total hurricane death tolls.
Last edited by Lee DeRaud; 09-10-2018 at 9:00 PM.
Yoga class makes me feel like a total stud, mostly because I'm about as flexible as a 2x4.
"Design"? Possibly. "Intelligent"? Sure doesn't look like it from this angle.
We used to be hunter gatherers. Now we're shopper borrowers.
The three most important words in the English language: "Front Towards Enemy".
The world makes a lot more sense when you remember that Butthead was the smart one.
You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much ammo.
Contributor
We are 120 miles inland from Wilmington, and on projected center line. Told to expect 12 -15" of rain. I've seen four hurricanes here. Hazel in 54, Fran in 96, Floyd in 98, and Matthew in 16. Even though we live only couple miles from nuclear plant, we expect to loose power. In early August, contacted Duke Energy about a tall pine tree that was leaning over power lines, but as usual with Duke they did nothing. They only seem to operate in crisis management mode, unlike Progress / Carolina Power and Light. Couple years back, they did vegetation control, but left a huge limb spanning over power lines. Called them about it, and was assured they were going to take care of it. They did, but it was 2:00 AM when limb broke taking down power lines. They just put lines together, and would come back in daylight and correctly tension them. That was over two years ago, so I don't expect them back till leaning pine tree takes down lines again. As for flooding here, we are 120' above the creek, at the very top of the hill. Expect road to flood, but it does that in a heavy dew anyway. Spent afternoon repairing one generator (gas tank leak) and will get other two up and running tomorrow. Always keep gas cans filled, so that's not a problem. If cans were empty, with hurricane on the way, I probably would fill them with ethanol gas, which after event, I would run in my truck. Water isn't a problem, as we have two above ground storage tanks that combined hold 2000 gallons, and they are FULL. Gas WH, and stove, small window AC in guest bedroom, so a small (3000) watt generator will run our needs. Will spend day Wednesday tying everything down that could be thrown by the wind.. Even though we are told to expect 70+ mph winds, living in a forest, we don't get the full effects.
[OP]
Member
Just heard SC governor called for mandatory evac to all coastal counties. Hope something breaks this down before it hits land.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness..." - Mark Twain
Contributor
No argument on that point!
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