Hurricane Idalia

[Teasing the Korean]

Prepping for the storm.  

The worst is supposed to be Tuesday night into Wednesday.

Positive vibes to @Stonewall15 and @Dan Gould and anyone else I may have missed. 

Edited August 28, 2023 by Teasing the Korean

[HutchFan]

Y'all stay safe !!!!!!!

 

[Dan Gould]

Since last hurricane season we've added a loan processor who lives in Tampa so a little concerned business-wise this time around too.

I need to top off gas for the generator and Sue and I have to improvise a top door for one stall for the horses but that can only happen when they are in for the duration so hopefully not struggling with plywood tomorrow afternoon. 

Time will tell and otherwise we're well-situated for food for all living beings on the property, now that Sue got the horse feed she couldn't find yesterday. Looks like deteriorating conditions by Tuesday afternoon and then overnight and most of Wednesday will suck. And blow.

[Teasing the Korean]

2 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

I need to top off gas for the generator...

I hope you saw the warning about contaminated Citgo gas!

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/florida-gas-stations-supplied-by-citgos-tampa-terminal-may-have-contaminated-fuel/articleshow/103145102.cms?from=mdr#

[Dan Gould]

3 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

I hope you saw the warning about contaminated Citgo gas!

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/florida-gas-stations-supplied-by-citgos-tampa-terminal-may-have-contaminated-fuel/articleshow/103145102.cms?from=mdr#

I didn't but don't buy Citgo on general principle.

[Dan Gould]

Glad to wake up to a shifted cone, with the eastern edge now not far from Gainesville.

OTOH it is disconcerting when the Hurricane Center prominently mentions how the best models have the storm on the eastern edge of the envelope. Historically not all models are created equal and so I'd like to see some further shifts today as this thing picks up and moves toward landfall.  Sue and I still have to secure the grounds and mount plywood over one horse stall door.

Earliest arrival of tropical storm force winds is after nightfall so that is good.

I think odds are slightly better than even for modest impacts here but who knows. TTK should still sweat a bit and Stonewall is probably in good shape now.

[Teasing the Korean]

Yeah, the path has shifted slightly west, but it is still too close for comfort.  And considering all the hurricanes I've lived through that changed paths at the last minute, I don't take anything for granted.

[Dan Gould]

Longer it tracks northward the better for the Tampa/Orlando area. When they say its moving NE - that will really concentrate the models and likely landfall.

Wild to see that at the end of forecast track its a TS over the Atlantic, and seemingly moving south and then west. Might somebody in GA or SC get a double dip of this bitch?  Or maybe go back to Hurricane status and menace the mid-Atlantic or even the NE?

[Teasing the Korean]

3 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

Wild to see that at the end of forecast track its a TS over the Atlantic, and seemingly moving south and then west. Might somebody in GA or SC get a double dip of this bitch?  Or maybe go back to Hurricane status and menace the mid-Atlantic or even the NE?

I have read that a trend among more recent hurricanes has been to maintain intensity over land, so that may be a possibility.

[Dan Gould]

It's forecast for a pretty short stay over land and then over water again but what is odd is predicted wind speed goes 60 down to 45, while over water. That suggests wind flow must turn toward being non-conducive to re-strengthening.

[Teasing the Korean]

Hurricanes mean rum cocktails - until the ice melts, at least - and exotica.  I will post today's playlist as it occurs.  But first, there's work to do!

[ghost of miles]

NY Times live updates on Hurricane Idalia

Fingers crossed for all board members and Floridians in general.

[Ken Dryden]

I would recommend adding a permanent generator if you live in an area prone to power losses from storms. We added one in 2020 after losing power following an Easter tornado that left us without power for two days.

Edited August 29, 2023 by Ken Dryden

[Dan Gould]

1 hour ago, Ken Dryden said:

I woul recommend adding a permanent generator if you live in an area prone to power losses from storms. We added one in 2020 after losing power following an Easter tornado that left us without power for two days.

They are not cheap, still.

 

[jazzbo]

Definitely not cheap. And the gas powered ones are like noise pollution.

[Ken Dryden]

They come in a range of sizes, you can decide how much of your house that you want to have backup power. Ours isn’t horribly noisy. Having one eliminates the need to set up a portable unit in the middle of the night in the midst of a storm or bad weather, while you also have power backup when you aren’t home.

We invested in a unit large enough to power the whole house and went through a Generac authorized dealer to get one big enough to handle the total square footage.
Even tough our subdivision has underground utilities, the feeder lines on the street outside our subdivision are surrounded by thousands of trees, some of which inevitably fall on them during high winds.

Edited August 29, 2023 by Ken Dryden

[jazzbo]

Our neighborhood was out of power for five days after a tornado passed by. Most neighbors have generators. It went from a quiet neighborhood where the most prevalent sounds outside were the wind in the trees. . . to sounding like we were living next to an interstate highway!

In the last three years we have had three periods of five days or more without power. . . but I still don't want a regenerator. Can't really afford one for the little use and I hate the sound (of the neighbors') and don't want to contribute to the general noise pollution.

[Dan Gould]

13 minutes ago, Ken Dryden said:

They come in a range of sizes, you can decide how much of your house that you want to have backup power. Ours isn’t horribly noisy. Having one eliminates the need to set up a portable unit in the middle of the night in the midst of a storm or bad weather, while you also have power backup when you aren’t home.

We invested in a unit large enough to power the whole house and went through a Generac authorized dealer to get one big enough to handle the total square footage.
Even tough our subdivision has underground utilities, the feeder lines on the street outside our subdivision are surrounded by thousands of trees, some of which inevitably fall on them during high winds.

You're not supposed to turn on a generator in the middle of the night during bad weather.  We've never thought of needing juice restored while a storm is brewing, we've always gotten things going when the storm passes and we've been able to power up fridge, fans, lights, TV.  our only problem is having one generator on the fritz and we have to move the one that works to the pump in order to have water for the horses/cold showers. And move it back to get lights and fridge and fans moving.

We also haven't run the generator 24/7, usually shut down overnight which hasn't impacted freezer functionality and conserves gas when that is a concern.

15 minutes ago, jazzbo said:

Our neighborhood was out of power for five days after a tornado passed by. Most neighbors have generators. It went from a quiet neighborhood where the most prevalent sounds outside were the wind in the trees. . . to sounding like we were living next to an interstate highway!

In the last three years we have had three periods of five days or more without power. . . but I still don't want a regenerator. Can't really afford one for the little use and I hate the sound (of the neighbors') and don't want to contribute to the general noise pollution.

I can imagine ... part of the shutting off of generator overnight is how loud they are and in the past we've worried about thieves grabbing things while you sleep. Easy to know who is running one for sure.

[Ken Dryden]

We have wide distances between houses in our subdivision, I would be surprised if any of our neighbors could hear it while indoors. We can sleep with it running and it is outside the master bedroom.

The power outages in Tennessee have been longer in duration than those from hurricanes (Donna and Cleo) that I rode out in South Florida as a youth. 

Back in 1993 in our first house we had no water for three days due to a blizzard that cut power to the pumping station. Hopefully the water utility has a generator now.

Most alarm systems include battery backup as part of their system. So you are still monitored while the power is out.

Generators aren’t for everyone but I don’t care to endure days without power in the heat and humidity or extreme cold. The geniuses at the power company triggered a “10-15 minute rolling blackout” last Christmas Eve to reduce stress on the electrical grid. Our generator ran for over four hours and people elsewhere in the county had no power for between 7 and 24 hours. Too bad if you had medical equipment that required power and no generator. My wife had just had a knee placement ten days earlier and both pieces of medical equipment would have been useless without power.

 

Edited August 29, 2023 by Ken Dryden

[Pim]

Be safe all of you there! Will be following it on the news here.

[Dan Gould]

6:22 am and all is well so far. Even have power still, which is a surprise, somewhere between "modest" and "major".

[Ken Dryden]

58 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

6:22 am and all is well so far. Even have power still, which is a surprise, somewhere between "modest" and "major".

Good news!

[Teasing the Korean]

We lucked out this time, but our luck was someone else's misfortune. 

We didn't even lose power, and we sometimes lose power in routine thunderstorms.  

Time to lug the patio furniture back outside.

It looks like we still may be seeing action from outer bands, though.

Edited August 30, 2023 by Teasing the Korean

[Dan Gould]

TECO has been lucky/good with outages mostly all near Tampa proper - I am at far eastern edge of Hillsborough county and outage map shows fewer than 10 customers out anywhere close, total.  And TECO is getting work done in the continuing weather, the total out for their service area spiked to 6700 and was back down under 3K now.

Feeling very fortunate, just hope our twitchy electric holds up thru remaining rain bands.

[Teasing the Korean]

2 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

TECO has been lucky/good with outages mostly all near Tampa proper - I am at far eastern edge of Hillsborough county and outage map shows fewer than 10 customers out anywhere close, total.  And TECO is getting work done in the continuing weather, the total out for their service area spiked to 6700 and was back down under 3K now.

Feeling very fortunate, just hope our twitchy electric holds up thru remaining rain bands.

We are not in Tampa proper.  Around here, we are usually the first to lose power, and the last to get it back.