Bird
Rest in Peace
I can well imagine how you feel. I told my wife I guess we should have a generator for emergencies, but so far we've been lucky. I think 8 hours is the longest our power has been off. Four days would be terrible.
This one is for Texas --IKE
- Thread starter texbaylea
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I can well imagine how you feel. I told my wife I guess we should have a generator for emergencies, but so far we've been lucky. I think 8 hours is the longest our power has been off. Four days would be terrible.
JazzDad
Gold Member
Glad to hear you are going to take that shower. Most of us could tell you REALLY needed it.
tallyho8
Elite Member
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To many people, just seeing the gigantic property loss is amazing but when your town gets wiped out by a hurricane there is so much more lost than many people realize.
Even if you are one of the very lucky ones as I was, who did not suffer enormous property loss and was able to repair and remain, your whole life is suddenly changed.
First you notice that all your friends and relatives have moved out of town or out of state. All your favorite restaurants, stores, lounges, bowling alleys, are suddenly gone. Your doctors gone, your dentist is gone, even your hospital is gone and you don't know what happened to your barber. You're just left to wonder what happened to your plumber, your electrician, that cute waitress at the truck stop, your tv repairman. They're all gone.
Yes, as long as you still have life, you can start over but it will never be the same and all you have left to cling to are memories......
Even if you are one of the very lucky ones as I was, who did not suffer enormous property loss and was able to repair and remain, your whole life is suddenly changed.
First you notice that all your friends and relatives have moved out of town or out of state. All your favorite restaurants, stores, lounges, bowling alleys, are suddenly gone. Your doctors gone, your dentist is gone, even your hospital is gone and you don't know what happened to your barber. You're just left to wonder what happened to your plumber, your electrician, that cute waitress at the truck stop, your tv repairman. They're all gone.
Yes, as long as you still have life, you can start over but it will never be the same and all you have left to cling to are memories......
jinman
Rest in Peace
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Dang! Eddie, maybe Steph and the kids will come home if you do that.
Great news! Are you gonna add "Fix the flaky generator" to your list of things to do this year? Like Bird, I've been thinking of a generator. In the winter is our worst time for losing power. It happens every winter here and normally runs 4 to 6 hours of power loss. I'm always worried about the plumbing freezing up when that happens. A generator's cost would look cheap if we had to replace frozen plumbing.
jinman
Rest in Peace
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2001
- Messages
- 20,387
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- Texas - Wise County - Sunset
- Tractor
- NHTC45D, NH LB75B, Ford Jubilee
EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
Well the funny thing about the generator is that it's a very expensive Onan with a Kubota Diesel engine. It's really supposed to be a good one and we were all suprised when it stoped working.
Did I mention that it's on my parents RV? We went throught the warning codes, checked the oil, changed the oil and fuel filter without any improvement. It kept going back to overheating. New thermostat didn't help. Water pump came off and it looks great. Radiator came off and we spent $65 to have the guy at the shop pull it apart to check it out. It's fine. The mechanic at Kubota thinks it might be a bad sensor. One of the readings that it's getting is that there is no tempature change in the first five minutes of running. It ran for hours and hours the first day, but then it would only go for an hour or two before dying. Now it will start, then die in five minutes. We can't get the sensor off, and in fact broke it off with a ten inch pipe wrench.
My $500 Coleman Generator with the B&S engine works fine. It's not as powerful and we had to be careful on how many things we plugged into it, but it got us through this. Of course it's LOUD, uses 5 gallons of gasoline a day and needs to have the oil changed every day.
I can see where this can happen again and we won't be ready.
Eddie
Did I mention that it's on my parents RV? We went throught the warning codes, checked the oil, changed the oil and fuel filter without any improvement. It kept going back to overheating. New thermostat didn't help. Water pump came off and it looks great. Radiator came off and we spent $65 to have the guy at the shop pull it apart to check it out. It's fine. The mechanic at Kubota thinks it might be a bad sensor. One of the readings that it's getting is that there is no tempature change in the first five minutes of running. It ran for hours and hours the first day, but then it would only go for an hour or two before dying. Now it will start, then die in five minutes. We can't get the sensor off, and in fact broke it off with a ten inch pipe wrench.
My $500 Coleman Generator with the B&S engine works fine. It's not as powerful and we had to be careful on how many things we plugged into it, but it got us through this. Of course it's LOUD, uses 5 gallons of gasoline a day and needs to have the oil changed every day.
I can see where this can happen again and we won't be ready.
Eddie
dmccarty
Super Star Member
I have seen the pictures from Bolivar. What I can't tell is if the photos represent the entire place? There was a series of photos that showed some houses, apparently built to better code that look to be in very good shape. The windows even looked intact. Compare those houses to the piles from what used to be houses.
Then there is the photo of the one standing house in the middle of a wasteland. It looks like they might have been built just high enough to escape the surge.
I did see story today that all of Galveston was flooded.
The tv station web page I read had one story about Texas and one on the Ohio valley mess. Looks like progress is being made getting power back up. I could not find any coverage in the local paper. The WSJ had a report on page 12.
When I ran from Andrew I was amazed at the outpouring of help I found in NC. They had people organizing to go help out in FLA, collecting goods that were sent south in semis, and raising lots of money. This happened for all of the storms up to Katrina. Now nothing. Maybe people are just getting numb from these things?
After Floyd hit I made two trips down east to help out. First time was to a county that one river on the north side was all but receeded while a river at the south end of the county was still up. The destruction was unreal. I only saw two houses destroyed by raging water. The rest the water just rose into and then slowly left. The houses LOOKED ok but were destroyed. Some trailers in one really nice trailer park escaped destruction by inches. One trailer would be ok while all of the ones around it had been condemed. They only way you could tell driving by was the little red condemnation signs by the door. The ones that survived were just barely above the flood waters due to a slight bump in land or and extra row of blocks.
The south side of the county still had high water that was slowly receading but most of the houses were still under water. People had NO time to escape with anything but their lives. I remember searching one house that had a car in the driveway and a TV right next to the door. They had no time to even grab the tv, get into the car and leave. I assume they got in a second car and left.
What was really bad about this town was that the people had lived there for generations. I was talking with survivors who point out their house. Then their siblings houses. House with aunts and uncles. Grandmas house. All of them had been flooded out. Not good. They did not have family to run too for shelter. Ironically one of the streets was named "Water Street". Got a photo of the water running down "Water Street".
One guy who must have been close to 80 was sitting on his porch steps. He had a small little store that was washed out. Stuff just floated away. What stuck with me was that he was selling the good hard coal in his store which was scattered all over the neighborhood. The Red Cross came through and dropped off dinner. All he had left was hard coal on the ground, the clothes on his back, shell shock, and a pasta dinner from the Red Cross.
I got togather a bunch of people and went back to that town a week or so later to help clean up. We helped clean out homes that during the first trip were still under water. We got a thank you letter from one couple we helped so I know some people were getting it back togather.
Loosing power is PITA. But its nothing compared to what other people have lost. We have been real lucky with getting power back in the past storms. We won't be so lucky where we are now. We are litterally at the end of the line and will be on of the last people to get power restored. If all we loose is power for a month I will be thankful. Seen far far far worse.
Later,
Dan
Then there is the photo of the one standing house in the middle of a wasteland. It looks like they might have been built just high enough to escape the surge.
I did see story today that all of Galveston was flooded.
The tv station web page I read had one story about Texas and one on the Ohio valley mess. Looks like progress is being made getting power back up. I could not find any coverage in the local paper. The WSJ had a report on page 12.
When I ran from Andrew I was amazed at the outpouring of help I found in NC. They had people organizing to go help out in FLA, collecting goods that were sent south in semis, and raising lots of money. This happened for all of the storms up to Katrina. Now nothing. Maybe people are just getting numb from these things?
After Floyd hit I made two trips down east to help out. First time was to a county that one river on the north side was all but receeded while a river at the south end of the county was still up. The destruction was unreal. I only saw two houses destroyed by raging water. The rest the water just rose into and then slowly left. The houses LOOKED ok but were destroyed. Some trailers in one really nice trailer park escaped destruction by inches. One trailer would be ok while all of the ones around it had been condemed. They only way you could tell driving by was the little red condemnation signs by the door. The ones that survived were just barely above the flood waters due to a slight bump in land or and extra row of blocks.
The south side of the county still had high water that was slowly receading but most of the houses were still under water. People had NO time to escape with anything but their lives. I remember searching one house that had a car in the driveway and a TV right next to the door. They had no time to even grab the tv, get into the car and leave. I assume they got in a second car and left.
What was really bad about this town was that the people had lived there for generations. I was talking with survivors who point out their house. Then their siblings houses. House with aunts and uncles. Grandmas house. All of them had been flooded out.
Not good. They did not have family to run too for shelter. Ironically one of the streets was named "Water Street". Got a photo of the water running down "Water Street".One guy who must have been close to 80 was sitting on his porch steps. He had a small little store that was washed out. Stuff just floated away. What stuck with me was that he was selling the good hard coal in his store which was scattered all over the neighborhood. The Red Cross came through and dropped off dinner. All he had left was hard coal on the ground, the clothes on his back, shell shock, and a pasta dinner from the Red Cross.
I got togather a bunch of people and went back to that town a week or so later to help clean up. We helped clean out homes that during the first trip were still under water. We got a thank you letter from one couple we helped so I know some people were getting it back togather.
Loosing power is PITA. But its nothing compared to what other people have lost. We have been real lucky with getting power back in the past storms. We won't be so lucky where we are now. We are litterally at the end of the line and will be on of the last people to get power restored. If all we loose is power for a month I will be thankful. Seen far far far worse.
Later,
Dan
Bird
Rest in Peace
Dan, so far this morning, in the Dallas Morning News and the Denton Record-Chronicle (both owned by the same company), I've read about:
1) the evacuees still in a shelter at the University of North Texas colliseum and also in a shelter in Lewisville (I live between Denton and Lewisville),
2) FEMA is going to pay evacuees hotel bills for a month (Sept. 14 to Oct. 14),
3) the Texas Rangers baseball team will be serving lunch to the children at a shelter in the Dallas Convention Center,
4) the ecological impact along the Texas coast,
5) and the President, Governor, FEMA administrator's tour of the coast.
So it's still very much in the news here.
1) the evacuees still in a shelter at the University of North Texas colliseum and also in a shelter in Lewisville (I live between Denton and Lewisville),
2) FEMA is going to pay evacuees hotel bills for a month (Sept. 14 to Oct. 14),
3) the Texas Rangers baseball team will be serving lunch to the children at a shelter in the Dallas Convention Center,
4) the ecological impact along the Texas coast,
5) and the President, Governor, FEMA administrator's tour of the coast.
So it's still very much in the news here.
EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
We're starting to have issues with the evacuee's. Ther are several hundred of them at an old Walmart building, which is in the same center as a Super 1 gorcery store. The store used to be open 24hrs a day, but because of the huge increase in theft, they are now closed during the night. Same thing is happening at the other areas, but to a lesser degree. The news isn't reporting it, but my wifes dad is a cop and they are overwhelmed at the shere number of them that are steeling and dealing drugs. What the news is reporting is their complaints. They are not happy and they want more. It's a tough line to judge what they should be complaining about and what they should be appreciative of, but to see them on the TV, it's very dificult to support them.
Might just be a few bad apples, but then again, the theft issue is from dozens and dozens of them.
Eddie
Might just be a few bad apples, but then again, the theft issue is from dozens and dozens of them.
Eddie
texasjohn
Super Member
Very educational set of posts...
Eddie..so glad you have power again... what a PITA re the expensive generator... hope you find the problem, obviously not a simple fix considering all debugging you have done so far.
mikim...thanks for your posts giving factual info re warnings and their variable effectiveness ..good work on your part and those you work with... sorry for your personal experiences with losing all.. you are a fighter and I admire that trait... hope I never have to find out what I'd do in similar situation. But, I may, Life is sometimes inexplicably unpredictable and uncontrollable.
tallyho8..your observations about how your entire social fabric changes and results in stresses FAR outside normal is right on.... the matter of having much predictability and control of our life and surroundings, IMHO, is key to good mental health... and when lost, I suspect, creates numerous and complex mental and physical health issues. These will now begin to emerge from IKE victims.
I once lived in a country in Central America. When I first got there, I was appalled at the miserable conditions of some which led to being constantly besieged by beggars... these folks had no legs, obviously were gaunt, all sorts of physical maladies. At first, I tried to give something to each one... but as the days and weeks pass, the heart hardens and I learned how to say "NO." Not proud of it, just a fact. I think personal generosity is influenced by the hope you can make a difference... and, if it seems that generosity will make no difference/improvement in a person's quality of life, then why give?
I think that there is a "give/emergency fatigue factor" that is beginning to set in nationwide. After years of giving for emergencies..9/11, Iraq/Afghanistan war, Katrina, Rita, other hurricanes, documented squandering/incompetent stewardship of government relief funds, sacrificing for homeland security, job losses, flat/negative earnings, rising health costs etc..... people generally feel less secure personally, financially and thus are less willing to give time and $$ from their personal reserves. This is exacerbated by the stories of slothfulness, crime, "milking the system", and demanding/unappreciative responses that arose from Katrina/Rita relief and now IKE.
We are far removed from my Dad's time (he's 95) when people truly understood hard times and self sufficiency... he had one set of clothes and stayed in bed on washday until they were dry, they ate popcorn all one year because they couldn't sell it and that was the only crop that made.
I, too, have been sensing that the response to IKE is more apathetic than prior emergencies. Hopefully the long run outcome will be better.
Eddie..so glad you have power again... what a PITA re the expensive generator... hope you find the problem, obviously not a simple fix considering all debugging you have done so far.
mikim...thanks for your posts giving factual info re warnings and their variable effectiveness ..good work on your part and those you work with... sorry for your personal experiences with losing all.. you are a fighter and I admire that trait... hope I never have to find out what I'd do in similar situation. But, I may, Life is sometimes inexplicably unpredictable and uncontrollable.
tallyho8..your observations about how your entire social fabric changes and results in stresses FAR outside normal is right on.... the matter of having much predictability and control of our life and surroundings, IMHO, is key to good mental health... and when lost, I suspect, creates numerous and complex mental and physical health issues. These will now begin to emerge from IKE victims.
I once lived in a country in Central America. When I first got there, I was appalled at the miserable conditions of some which led to being constantly besieged by beggars... these folks had no legs, obviously were gaunt, all sorts of physical maladies. At first, I tried to give something to each one... but as the days and weeks pass, the heart hardens and I learned how to say "NO." Not proud of it, just a fact. I think personal generosity is influenced by the hope you can make a difference... and, if it seems that generosity will make no difference/improvement in a person's quality of life, then why give?
I think that there is a "give/emergency fatigue factor" that is beginning to set in nationwide. After years of giving for emergencies..9/11, Iraq/Afghanistan war, Katrina, Rita, other hurricanes, documented squandering/incompetent stewardship of government relief funds, sacrificing for homeland security, job losses, flat/negative earnings, rising health costs etc..... people generally feel less secure personally, financially and thus are less willing to give time and $$ from their personal reserves. This is exacerbated by the stories of slothfulness, crime, "milking the system", and demanding/unappreciative responses that arose from Katrina/Rita relief and now IKE.
We are far removed from my Dad's time (he's 95) when people truly understood hard times and self sufficiency... he had one set of clothes and stayed in bed on washday until they were dry, they ate popcorn all one year because they couldn't sell it and that was the only crop that made.
I, too, have been sensing that the response to IKE is more apathetic than prior emergencies. Hopefully the long run outcome will be better.
