Now where's Royal?

[JackiBlu]

I was finally able to get thru to some friends of mine who live south and east of Houston. They got bad bad winds, fence damage a some gutter damage. Not bad considering. The worse part is no electric and were told no electric for 2-3 weeks..

Being they are rather 'coastal' I was surprised how little they know of boarding up for such type storm. What they did/were told to do, (like board up only one side of their home - and it should be the side that is common area/living room, and not the other parts of the house at all) for the storm they was beyond belief. I told them that after they get situated and back to normal, we would sit down and go over what to do when a hurricane comes. It is just shocking what they were all told, or what they took from what they were told.

[Chubidubi]

JackiBlu That's amazing. How can some people give such erroneous information!!! Here in PR we go through this "drill" almost every year. I think it's in our blood or dna or something by now.

I hope your friends never have to go through this again.

[cb977]

Jacki, I'm very happy to hear your friends came through the storm with a smaller amount of damage. Anybody who lives anywhere along the Gulf or the East coast of the U.S absolutely MUST do their own research way before a storm is headed towards them. Simple logic tells me that if a Cat 3 storm is headed my way, it's time to do anything at all possible to save, first my family and pets, and then my home. Being told to just board up only a portion of a house on the coast just sets off red lights in my head! When Fay and Gustav looked like it might head this way, we had everything prepared for the worst possible situation. My neighbors were probably looking at us doing all this work and shaking their heads...but if something had happened, they all would've been knocking on my door for shelter

[Swamper]

It's funny you mentioned that, cause before the storm hit they were showing all these places that were predicted to get a direct hit and soooo many places looked like they were not boarded up at all. I kept telling my family..."what are they waiting for? God bless them"

[Royal]

Originally Posted by cb977

Oh Royal.....you are missed around here!

Thanks for all your kind words!

Well, I'm back - kind of. It's great to see some familiar faces (avatars). It's day 6 and still no power. We feel very lucky that we didn't sustain much damage. Lots of blue tarps on neighborhood roofs, and a few total losses. We are totally surrounded by large trees so it was pretty scary. A few broke in half, but none uprooted around our house.

We do have a laptop at home, but the cellular internet connection was spotty at best. It took forever just to check email. By the time I got online the battery was almost dead. My office just had its internet connection restored! Yeah! So I'll be back in the OB mix once I catch up a bit. Then I'll have to catch up here!

Thanks again to all of you for thoughts and prayers. Our neighbors on the coast still need them. And thanks, Wanda, for starting this thread. What a sweet gesture. It stinks to be away, but it's nice to be missed.

[cb977]

I'm happy to hear you're doing a little better there!

I think it's really saying something about the folks here at OB...we are truly "friends", not just some people who talk online

Keep in touch, Royal

[Chubidubi]

I think it's really saying something about the folks here at OB...we are truly "friends", not just some people who talk online

Keep in touch, Royal

I agree with Susanne.

[JackiBlu]

Anyone who uses a generator while they are out of power -- Please make a mental note: many or most put out what is referred to as 'dirty electricity'. It is fine for your home, but unless you have a UPS (uninterupted power supply) between the plug and your computer DO NOT connect your PC or LT to it.

Some generators do put out 'clean' electric, most do not. The ones that do, I believe will say so on the product info.

but make no mistake.. Dirty electric will do harm to your computer. So if you HAVE to stay connected get the UPS (they run about $100.00) or a generator who's output is clean electric.

[JackiBlu]

ya'll are right.. I just can not imagine what kinda of info was going out.

Last year she was just totally freaked over a small storm that was coming 100 miles near her. I"m sorta confuzzled by her, because this woman is extremely intelligent, runs her own biz, her husb is high management in THE big hosp there and putting 2kids thru college. Lving where she does, they should have the exact same info we have here on the coast/s of Florida - nothing less!

I was just totally floored by their, and didn't want to burn her cell phone up while she was walking her dog (since her fence was down), but made her promise me that we = her and her husband and me would sit down together and RE-learn the correct way in what to do in case of a hurricane proceedures.

Since their neighborhood was all about the same, I told her to be aware of looters.. which had not even came into thought. Since she decided to keep her car home and ride to the office with friends to keep her car housed in the garage, coz if 'they' can't syphon the gas, they will pop the tank from underneath to get the gas. People are desparate and it just depends. Some one or two in the n'hood needs to be on patrol to watch while others sleep. All kinds of stuff happens and I discovered new stuff in '04 with Jeanne and Frances and I've lived on the SE coast of Florida for 4 decades.

Ya just never know what desparation will coz people to do and others who are just doing stuff to do it coz they think they can get away with it.

[Royal]

Originally Posted by JackiBlu

Anyone who uses a generator while they are out of power -- Please make a mental note: many or most put out what is referred to as 'dirty electricity'. It is fine for your home, but unless you have a UPS (uninterupted power supply) between the plug and your computer DO NOT connect your PC or LT to it.

Some generators do put out 'clean' electric, most do not. The ones that do, I believe will say so on the product info.

but make no mistake.. Dirty electric will do harm to your computer. So if you HAVE to stay connected get the UPS (they run about $100.00) or a generator who's output is clean electric.

Good tip. This is my first experience with a generator, but I've been very careful. It's borrowed so I've been a freak about checking the oil. My wife is a pyrophobe so we are also careful about fire danger and carbon monoxide. I'm just charging the laptop battery while it is turned off. I was a little scared to do so, but It was our only link to civilization for a few days. I just told myself it would be ok since I was just charging a battery while the computer was off. I hope I'm right.