Weather

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Beryl- Here it comes, it wreaked havoc in the Caribbean, actually a possibly positive for Texas based on if it’s associated with minimal flooding. . Over Cancun the hurricane became disorganized into a tropical storm and is projected to stay that way until landfall closer to Corpus Christi than Houston. It will bring rain, hopefully minimal flooding. In the meantime I’m making arrangements for a Generac standby generator that runs on natural gas. It’s pricey, $14k, they used to run $10k. But an average severe thunderstorm came through Houston a month ago and we were out of power for 11 hours.
Now you could ask how many nights in a hotel room can be bought for $14k, quite a few, but you‘d have to find a hotel with power, and the kicker is for an event like this, it‘s a matter of convienence and much more of this type of weather is anticipated.

For a 3 week event, running the gasoline generator, about $1000, making trips out daily for gas, because, you’d want to stay ahead of the curve, and how far would you have to drive to get gas? 3 weeks in a hotel, maybe $3k, not to mention if you leave, without power, you’d need to empty out your refridgerator and freezer and you’d be abandoning your home. Now, granted, I’m assuming my home will still be intact. Noted, there are tornadoes that can accompany hurricanes, 😬

I already own a gasoline powered generator that if used, burns about 15 gallons ($45) of gas per day, it has to be constantly tended with refills of gas, and I keep 10 jugs of 5 gallon containers of gas, which would last about 3 days. So for a several day event, I could handle this. But in parts of Houston, where they got the brunt of the the recent T storms, some areas were projected to be without power for 3 weeks, just because of the huge number of people who lost power and that wasn’t even a hurricane.
Fortunately, we live 75 miles from the Gulf, and in the highest part of our neighborhood, the farthest from the nearby San Jacinto River, that poses the flood threat, and we have never flooded, knock on wood. 🤞🏼
 
Huntn said:
Beryl- Here it comes, it wreaked havoc in the Caribbean, actually a possibly positive for Texas based on if it’s associated with minimal flooding. . Over Cancun the hurricane became disorganized into a tropical storm and is projected to stay that way until landfall closer to Corpus Christi than Houston. It will bring rain, hopefully minimal flooding. In the meantime I’m making arrangements for a Generac standby generator that runs on natural gas. It’s pricey, $14k, they used to run $10k. But an average severe thunderstorm came through Houston a month ago and we were out of power for 11 hours.
Now you could ask how many nights in a hotel room can be bought for $14k, quite a few, but you‘d have to find a hotel with power, and the kicker is for an event like this, it‘s a matter of convienence and much more of this type of weather is anticipated.

For a 3 week event, running the gasoline generator, about $1000, making trips out daily for gas, because, you’d want to stay ahead of the curve, and how far would you have to drive to get gas? 3 weeks in a hotel, maybe $3k, not to mention if you leave, without power, you’d need to empty out your refridgerator and freezer and you’d be abandoning your home. Now, granted, I’m assuming my home will still be intact. Noted, there are tornadoes that can accompany hurricanes, 😬

I already own a gasoline powered generator that if used, burns about 15 gallons ($45) of gas per day, it has to be constantly tended with refills of gas, and I keep 10 jugs of 5 gallon containers of gas, which would last about 3 days. So for a several day event, I could handle this. But in parts of Houston, where they got the brunt of the the recent T storms, some areas were projected to be without power for 3 weeks, just because of the huge number of people who lost power and that wasn’t even a hurricane.
Fortunately, we live 75 miles from the Gulf, and in the highest part of our neighborhood, the farthest from the nearby San Jacinto River, that poses the flood threat, and we have never flooded, knock on wood. 🤞🏼
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We had a whole house generator when we lived in Mobile. Got it right after Katrina. It worked great. Ran everything in our house plus our nighbor’s refrigerator. Now that we’ve moved to the Eastern Shore, our neighborhood doesn’t have gas, and we’ve been stressing it. So we ordered the biggest portable we could, and enough propane to last a week. It won’t run everything, but it’ll run the fridge and some lights.
 
It keeps wanting to turn north.

Before it got into the Caribbean, there was only one spaghetti model that had it turning north.

Guess the outlier was right.

Thoughts and prayers for Texas.
 
Huntn said:
Beryl- Here it comes, it wreaked havoc in the Caribbean, actually a possibly positive for Texas based on if it’s associated with minimal flooding. . Over Cancun the hurricane became disorganized into a tropical storm and is projected to stay that way until landfall closer to Corpus Christi than Houston. It will bring rain, hopefully minimal flooding. In the meantime I’m making arrangements for a Generac standby generator that runs on natural gas. It’s pricey, $14k, they used to run $10k. But an average severe thunderstorm came through Houston a month ago and we were out of power for 11 hours.
Now you could ask how many nights in a hotel room can be bought for $14k, quite a few, but you‘d have to find a hotel with power, and the kicker is for an event like this, it‘s a matter of convienence and much more of this type of weather is anticipated.

For a 3 week event, running the gasoline generator, about $1000, making trips out daily for gas, because, you’d want to stay ahead of the curve, and how far would you have to drive to get gas? 3 weeks in a hotel, maybe $3k, not to mention if you leave, without power, you’d need to empty out your refridgerator and freezer and you’d be abandoning your home. Now, granted, I’m assuming my home will still be intact. Noted, there are tornadoes that can accompany hurricanes, 😬

I already own a gasoline powered generator that if used, burns about 15 gallons ($45) of gas per day, it has to be constantly tended with refills of gas, and I keep 10 jugs of 5 gallon containers of gas, which would last about 3 days. So for a several day event, I could handle this. But in parts of Houston, where they got the brunt of the the recent T storms, some areas were projected to be without power for 3 weeks, just because of the huge number of people who lost power and that wasn’t even a hurricane.
Fortunately, we live 75 miles from the Gulf, and in the highest part of our neighborhood, the farthest from the nearby San Jacinto River, that poses the flood threat, and we have never flooded, knock on wood. 🤞🏼
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Wishing you well. I've been through a few hurricanes, and they're scary even after they've been downgraded.

But this one may miss Texas. Have you seen Trump's version of the map? "They send us the worst people, so we send them our best hurricanes."

Hurricane.jpeg
 
I was having trouble with this site, but now it’s going through…🤔
Beryl 2024- It came, it went , started raining last night, this morning no power, raining heavy, the pool looks like a tropical lake, with exotic vegetation growing in the bottom. After it cleared up, we spent several hours cleaning vegitation out of the pool. It really needs power to the pumps to let the cleaner get the small stuff.
The top of a large pine behind our house snapped off (the second time during a storm) and some of it landed on our climbing rose, most of it landed in the woods. And the neighbor has a big oak in his front yard, just like we do, but his snapped off and is laying on his house with some roof damage.

First time I’m using my portable GE Generator for real! Two summers ago or was it 4, I installed a switch on the side of the house by our electrical panel, so it’s simple to plug it in. We have tv, internet, powered fridge and AC in the bedroom. It’s been reported 2M customers are out of service, 10 transmission lines are down. :(

extra: We have what looks like a power line laying on my house And Two neighbor houses but it also looks detached from the pole and the other end is up in some pine trees away from the power lines, so I think it’s dead. The generator. uses about 15 gallons a day and I got 50 gallons of gas so fingers crossed we get our power back within three days but I’m prepared to go refill if necessary. In fact after I use three cans, I’ll hunt for a gas station with power to refill. Today was cool but supposed to be up around 90 tomorrow so that AC will be a must along with the power to keep the bedroom cool. Any who, technically I have Internet and could be playing games, but the computer ads a lot of heat inside the house, so I’ve decided to hold off on Gaming for now with anything other than my iPad. I’ve always got Minecraft.😁
 
Beryl Aftermath Day 3, Wed, 10July
On Sunday I had made a down payment to Lowe’s for installation of the natural gas standby generator, so I feel good about that.

Houston started with 2+M without power. They have a reported 11000 personnel deployed to restore power. The goal is to have restored power to 1 million by tonight. Having. a power line laying on your house qualifies as “an emergency” but have not seen any repair crews around. Via the Ring network crews are reported to be working in the Development.

I’ve got a Westinghouse WGen7500 - 7500 Watt Electric Start Portable Generator. In 2 days. I’ve burned about 20 gallons of gas which is better than I projected. Maybe because we are being frugal with electrical usage which the more used the, higher the gas consumption. I told my Dad that I have AC in a bedroom, a refridgerator, TV, internet, microwave, and computer. He had the nerve to ask me “so what have you sacrificed?” Well, although I could be playing games on my computer, it generates too much heat in an un-airconditioned office. 😛

Plus, I went out on my first sojourn for gas. Via the Gas Buddy App, an area just North of us was reported to have gasoline. A short drive, I reached a point where the traffic lights were working, exciting! ;) The first 3 gas stations I passed were out of gas, but I hit pay dirt at Walmart. About 20th in line, with 16 pumps, I waited 20 minutes, not bad, not bad at all. So now I’m back up to having 50 gallons of gas, which might represent 5 days of power. We’ve spent the last 2 early evenings after the Sun is behind the trees, in the pool cleaning debris from the pool. It’s looking pretty good now, but really needs the pool cleaner going for the finishing touches, which requires electric.

Of interest a small neighborhood Kroger is open (self powered) I assume with natural gas generators, but not their refrigerated section, which is all going into dumpsters. However, the Local H.E.B.grocery is open and completely self powered so refridgerator and frozen items are available. The funny thing about the H.E.B. Is that when they built it, instead of building it up above the surrounding land, they left it sunken several feet, so when it rains hard, the water drains into that parking lot, and if high enough into the store, so if they can stay above water,, they’re golden! ;)

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climbing rose before…

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Climbing rose after, but after removing the limb, the rose is in pretty good shape.

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Tropical jungle cement pond. That’s not a down tree on the right but our weeping cedar.


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neighbor 1

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neighbor2
 
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The nemesis tree, this pine used to be 30’ taller. About 7 years ago a TStorm ripped off the top 15’ that landed on our back cement fence. With Beryl, about another 10’ came off and landed almost in the same spot, but on one of our roses. The good news is if it ever topples in a certain direction, it will no longer reach the house.

Heard someone on the radio explained that the reason our electrical utilities are above ground, cheaper to repair. What about much more likely to be damaged during an event, notice the power lines duh… 🙄

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Herdfan said:
Does it have any "green" remaining on it? Or is it just waiting until it can be declared dead?
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? Our rose looks pretty good, or neighbor house? Oh, pine tree, it has two large limbs ready to be twisted in the next storm. You can see them. 🤔 Am gonna see if I can talk the city or association to cut it down.
 
Beryl Day 4 Aftermath 11 July, North Houston Suburbs. I hear chain saws! We might get power back today. 😁

Survival tip 15:
What happens when a hurricane blows though and you get in your car to fetch more gas for your generator and the car does not start? …because someone left a door cracked and ran down the battery? 🤔

You break out your handy Avapow or similiar brand standby battery. It’s got a lot of juice and in emergencies vcan be use to power your phone and tablet. I’ve got one in each car.

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Beryl Aftermath Day6, Sat 13July, North Houston suburbs- Got power back yesterday at 14:40. 🕺🏻Many homes still without power, apparently many lines down. Reportedly 11000 linemen working on getting power back up, talked to nice gentlemen from Virginia and Tennessee here helping out. A big thank you to all helping hands! (Even though they probably won’t see it.) Some good vibes sent out. 😇

In 4 days, via portable generator I used 45 gallons of gas, 12 gallons per day. It made life bearable, refrigerator, internet, and AC in 1.5 rooms.
 
We had quite the monsoon yesterday. Biggest storm we have experienced since we have been here. Swamped some boats down at Lake Pleasant:

www.12news.com

'It was just chaos': Monsoon storms sink, beach about a dozen boats at Lake Pleasant

Strong storms brought high winds and even some dust storms to the Valley on Sunday. Out at Lake Pleasant, they caused some big waves and chaos for boaters.
www.12news.com www.12news.com

Also found out there are no storm sewers out here like we had back east. The water just runs until it hits an arroyo. So in town, there was 2-3 inches of water on the streets.
 

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