Hurricane Florence Bonus

[fgsiii]

Anyone watching the evening news lately has seen the total devastation that Hurricane Florence has brought to many in North & South Carolina. Our homestead is located on the Cape Fear River north of Fayetteville, NC. Fortunately we are on a fairly high bank above the river, but that didn't spare us from an evacuation order from the County,(which after careful evaluation we ignored), but in the end it did spare us from any flooding. The attached photo is a large poplar tree that measured 51' from the butt to the first limb. I have several other oak and hickory trees on the ground that await harvest, my sawmill as well as my LS 3025 will be busy this fall & winter. We consider ourselves extremely fortunate and are very thankful!

 

[ovrszd]

Glad you were spared from the storm.

Being a Central Plains Flat Lander I wonder, if you ignore the evacuation order are you exempt from any assistance if needed? Or are the professionals still obligated to come to your aid?

We don't face anything like that here. If a tornado comes thru we are on our own to protect ourselves.

 

[Doofy]

I have never felt a need to live close to water in any form. The power can be just to devastating. I live at a 2,424 foot elevation and all I have to fret about as far as disasters are forest fires, earthquakes and volcanos. Glad you were spared the havoc.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I have never felt a need to live close to water in any form. The power can be just to devastating. I live at a 2,424 foot elevation and all I have to fret about as far as disasters are forest fires, earthquakes and volcanos. Glad you were spared the havoc.

I would much rather face a hurricane than earthquake or volcano. Hurricanes give you plenty of time to evacuate, but not so with your disasters, even a forest fire can catch you unawares and cut you off from escape.

 

[fgsiii]

I would much rather face a hurricane than earthquake or volcano. Hurricanes give you plenty of time to evacuate, but not so with your disasters, even a forest fire can catch you unawares and cut you off from escape.

While none of the disaster choices are good I have to agree with Gary. If given the choice I would choose a hurricane over the others listed. You usually get days of warning in order to prepare for whats coming. In this case the predicted river level for our location was higher by about 4 feet than what we actually experienced. In looking at historical data from the great flood of 1945 and Hurricane Hazel in 1954 I was confident enough in our safety to not evacuate. In the worst case we still had 10-11 feet of elevation advantage above the predicted crest level. In regards to the previous question concerning refusing to evacuate and government assistance, I don't know the answer but since we have a good homeowner policy and FEMA Flood Insurance I wasn't expecting any help from the government. Thankfully none was needed. One last comment, I'm sure happy with the performance of my LS 3025, it picked up and moved those logs without missing a beat. Great machine!

 

[Wasmeneh]

Well I reside in an island called Willmington, NC. Only one road in from the South toward Myrtle Beach and one road open going north towards Jacksonville, NC. Those that evacuated had a long way to get back. All rivers are at historic flood levels in the region. Had to move 3 historic long leaf pines that fell on my in town residence by hand aince my Kubota was 70 miles,away and unreachable.

Tree companies outnumber the police 2 to one at the present. They are cutting 4 more of my pines down as we speak.

Around hear if you ignore an evacuation order thw rule is don't call for help because they won't come,until it's safe to,do so.

Just got power 12 hours ago but I have a house generator that performed like a champ. No cable or internet.

Gotta go an do some more caulking.

Buy for the Isle of Wilmington.

Mike

 

[Doofy]

By living rural, we are used to fending for ourselves. We keep to the "Firewise" recommendations for around the house and outbuildings. The neighbor started a brushfire ant there were 2 fire retardant bombers and a spotter jet there before we saw the smoke. It was an awesome sight with the bombers low and slow and the scream of the little spotter jet.

We have ridden out the earthquakes with minimal damage(drywall cracks). The house has just rolled with the waves. You can't stand up and you puke but we survived. We average 5,000-6,000 earthquakes a year but only feel maybe half a dozen.

We live 70 miles from the nearest volcanos and those could prove catastrophic I guess. Doesn't do much good to worry about them either.

Best thing is to be as prepared as possible. Food, water, shelter, heat and a back-up power source. Hard to do if flooded or washed away.

 

[fgsiii]

Mike you guys got hit really hard with the wind & rain plus I watched the news this morning with the promise of rising water again. Sorry to hear about those pine trees & hope they didn't do a lot of damage to your home. We were also out of power for five days but that 20 kw (whole house) generator kept us comfortable. They sure do use a lot of propane but it's worth it. Hope you recover quickly.

 

[Wasmeneh]

Thanks I also have a 20kw but am lucky enough to be able to run it on natural gas. I would have had to have a huge propane tank to last 8 days.

The worst thing is that my main fishing lake in the area was breached by the river, may not recover.

 

[fgsiii]

Thanks I also have a 20kw but am lucky enough to be able to run it on natural gas. I would have had to have a huge propane tank to last 8 days.

The worst thing is that my main fishing lake in the area was breached by the river, may not recover.

Natural gas for the generator would really be great, I figure ours uses 20-22 gallons of propane a day so our 325 gallon tank in theory should last 12 or 13 days. The gas company will only fill the tank to 75-80% to allow for expansion, so in the best case we have slightly less than 2 weeks of capability. At $2.25 a gallon it gets quite expensive to run. That is really reasonable for the convenience the generator provides. Hope your fishing lake recovers and hasn't been polluted by the breached coal ash pond or pit. Lets hope Florence is all we get this year, the tropics are looking pretty active right now.