Hurricane Idalia

[alexpops]

Anyone in its path ... stay safe.

 

[Thomas]

Indeed.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

I was supposed to be. Operating a flight to and from JAX. Thankfully we cancelled. Indiana Disaster Relief is already on the schedule to head down for two weeks to help in the recovery.

 

[thepumpguysc]

I’m sitting here waiting patiently..
Already did a pre-test on the generator..

 

[paulsharvey]

We mobilized to go to St Aug at 5:30 Am, but nothing over here yet other then some minor rain and a windy day, lot of waiting, and checking for damage, but nothing yet. Wife says power is still on back at home, closer to where the storm path was. Last report said 95% of Columbia County had power out, and it's expected to be 100% before its over. So far, storm hasn't been that wet for a Gulf storm. I've heard reports that Chiefland and Perry caught he'll, Lake City, less so, but still lot of trees down.

 

[paulsharvey]

So, I almost started a thread, but decided not too; but I'll share some complaints with this storm stuff (I think I've done almost 10 storm response over last 8 years)
1) Fuel; the government facilities have it, but the contractors have to get it at regular stations; maybe have 1 pump for emergency response crews at the regular stations. Everyone says fill up before; fine, but I burn 3/4 tank per day;
2) Water; I'm sorry but if you have city water, fine, grab a case of waters; but us guys that have a well need to have 3+ days worth, both for the house (kids/wife stuck there), but also for me in my vehicle. These in town people buying 10 cases, and they will never loose water....
3) if you don't have to be out; stay your butt home. Not saying evacuate, that's your call; but stay off the dang roads. Every storm, people all out site seeing, and we are trying to check roads/bridges for damage... past few haven't been bad, but Irma, I'm trying to get home after 14 hours, on flooded roads, trees down everywhere, and there are dang site seers...

Sorry, rant over.

 

[sea2summit]

So, I almost started a thread, but decided not too; but I'll share some complaints with this storm stuff (I think I've done almost 10 storm response over last 8 years)
1) Fuel; the government facilities have it, but the contractors have to get it at regular stations; maybe have 1 pump for emergency response crews at the regular stations. Everyone says fill up before; fine, but I burn 3/4 tank per day;
2) Water; I'm sorry but if you have city water, fine, grab a case of waters; but us guys that have a well need to have 3+ days worth, both for the house (kids/wife stuck there), but also for me in my vehicle. These in town people buying 10 cases, and they will never loose water....
3) if you don't have to be out; stay your butt home. Not saying evacuate, that's your call; but stay off the dang roads. Every storm, people all out site seeing, and we are trying to check roads/bridges for damage... past few haven't been bad, but Irma, I'm trying to get home after 14 hours, on flooded roads, trees down everywhere, and there are dang site seers...

Sorry, rant over.

You're a lineman or how are what capacity do you have in the response?

 

[Dftodd]

I was supposed to be. Operating a flight to and from JAX. Thankfully we cancelled. Indiana Disaster Relief is already on the schedule to head down for two weeks to help in the recovery.

I'm flying into JAX in a couple weeks.

 

[paulsharvey]

You're a lineman or how are what capacity do you have in the response?

Road related. We check and report any road damage, as a contractor for DOT. Yes, a lot of it is really related to being able to claim FEMA money, but the state goal is basically within 1 hour of storm, having a status for every road in the impacted area.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

My hunting camp is over at Keaton Beach where it made landfall, I drove over there Wednesday afternoon and was able to piece my way in through the downed trees, when I got to my driveway where my camp is it was completely blocked off with downed trees so I had to walk in, when I made it in to my camp I was surprised that it didn't have any structural damage, hundreds of trees down but zero damage to my camp or outbuildings, so I cleaned out the refrigerator and freezer as there won't be power in there for weeks, so when they get power back on I will go over with the skidsteer and stay for about a week and get it all cleaned up, the lord blessed me as my place is only about 3 miles from the coast where it went in, many were far less fortunate than me.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

Here are just a couple of pictures and in some of them you can see that the trees were blown over parallel to my outbuildings and directly away from my camp.

 

[sandman2234]

I spent the day with a saw in my hands Thursday, just west of Live Oak, Fl. cutting as fast as I could and a grapple hauling it to the street behind me. Widow inlaw relative who lives on 20 acres. A guy stopped while I was repairing the roof, and he came up on the roof just to tell me that there was a crew down the road putting tarps on roofs and that I should just have them do that here. Then he presented the Widow with an estimate of $15,000.00 to cut the damaged trees and haul them thru the gate to the street. He said he could do it cheaper if he didn't have to go all the way around to get to the street. I asked why he didn't just drop them over the fence and once a bunch was there, go pile them up. He said, yeah...that is probably what he would do, but it sounded better to try to get her to let him pile it up in the middle of the pasture. Before he left to go "figure out his price" I was cutting trees and having them hauled to the street. Heading back over there tomorrow for some more fun!
David from jax

 

[sandman2234]

My Daughter headed over to Live Oak today, so I sent her these so She would know what the road we went in looked like. There was more, but I was driving and didn't need to be snapping pictures!

 

[sandman2234]

The pickup that appears to be parked was moving, as that is the path to get around the fallen trees and powerlines!
David from jax

 

[Lineman North Florida]

I spent the day with a saw in my hands Thursday, just west of Live Oak, Fl. cutting as fast as I could and a grapple hauling it to the street behind me. Widow inlaw relative who lives on 20 acres. A guy stopped while I was repairing the roof, and he came up on the roof just to tell me that there was a crew down the road putting tarps on roofs and that I should just have them do that here. Then he presented the Widow with an estimate of $15,000.00 to cut the damaged trees and haul them thru the gate to the street. He said he could do it cheaper if he didn't have to go all the way around to get to the street. I asked why he didn't just drop them over the fence and once a bunch was there, go pile them up. He said, yeah...that is probably what he would do, but it sounded better to try to get her to let him pile it up in the middle of the pasture. Before he left to go "figure out his price" I was cutting trees and having them hauled to the street. Heading back over there tomorrow for some more fun!
David from jax

One thing these hurricanes bring out are the people trying to get rich off of others bad fortune, don't get me wrong I understand that you have to make a profit but some of these folks take the advantage of people who are overwhelmed and just want to try to get things back to normal. Reminds me of 2004 during hurricane Charley we were down in Orlando and this particular day were rebuilding a power line behind this elderly lady's home and while we were there a fly by night tree crew offered to get 1 hanger in an oak tree out from over this ladies house for 5k, I told her on the way out we would get it for nothing, it took me about 5 minutes to get it and it saved that lady 5k for basically a 5 minute job, good on you for helping this lady out.

 

[sandman2234]

I am part of a Florida Baptist Disaster Relief team at our Church. They were over there yesterday, and will be again today. I am fixing to leave to head over there, but will be working on the Widow's place, not with the Team, as they have enough help today. The jobs are huge for the owners, but too many people just start getting in each other's way. The job they are finishing today is almost all cut, just needs to be hauled to the street, so the five of them will be enough.
David from jax

 

[workinonit]

It came down the coast here. I got 8 to 10 inches of rain in a few hours. Normally that would have put 2 feet of flood water in my shop but it was so dry here it was all soaked up and ran off. A few trees down but nothing too drastic. All in all we got off pretty light on this one. I'm sure the next one will be along shortly.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

It came down the coast here. I got 8 to 10 inches of rain in a few hours. Normally that would have put 2 feet of flood water in my shop but it was so dry here it was all soaked up and ran off. A few trees down but nothing too drastic. All in all we got off pretty light on this one. I'm sure the next one will be along shortly.

Seems like that's one thing that we can count on down here in the SE is the fact that we will almost certainly be watching another one soon.

 

[workinonit]

Yea, we got lucky on wind with this one. But man did we get the rain.

 

[paulsharvey]

So, at my house we got nothing. The original path was more in line with US301, but it moved west, probably 50 miles in the last 4 hours. The end result was we didn't get anything, didn't even lose power, and rain was less than a typical afternoon storm.

These storms are crazy though, because sometimes a tropical storm will do more damage than a Cat-4 hurricane...

Also, Ian, last year, we started getting nasty weather 24 hours before landfall, so I was prepared Tuesday to be catching he'll. Didn't happen, but Ian did kinda teach me a lesson, about really needing to be ready 36-48 hours before landfall.

All that gripping I did about gas, and it wasn't an issue over here this go around.