| Hurricanes |
| rocketmanjohn | Could'nt fit this in on another topic. We're about to be flattened by hurricane Isadore and there's another right behind it. It's more than a little scary, my wife, Eve, can't walk far so we'll have to evacuate. We have to leave the cat [Vienna] which I hate to do. I'll be back in touch ASAP, if my house is still standing. Wish us luck.
John |
| Thornley | HI, good luck hope all is well with you and your wife, and the cat.
Vanessa |
| Lady Griffin | Prayers for a safe return to your home
Linda |
| anacortesdamp | Good Luck, John. We'll be thinking about you when we see the news reports.
On balance, I think I prefer earthquakes - they don't come as often. We had a very light one last Thursday, just enough to rattle the glassware in the china cabinet for 1`5 seconds or so.
Frank Damp
Anacortes, WA |
| Martin | Good luck john, I hope everything is still there when you get back.
Talking of earthquakes, England had one this week, it was the strongest for many years. |
| rocketmanjohn | We made it through another one. Even though Isadore was downgraded to a tropical storm it packed a punch. The eye of the storm passed over just a few miles from us, which is very eerie, the wind dies down and everything is still for about an hour, then the wind picks up again from the opposite direction. Wind speeds were only about 60 mph but the rain was very heavy, we had over 14" in 24 hours, other places got over 2 feet. The flood water covered my boat dock by at least 3 feet and the boat was lifted out of the hoist and floated up into the roof, lucky I had it roped in.
For some reason the humming birds seem to know whats going on and feed continuously before the wind gets too strong. I have several feeders and they all got used a lot.
Thanks to all for the good wishes, lets hope the next one misses.
John |
| Lady Griffin | So pleased to hear you are all safe.
There was quite a lot in the news here of the progress of Isadora. |
| LDunlop76 | Glad to hear you're safe, John! I haven't been able to get on here for a while for various reasons, so I've only just caught up with your original post. Hurricanes must be so frightening - I think I prefer earthquakes too! The one we had on Sunday night was only 4.8 on the Richter scale, but it shook the house even though the epicentre was in Birmingham! I was still up (12.55am) and I thought one of the kids had got up and fallen down the stairs! Did you feel it in Somerset, Martin? Hubby was in Oxford that night and didn't feel it at all. Daughter slept through it, but it woke up our son. Bit of excitement!
Not sure I could cope with a hurricane. A friend in Tennessee often gets the tail end of tornados, but luckily her town hasn't been at the real centre of one since she's lived there. Gawd - we moan about the British weather, but really we've got it soft! |
| Caroline | Glad to hear everyone was OK. We had a tremor in the eighties, when I lived in Croston . Woke up and thought someone was shaking the bed ! Was also in a flood from the river there, waded to the Lord Nelson, and the water was at thigh level, landlady sat at the bar in her swimming cossy, someone arrived in a canoe to get someone home, shouting 'TAXI!' |
| Caroline | Update- we had an earth tremor this morning, around 8.50, I was in bed and felt a slow heavy shaking, spooky bit was that the oak beams and other woodwork above me and in the attic made loud creakings and groanings as the tremor passed through, took about 3 seconds........ I don't know what it was on the Richta (?) scale, but they say it's about 7 when old ladies start screaming uncontrollably and Bruce Willis comes in with a gun to keep the calm! |
| anacortesdamp | Caroline:
The scale is "Richter", named after some German scientist, I think. It's one of those logarithmic scales.
We had a quake south of the Seattle area in February 2000 which was a 6.4 and it caused several billion dollars' worth of damage. Fortunately, Anacortes is about 150 miles away from the epicenter, so damage around here was minimal. The San Juan quake a week ago was only a 3.5, but it was only about 20 miles away.
Frank Damp |
| LDunlop76 | quote:
Originally posted by Caroline
Update- we had an earth tremor this morning,
We were promised aftershocks after the Brummie quake and we didn't get any. I reckon Caroline got them instead - they headed South for the Brittany climate! [;)] |
| Caroline | Not really weather, this but we were saying goodnight to some friends last night , the sky was really clear, and saw the most incredible once-in-a-lifetime falling star. It was travelling across the sky quite low to the horizon, fast, for about 10 seconds till it disappeared.It was very bright, and you could see the tail shooting for a long way behind, with big sparks coming from it, much like a firework rocket. Amazing stuff! |
| rocketmanjohn | Sorry not to write sooner. We had another hurricane last week, Hurricane Lili. This was a much smaller storm, but with much higher winds, again we were lucky and it hit much the same place as last weeks, about 50 miles down the coast. Before it hit land it was a category 4 [they only go up to 5 ],with wind speeds of over 140 mph, this would be a disaster, but fortunately dropped to around 100 mph when it came ashore. We only got winds of around 70 mph here which tore a few roof tiles off but not much else. Again the water was very high and there were many heavy thunderstorms crashing close by.
My only damage was that my computer got zapped by either current surge or lightning, even though I have a surge suppressor. I now have a new one, the old one wasn't worth fixing. It wasn't switched on either, so unplug during hurricanes everyone.
Hopefully that will be the last storm this year, It's stressful not knowing if one is about to become homeless. Yes we do have insurance, but it's still a worry.
John |
| anacortesdamp | John:
Glad to hear you survived Lili. It looked a lot worse than Isadore from the coverage we got here in the NW, but I understand it missed Slidell by a bit more than the last one.
I would have a tough time preparing for that kind of thing every year. I think we're susceptible to damage from tsunamis here. We're about 15 miles north of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and any Pacific tsunami would come right down the strait, from the open ocean. With luck, it would bounce off the various islands and not bother us. Unlike the Olympic Peninsula, we don't have tsunami escape routes signposted all over the place, so I assume it's not a problem.
There hasn't been one in the 34 years we've been here, so maybe they aren't very frequent?
Glad to hear everything is OK.
Regards,
Frank Damp
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| LDunlop76 | John, you must live somewhere very lovely to keep you there despite spending the autumn in fear of your home blowing away! |
| rocketmanjohn | Hurricanes are a bit like pain, once it's gone you forget just how bad it was, that is 'til the next one threatens. We don't really get so many bad ones that close, Florida or Galveston seems to be the main target as a rule.
We really do have a good life here which is why we stay. I have a good job that I enjoy, cheap cost of living, cheap housing, short winters [about 6 weeks], no snow, and beautiful places to go. There is nothing like a ride in the boat in the swamps. Wild life is abundant and great to watch, where else could I see exotic life such as alligators, snakes, pelicans, and allsorts of insects [huge spiders] within minutes of leaving my own dock. I see deer and wild boar almost every day on my drive into work. According to the Wildlife and Fisheries there is one alligator for each five people in New Orleans itself, and there are one and a half million people in Greater New Orleans.
On the other side, summers are unbearably hot and humid. I've never got used to it. Gardening is a pain because of the heat, I managed about an hour this evening before the heat got to me, it was over 90.
Air conditioning makes life bearable, but the electric bill is expensive. But then again, it's next to nothing in winter.
John
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| LDunlop76 | quote:
Originally posted by rocketmanjohn
Air conditioning makes life bearable
I have a friend in Tennessee. She had an awful couple of days last summer when their air-conditioning broke down. Makes you wonder how the first European settlers in the warmer states coped in those pre-electrification days?
I envy you the wildlife, but give me a temperate climate every time! |