OT: Hurricane Irma? OT

NPHuskerFL said:

Today in Jacksonville. Their parents must be proud! Stole an entire powerline pole from a FEMA JEA truck. I wonder why they didn't get away with it?! Dumbasses!
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/mobile/article/news/jso-two-men-caught-trying-to-steal-power-pole/474565875?scroll=0

"Officer, ya gotta believe me. It's not a power pole. It's all that's left of my sailboat."

Cleaning up the yard after the storm and counting my self fortunate. Hung the two fence sections this morning that were blown over. Connection points to the posts were the failure points. Old fence used nails to join stringers to posts and those were put up 20 years ago. Plan to replace that run of four old sections this year. The huge live oak took a massive continual pounding, many of the higher branches were beating other limbs and killing them before breaking off. The top sections are all brown from the high winds and may come back but I don't know. Squirrels are not back yet, nor are the birds.
An old shed got blown apart and that will need to be removed/replaced. Going to wait till tomorrow to break the shed sections down and stack for pickup by a contractor hired by our city to remove storm debris. Neighbors new shed put up 3 months ago looks in good condition. The newer fence I built fared much better. Stringers were hung with Simpson strong tie screws and connections for 2x4 boards and didn't have a problem with Harvey or Irma. 12' gate must have been moving back and forth during the 100mph + winds from the feeder bans that came thru from the east. Gate lock and wood held between two gates seemed to work well.
Note: the PVC tubes for the gate locks were ground level before the storm.
Close up:
Spent last evening removing the blown over plant limbs from the chain link fence between my north side neighbor's house and ours. 

It got beat up pretty bad by the winds. Normally it has large leaves and large yellow flowers and lots of ants living in the hollow core of the dead branches. 
You can see the branches from one limb in the corner, leaning over our chain link fence in the back of the property along the road and wood fence. Many of the limbs were tangled up in the top of the shadow box wooden fence. 

This particular plant has so many branches at the bottom that the utility boxes for telephone and cable tv were almost totally hidden.

I was removing overhanging limbs and cutting them into small pieces for our green garbage pickup before it got dark. I started at one end of the chain link fence and worked toward the wooden fence where the most work was going to happen. Neighbors boyfriend came out of the house just as I was finishing up and demanded to know what I was doing. Told him removing the limbs from my chain link and wooden fence as well as the telephone box so the utility folks could get or phone line back up. Guess he thought the dead limbs would regenerate and recreate the privacy shield for the above ground pool.
To make things even more enjoyable in the humid hot weather, the city has a mandatory water restriction for the next day so they can look breaks and pressurize the system. They want us to limit water use to for cooking and minimal toilet flushing till 8:00 pm today. But we are all safe and things will slowly get back to normal. Should be my last update and thanks for looking.

DoubleEgger said:

Adding the hazzard flag was a nice touch...even for a methhead. #safetyfirst

Don't give them credit. That's JEA's hazard flag that was likely already attached when they procured it. They do this when millions are without power. To be a fly on the wall when they were questioned.

Realized that I didn't have any soup back-ups in the freezer for quick reheating during Irma. So, made French onion soup, pinto beans for chili, and chicken soup. The kids came over on Saturday, so the French onion soup and chicken soup went home with them. Will be doing a redo, so pics to come. Did them inside due to the rain.




Been too hot to make soup, but won't let this happen again. Been in the 50's almost every morning since the storm. Moved the Camp Chef Expedition into the garage next to the door to have available burners to reheat. All is well here, just need to vacuum the lawn. No trees down, thank goodness.

Dredger said:

Realized that I didn't have any soup back-ups in the freezer for quick reheating during Irma. So, made French onion soup, pinto beans for chili, and chicken soup. The kids came over on Saturday, so the French onion soup and chicken soup went home with them. Will be doing a redo, so pics to come. Did them inside due to the rain.




Been too hot to make soup, but won't let this happen again. Been in the 50's almost every morning since the storm. Moved the Camp Chef Expedition into the garage next to the door to have available burners to reheat. All is well here, just need to vacuum the lawn. No trees down, thank goodness.

Hope all is well.

Thanks @YukonRon. Everything here is fine. There were many tense moments due to downpours of rain and high winds. We had constant winds in the 30 to 40 mph range and gusts in the mid 50 mph range. We already had 5 large trees scheduled for removal next Saturday that are just too close to the house. We were having to continuously trim their limbs to keep them off of the roof and gutters. We were keeping our fingers crossed for a few days. Other areas here in the upstate were not as lucky. 

HEB strikes again. Trucks headed to Florida to assist with Irma relief. 

http://kxan.com/2017/09/15/h-e-b-returns-favor-and-sends-supplies-to-those-impacted-by-irma/

caliking said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

HEB strikes again. Trucks headed to Florida to assist with Irma relief. 

http://kxan.com/2017/09/15/h-e-b-returns-favor-and-sends-supplies-to-those-impacted-by-irma/

I'm not kidding, I got chills when i read the brief article and watched the video.

In these times when we see and hear so much about corporations screwing consumers over, its heartening to see some companies standing up and showing some character.  

For them to be able to respond better than any relief org as a private company, all while reopening their own damaged stores, being one of the only places with gas in many areas, rolling in mobile kitchens/pharmacies and then turn around and go help Florida the next week is astonishing

A lot of people in Jacksonville still without power. Seems like mostly poor neighborhoods who can't afford to have companies come out and remove the big trees in order to get the lines back up. 

Also a bunch of lower income houses flooded with 4+ feet of water in them just now getting water out. 

Killit_and_Grillit said:

A lot of people in Jacksonville still without power. Seems like mostly poor neighborhoods who can't afford to have companies come out and remove the big trees in order to get the lines back up. 

Also a bunch of lower income houses flooded with 4+ feet of water in them just now getting water out. 

Stack that hardwood on the left side of my house will ya! 

Killit_and_Grillit said:

@northGAcock Robin believe me. If Inwould have had an ounce of energy left or and we weren't rolling back to TN on a non profits gas card believe me, we considered it. 

But we got some terrible gas mileage coming down and we're trying to make it up on the way back. Water and gas weigh a ton! My Expedition was getting 10mpg at one point. 

Ouch......you guys be safe. We got wood around here too.