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Waiting for Irma

MikeH

MikeH

Diamond Level Sponsor
Well, after 2-1/2 days, everything is boarded up and stuff secured. Now all we can do is wait. I started boarding up when we were projected to get hit with Cat 2 winds. Right now it's 55 to 65 mph wind with gusts 65 to 85. This sure was a lot easier the last time I had to board up, about 12 years ago, and I was younger. Definitely did not like getting up on the roof to do the second floor. At least I kept all the wood I prepared then, so all I had to do was put it back up. Don't know where the water will go, the ground is already saturated with prior rain fall and a nor'easter the hit over the past two days
 
Barry

Barry

Diamond Level Sponsor
Mike,

Hope you get through it OK. Water is a lot worse than wind; will there be any storm surge that far down the St. Johns river?

My sister and BIL are riding it out on the Intracoastal waterway about 15 miles ENE of Ft. Myers. Looks like the eye may go right over them in a couple of hours.
 
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MikeH

MikeH

Diamond Level Sponsor
In my post I meant now the projected is 55 to 65 mph, not that was what we are getting now.

Barry,
The St John's flows north and is affected by tides. I'm far enough away from it where it is not an issue for me. During Matthew, the road at the eastern end of the Shands bridge in Green Cove Springs was washed out, leaving a huge hole. I have to cross it to go to work in St Augustine. Figured I'd be driving many miles out of my way for weeks, but it was very quickly repaired. Our biggest issue is all of the power lines that get taken down by trees.
 
MikeH

MikeH

Diamond Level Sponsor
Well power went out at midnight, it's now 10AM. Luckily I can use the generator in the RV. I can keep the fridge and freezer cooled down, watch digital over the air channels on TV, when the signal doesn't fade in and out, and most importantly, make coffee. I'm on a flowing well so water is not an issue. I also had my septic tank pumped, so I don't have to worry about pumping to the raised drain field. Irma is supposed to pass about this afternoon. We've had about 12 inches of rain since Saturday. Once this passes I can use my gas grill to heat meals. It was funny earlier. There were two turkeys on my fence, then a gust of wind blew one of them off the fence and into the side of my truck. It was just on TV, my electric company is reporting 135,000 power outages.
 
Barry

Barry

Diamond Level Sponsor
Mike,

I hear the St. Johns river has gone wacky in Jacksonville; are you doing OK?
 
MikeH

MikeH

Diamond Level Sponsor
Yeah, I'm fine, not that close to the river. Just up the road from a section of Black Creek, which is seeing highest flooding in over 100 years. Not a threat to me though. Still no electricity. Everything is still closed. The problem now will be gas. Very few stations are open or have gas. The only damage I had was a 12 piece of Hardie Board siding was pull off the second floor of the house and a wind forced roof leak. It's amazing where the wind can make the rain go. My roof is still fairly new, about 7 years. I wonder if other members in central and south Florida have been affected.
 
Barry

Barry

Diamond Level Sponsor
Glad to hear you are OK.

The eye of Irma went directly over my sister and BIL. No structural damage to their house, but the local electrical power system is gone (not just damaged, but GONE) and their 11 KW Honda generator failed after 16 hours run-time. They will probably have to leave (if they can find any gas).

There are probably a lot of people in South Florida in worse shape.
 
Alpine66

Alpine66

Donation Time
Glad you weathered (pun intended) it well.

Was not the apocalypse here in Atlanta that was predicted although there were/are a Lot without power.
 
MikeH

MikeH

Diamond Level Sponsor
Update. Having my septic tank pumped did not work as planned. All of the rain and saturated ground filled it and the dosing tank up. I ran two long extension cords from the RV and plugged the sump pump in. Nothing happened. Checked voltage at the extension cord and had noting. The exterior power outlet also now had zero volts. Checked the breakers and nothing was tripped. Tried resetting the gfi breaker that feeds the exterior outlet and still no joy. I reset the main and no change. All power inside the RV was good. So I decided to move the coach and fire up the a/c, add chemical to the toilet holding tank, and start the water heater so at least we could get a hot shower and use the head. Just as I shut the ignition off, after moving to the driveway, the generator shut down. To low on gas. i didn't want to drive around looking for gas, so I headed out with my only 6 gal gas can. I found gas and added it to the tank. Then my wife says Lowes has generators, just go get one and use it to run the pump. To make an already long story short, I did and the pump trips the gfi outlet on the generator. So, defeated I move it to the patio, run my extension cords and plug everything in. Walk inside, plug in the fridge, then I hear a beep. I asked, what's beeping, then realize the power just came back on. I was happy and p|$$ed at the same time. The sump pump works fine when plugged into the non-gfi outlet. I'm guessing the gfi circuit blew in the RV. Then I had the best hot shower ever!
 
MikeH

MikeH

Diamond Level Sponsor
Update to the update.

Woke up with a DUH! moment this morning. The gfi reset is on the bathroom outlet in the RV. Also Googled sump pumps and GFCI and found the initial surge can fake out a GFCI outlet and so the should not be wired to one.

As Inspector Clouseau would say, "The crime, it is sol-ved."

So I guess I'll have to split the generator's (one I just bought) 240 outlet to two 120 legs to use one with the pump in the future. Lawsuits just make things too complicated. Like a warning on a screw driver, "DO NOT STICK IN EYE!" Still I guess some people do not heed such warnings. They found 2 dead and 1 that later died in a Daytona Beach apartment that were running a generator inside.
 
B

Bill Blue

Platinum Level Sponsor
Its a strange world. Not running a sump pump seems counter intuitive. Seems that if anything needs a GFI, it would be a pump that runs under water. I know they are designed for it, but still.

However, I just replaced a high dollar submerged pump that had a seal failure which allowed the motor housing to fill with water. Ran fine until a bearing failed and locked it up. It was running on a GFI, which tripped once, long before the pump failed.

Makes a person wonder what the hell is going on.

Bill
 
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