Hoping it doesn’t follow the new track. 2pm Thursday is high tide here and the track has the eye just off of Cape Fear. Similar to Hurricane Mathew that caused a lot of flooding. I am rooting for the track to keep shifting, so it turns way right and goes out to sea.
Last time around GRM covered home hurricane prep. After the home is secured, what are some typical preparations for the garage?
Even Ohio has had to deal with hurricanes if you remember the Fall 2000 floods and the super-destructive 2008 windstorm.
GCrites80s said:Last time around GRM covered home hurricane prep. After the home is secured, what are some typical preparations for the garage?
Even Ohio has had to deal with hurricanes if you remember the Fall 2000 floods and the super-destructive 2008 windstorm.
Our very limited garage prep:
I put the cover on the 911 in case anything happens to fall off the shelf that's beside it. (Figure a tiny bit of padding is better than no padding.)
Jump packs are charging so we have juice for phones and stuff. We don't have a generator, but our neighbors do and are happy to share so there's a gas can and extension cords at the ready.
I know where the tarps are--just in case. Plus I have a giant roll of plastic sheeting and a stapler gun. Today I checked that they're where I last saw them.
So far that's it.
Oh, I also kinda straightened up in there because someone made a mess. Figure there's a real chance I'll be looking for something in there in the dark.
We don't have much left to do. I want to check the upstairs gutters tomorrow and make sure they're still clear. Once the storm lands, we'll move the plants next to the house/into the screen room.
GCrites80s said:Last time around GRM covered home hurricane prep. After the home is secured, what are some typical preparations for the garage?
Even Ohio has had to deal with hurricanes if you remember the Fall 2000 floods and the super-destructive 2008 windstorm.
Yeah garage prep is basically like home prep for us as well. Secure, organize, mitigate. Our garage is a 3000sf steel building, so it would take a heck of a wind to cause any real damage. it might lose some skin in truly extreme conditions, but the structure is basically a giant roll cage. Like any structure, though, you concentrate on the weak points, because a breach can substantially weaken the whole system. With a big garage, those weak points tend to be roll up doors. Ours are rated to over 100mph of wincd, but we'll still do some mitigation depending on which direction we expect the wind coming from. Like parking a large vehicle in front of a door, or using a T-brace inside the door to provide a little additional support.
Aside from that, it's mostly a matter of understanding that you're going to lose power at some point, so posting extra flashlights around is never a bad idea, especially near entry doors. I'll have the Corvette, the MR2, my Leaf and my wife's CX5 in the shop. My pickup truck will probably stay outside and provide some additional windbreak for the north facing door.
I've also been doing some research into wind mitigation fabric—basically perforated tarps—which can considerably lessen windload when placed in front of structures. They also don't produce the high-speed vortices that solid barriers can create around their edges. The trick is they need some separation to do their job properly. Like, a windbreak placed 6" in front of a window still leaves the window vulnerable to damage from debris and wind, but a windbreak placed 5' in front of a window can substantially reduce the pressure of air hitting the surface behind it. Probably not for this go around, but I'm thinking of implementing some of that strategy on our pool deck, where we have a lot of glass, but also a nice natural alcove to create a wind wall from.
Depending on how things shake out with this storm, maybe I'll try a live update at some point. Hopefully it's more of a "It missed us but here's what we did to prepare in case it didn't" than a "OH THE HUMANITY" update.
In reply to bobzilla :
Please don’t confuse The MIstake on the Lake with southwestern Ohio, where we have the Bungles to be ashamed of. And, I have to admit, we get the hell out of Dodge in the winter and head to Florida (post hurricane season) Everybody in the path, please be safe.
Meh, in Ohio it snows and I shovel the driveway/walkway. Maybe 12-16" of it but whatever. Hurricane that could blow the roof off the house? I'll take my chances with frozen bits of water. (Then again we had Memorial Day tornadoes about 15 miles north of me that they're still recovering from.)
In reply to pinchvalve :
Last hurricane I did go to Ashtabula Ohio. This time Orange Park, Fl. Ponte Vedra Beach already has mandatory evacuation.
akylekoz said:Let me add this to the reasons not to live in Florida.
tony kozlowicz
There is no good reason not to live in Florida - we get to autocross all year long.
I say that blithely now that Dorian missed us.
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