Advice needed for preparing for a hurricane

[Ian Gills]

All of you. Thanks for caring/responding.

 

[Terry Love]

Okay,
Now if you can run over to my brothers place and check his gas water heater, that would be perfect.
He's over in Arlington, just a little ways out of town from you.

A 5.9 caused any problems?

Earthquake shuts down Virginia nuclear plant.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/23/quake-hits-near-washington-d-c/

The Pentagon has been evacuated, CNN's Barbara Starr reports. "When the building began shaking rather violently, hundreds of people began streaming out," she said, because many people thought that the building was under attack. Starr was standing in the Pentagon's press office when the roof started to shake.

the quake knocked out traffic lights downtown, snarling traffic as fire trucks and other emergency vehicles -- sirens blaring -- snaked through the confusion. The sidewalks teemed with anxious office workers who fled or were ordered to leave their buildings.

I remember a 6.2 in the Seattle area, but lucky for us, the math teacher took out his pointer and held the entire ceiling from falling.
None of the other classrooms had problems either, but it was rather funny watching an "educated" man trying to hold a building up with a skinny stick.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Ian Gills]

Arlington would have felt it worse.

Arlington is a great place. I used to live there but could not afford to buy.

 

[wmills]

It was the Founding Fathers rolling over in their graves as they watched what the politicians are doing to the USA.

 

[Cookie]

I am baking chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, sipping tea with lemon and celebrating a really great day for me. I don't care what the winds are or how badly the ground shakes, as long as my cookies are ready to eat soon. That kind of stuff is kid stuff. I have weathered the mother of all storms. (relatives) I can nap through it all. Wake me when it is over so I can see what new stuff I got.

I got my eye on the new outdoor grill a couple of doors down.

 

[Cookie]

Ian, you guys okay? you are too quiet.
It's the quiet ones you got to watch.

 

[DonL]

I don't have a generator.

It's cultural. In England, I cannot remember having a power outage. Ever.

At what wind speeds do you need to "board up"?

Anything above 100 MPH may not be safe, depending on your houses construction.

Then even boarding up the windows may not be of much help, When the roof blows off.

Don't get stuck in a flooding basement, The water could be of more concern than the wind.

I would suggest having plenty of beer on hand, as you can live on beer alone.


A Female may also come in handy.


Only Mother Nature knows what is in store...

 

[BobL43]

Anything above 100 MPH may not be safe, depending on your houses construction.

Then even boarding up the windows may not be of much help, When the roof blows off.

Don't get stuck in a flooding basement, The water could be of more concern than the wind.


I would suggest having plenty of beer on hand, as you can live on beer alone.


A Female may also come in handy.


Only Mother Nature knows what is in store...

Now a brick house, like Ian likes, is more likely to kill him from an earthquake. A wood house can get blown apart. This sounds like the 3 little pigs story. wheres the bid bad wolf?

 

[Ian Gills]

Thanks guys. I will stock up on beer. As you know, one of the things I like about America is its beer.

This looks like it will be a New York event as well. This is a good time to centralize more control in Washington so we are better able to respond to the country's needs.

All the States have very similar preferences anyway. One size fits all.

 

[Pipehacker]

I would agree with you if this were not a Nation of Immigrants.

Which it is and always has been.

Should I buy bottled water? DC is in the orange threat zone now. New York is in the red.


Buying water is only necessary if your toothpaste reacts poorly with beer. It's time to man up, DC. You can't hire a consultant. You can't raise taxes in time to help. It is your destiny to stare this beast of a hurricane in the eye and deal with it, man to man. What would Winston Churchill do? Would he worry about bottled water? Would he say "the only thing we have to fear is Irene herself." No, he would have about eight drinks, load up his side by side Holland and Holland 12 bore to keep the Germans and other riffraff at bay, and deal with it. Ian, I have full confidence that this will be your finest hour. I also have full confidence that your Metro will use this as an excuse to take four days off so you might want to borrow a bicycle.

 

[Ian Gills]

Thanks LOTW. It's not so much the beer I am worried about. I do keep good stocks of 90 Minute IPA.

But I would not want to flush a toilet with it nor take a shower.

Besides, the community might need something to drink and nobody touches my beer.

I am contemplating removing my car battery and placing it indoors as a spare for the battery backup sump pump.

I really hope New York will be OK. They are such nice people up there. Bob is about as bad as they get in New York.

And they drive beautifully.

If anything comes of this storm, it may be buried power lines. America may finally catch up with the rest of us.

 

[Ballvalve]

And buildings should be built of brick (and not wood).

If your building was brick it would be 1/2 story tall now and much wider.

If anything comes of this storm, it may be buried power lines. America may finally catch up with the rest of us

Good for hurricanes, but bad for earthquakes with displacement of ground plates. You can move a power pole 3 feet and not disturb anything. I know, after backing into a tie back with a large dozer. Not something I recommend for those with heart disease.

Your 5.9 was a baby. We get those like DC gets rapes and muggings. But we dont foolishly build 200' tall granite monuments either.

I think 4 tie backs are in order for that guy. Or a 400' fence around it. And your seated Lincoln may be reclining on the steps soon!

I have several 1" steel rods running from my pure rock foundation to the roof. If my mountain moves, the house just travels intact with it. When that Madrid fault in the midwest lets go, what happened in Japan will look like a fender bender. The Mississippi might be running through Texas.

All those portable classrooms in california, ugly as sin, could take a 9.5 earthquake and just lose some sheetrock. Your DC 1930 brick schools will make Haiti look good.

Once I was 900' into a gold mine adit, and a 7.5 quake hit. Held up, but needed a lot of liquor to relax.

40+ litres of vodka in your trunk is good for snow traction, and better than dollar bills or gold after the crash or the big quake.

 

[BobL43]

Thanks LOTW. It's not so much the beer I am worried about. I do keep good stocks of 90 Minute IPA.

But I would not want to flush a toilet with it nor take a shower.

Besides, the community might need something to drink and nobody touches my beer.

I am contemplating removing my car battery and placing it indoors as a spare for the battery backup sump pump.

I really hope New York will be OK. They are such nice people up there. Bob is about as bad as they get in New York.

And they drive beautifully.

If anything comes of this storm, it may be buried power lines. America may finally catch up with the rest of us.

Hey thanks for the compliments, although they are so true and obvious, there is no need. How will you protect your beer if you have no firearms to keep the unwashed masses in DC away from you?

 

[Ian Gills]

In England guns are banned so you are forced to use self-defence. Something Americans must be terrible at due to their unshakeable trust in firearms. Your fathers teach you to shoot and not box. Which works great, until you forget to bring the gun with you.

The bigger issue is how will I keep the beer cold without power?

I used to leave it in the river when I went fishing. Perhaps a bucket of water will work.

Extreme threat for New York now.

 

[BobL43]

In England guns are banned so you are forced to use self-defence. Something Americans must be terrible at due to their unshakeable trust in firearms. Your fathers teach you to shoot and not box. Which works great, until you forget to bring the gun with you.

The bigger issue is how will I keep the beer cold without power?

I used to leave it in the river when I went fishing. Perhaps a bucket of water will work.

Extreme threat for New York now.

hey, what don't kill you, makes you stronger. If it destroys my house, I'll rebuild. I own it, have no mortgage. my beer will be cold in my bunker. Corona Extra is what I favour at the moment, but I prefer hard liquor. And how do YOU know if I was a golden gloves boxer or not as a youngun?
My son is a 3rd degree blackbelt (last I heard). firearms are not all we learn in the wild wild west of nu yawk

 

[Ian Gills]

Then ban guns. You have no need for them. Nor does anyone else.

Corona Extra is a bit so so. It took me five years to discover America's mirco-breweries but now I have there is no turning back.

Except for hard liqour. Whisky is best. With cigars. Cuban cigars. But you can't bring those to America. So you have to smoke them outside.

Dominican Republic Cigars are good as well, though.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Ian, let it go. We ain't banning guns. In fact there are a whole lot of gun companies out there that are balls to the wall trying to fill orders, not to mention those companies coming up with new and better guns for us trigger happy Americans. We love guns. This is a nation that was founded down the barrel of a gun. Guns beat back you Brit's, won the west and saved the rest of the world several times in the past century or so. If I were president I would make it illegal to NOT own a gun. In fact everybody would have to have at least a dozen or so. Kids should learn to handle a weapon in Kindergarten. Vote for me, free guns for everyone

 

[BobL43]

Then ban guns. You have no need for them. Nor does anyone else.

Corona Extra is a bit so so. It took me five years to discover America's mirco-breweries but now I have there is no turning back.

Except for hard liqour. Whisky is best. With cigars. Cuban cigars. But you can't bring those to America. So you have to smoke them outside.

Dominican Republic Cigars are good as well, though.

As good as anybody can fight by hand, when a big ass criminal comes at a ltlle whimpy old man, the gun is a very good equalizer, especially big bore, big loads. YEE HAH!

 

[BobL43]

In England guns are banned so you are forced to use self-defence. Something Americans must be terrible at due to their unshakeable trust in firearms. Your fathers teach you to shoot and not box. Which works great, until you forget to bring the gun with you.

The bigger issue is how will I keep the beer cold without power?

I used to leave it in the river when I went fishing. Perhaps a bucket of water will work.

Extreme threat for New York now.

In the Patomac river? I've taken many a pee in it; thats why you enjoy your beer so much maybe.

 

[BobL43]

Well, it might be 75 mph winds.

at the moment, it looks a bit extreme for DC as well. Watch out for flying objects while you are taking memorable photos for your friends back home.