[mikeyMarine]

I dunno about your areas in particular, cause Florida is big and wierd shaped but flat mostly except the panhandle.
Polk county has already had more rain this year than it is supposed to recieve ALL year, and we still got a month and a half of hurricane/ tropical storms to go before the dry season gets here,
Flood warnings are in effect for " rivers" in Polk that have not been this high since 1948 and many areas that used to be cow pastures are now mosquito breeding ponds or shallow lakes,
The ground is saturated so, weak. drainage to subsurface is not good, I am surprised we have not had lots more sink holes, can only guess the underground reservoirs are full so the overlay is not caving in, or maybe this storm will do the deed.
Anyway, with the ground saturated and a big wet storm coming, forecast to drop 4 inches a day, we probably will see more trees fall than is expected , and flooding in areas lasting longer than expected,
Gas stations use electricity to pump gas, stop lights use electricity, and trees tear down electricity, if you don't have a generator, you should, and if you don't have stored gas to last about a week you should, or if you are smart and have it available propane or lp or whatever gas is piped to houses here .

What I'm tryin to day is this storm could be a lot worse than predicted. The economy has provided lots of crackheads to clear downed trees etc, pay no one a cent until the Job is DONE and make sure your insurance covers stupidity committed on your residence causing injury and emergency room care (for pain meds).
If this is your first hurricane, I can give you some tips concerning generator usage and stuff you might otherwise learn the hard way . I've had 2 eye walls pass over this house, been in a cat 5, and done 4 in 1 year.

 

[mikeyMarine]

yep, retention ponds down here are made of sand and hope, some are full above street level now. best guess and hopeful is 4 inches of rain and 2 days to pass, a cat 3 so water is a bigger concern than wind except for the fallen tree no electricity thing, I think there has been recent work on the phosphate settling ponds to reinforce them from spills and a couple years ago we had some bad weather right down beside them and they held, but if one oof them suckers bust, yhou can sell central florida for the cost of a pack of gum, (generic gum) and everything south of us is gonna get poisoned too,
I still remember my first cat 5 WHOOOOO that was windy, yep trees broke off 20/ 30 ft above ground and blown away. way off topic but this reminded me of it.

Edited by moderator: some content removed

 

[mikeyMarine]

looks like either semburg or I will see the eye of a cat 1 storm, lotsa rain, the worst tree near me is to the west. so. i think i'm good

 

[mikeyMarine]

I'll park it in the bedroom next to the burgie

 

[mikeyMarine]

Last track I saw that I thought reliable, it was gonna go into Port Charlotte and follow Peace River up thru Polk county, That area is known as bone valley for dinosaur fossils sharks teeth etc, yep sharks teeth in the dang near middle of polk county at an area between Tampa and Vero Beach, Mulberry Florida, we got a whale skeleton out of one of the phosphate mines there.

I'm see in a forecast of 26 inches of rain , I replaced my 10 inch rain gauge with a ten foot stick of pvc and a dipstick! It is kinda not unreasonable to divide that by the amount of hours so lets say 2 inches an hour.

If there's some place for it to go, that aint so bad, I got 5 inches to spare before it comes in the door. I think by noon today I will be without electricity, and by 3 pm no cell service and remain that way till Monday, but I got plenty of liquid lunches, and toilet paper.

The burgy is safe and my water wings have been blown up and leak checked, Cat however is kinda worried, dry cat food is nasty when wet, (and he licks his butt so it must really be super nasty) good chance to test my wet suit. Weather riding gear too so not all bad them retention ponds like that big lake in the middle of Florida, is my biggest concern.

 

[mikeyMarine]

The Klub has a "Special" room

 

[mikeyMarine]

on the bright side, the meth heads on my street smell much better than normal, , the cat doesn't even retch when they walk by

 

[mikeyMarine]

Welp, they say, come to florida for the weather, you'll never hafta shovel snow,,,, You ever tried shoveling water ??
just got electricity and cable back last nite, Lost water, so that's Mondays project, until then , refreshin beverages for hydratin of course, it got a bit rainy and windy, the parkin lot of the Klub was flooded and high winds blew thru, we discovered it was paved , with asphalt, Thanks for all well wishes,
Worst damage , and new dilemma is to the bike, but I will start another thread on that , I had 2 trees , lost both, lost d1 shingle off a new roof, and even though there is 7 inches of elevation between my front door and the ground, and my yard never puddled as far as I know (during Noah's flood we only got 2 inches of standing water and it soaked in after 30 minutes ) I got some minor flooding under a door, and dangit I shuda known this and prepared, I was on the second floor in the barracks in N.C. and had water blown in under my door,
Oh well . lesson remembered , Glad to hear from Semburg, hang in buddy, it aint over, and won't be for about a year, trees and telephone poles still gotta fall ,
Dave, put on yer gear and come make some money !

 

[mikeyMarine]

lets get ahead of the game and discuss flat tires and patches/emergency stuff now, keeping in mind we may no longer have the luxury of tossing a tire just for 1 patch/plug due to supply problems. We're gonna see lots of flats for at least 6 months around here,
what I'm thinkin, what's the best get me home kit, patch my not in the sidewall puncture (both internal patch and from the outside cause some of these guys can't dismount and re mount a tire , best way to avoid nails/ trash that you can't see and that you can see etc etc all the tricks of the trade to keep away the leak monsters

 

[mikeyMarine]

w6pme got most everything going again here in my neck of the woods, there are still traffic lights out/ blinking . and some roads closed or one lane due to trees in them, grocery stores are open and stocked about like they were before the storm but not before the pandemic.
As far as gove, I dunno, I been workin from 4 am. (still dark) till 6pm trying to repair my stuff, so not much in touch with the world. road sides are lined like tunnels with yard debris , construction debris garbage, etc and there is still lots of flooding , rivers, collection ponds , roads in some areas, telephone poles are broken, supported by wires, or leaning and needing repair /re setting, tree limbs hangin in and over the wires. I have power, cable , and availability of refreshing beverages at the store , supplies at lowes are marginal, and I am sure it's gonna be another couple months before the power lines are secure again, cleanup may be years, and I am looking forward to lots of flat tires from nails falling off trailers hauling stuff to the disposal sites.
but hey, I dunno any dead people, and I sleep good at nite , so I am better doff than a lot of others .

 

[mikeyMarine]

I got thinkin, (from her on out in this post it's all strait, no fun intended,
Some of our members may not be aware how our Govt works, We have towns/ cities located in counties/ parishes in states located in our federal territory, the U.S.
If you do not live in an incorporated township/ city, you fall under the county system if you live in a city/town you fall under the city and county also , all living in the state also fall under the state, and all states fall under the federal, (except our nations capital Washingtod D C and native american areas also have some different rules,
So each town Has a govt consisting of fire chief, police chief mayor and each respective person has their individuals that are in their department, the mayor does not tell his people , councilmen, representatives etc what to do they all get together have meetings and decide what to do the police dhief and fire chief pretty much tell their people what to do
In an emergency situation, the mayor, fire chief and police chief have LIMITED abilities to act on their own, those 3 MUST work together even in an emergency to accomplish even the smallest of things , like extended overtime hours for fire fighters and police men, the council people stc are not involved in those limited powers, the county police and fire folks basically are answerable to the state govorner. We'll get to him soon.
Each county has representatives at the state level that represent the cities and the people who live in the county but not in cities, this is the house and senate of the state and the governor is the "president" of the state. each county also has federal representatives that go to Washington D.C. and form the house and senate of our federal govornment and with the president of the united states make up our federal gove, (I am excluding our court system cause we are talking emergency stuff, )
So , what can our govornment do, Local govorning mayors, can impose curfiews , work with fire and police chiefs to increase or decrease safety of citizens state govorners can do a little more, they can activate the national guard and emergency relief agencies , control some pricing, temporarily change some taxing regulatons etc, without approval from the house and senate, but only for a limited time , State and federal representatives are without any special authirity in an emergency situation, and for an emergency are basically useless. Federal authorities like the Vice president, and President , have some limited powers granted in an emergency like activating the guard, regulating prices temporarily changing economic laws, and releasing federal agencies to do their emergency jobs but the state representatives , again useless.

There is one other thing that the president, the vice president , their families ,past presidents and their presidents also can do, they can visit the places that are having an emergency,,, this is a very bad thing for the people having an emergency, These people have a security detail to protect them, and they do it by closing roads, limiting access to areas where these people are visiting , using state and local resources to provide transportation monitoring , roadblocks searches of crowds etcetcetc ad nauseum, it is expensive and inconvenient to say the least for the areas they visit, It is also completely un necessary in the emergency, It is a vote getter and nothing else when they visit, because people do not realize that having the president of the united states in your back yard does nothing to lower the water levels, repair electrical lines etc, it just hampers the recovery effort.
I've been on both sides of that fence and can say neither side made a very positive impression.
END

Ok 7 pm the skeeters are out cruisin the streets for blood hat won't make them high or sterile and there's a refreshin beverage with my name on it that needs some attention!

 

[mikeyMarine]

Finally got the house/yard etc done, gonna start on the burgy this afternoon, ignition switch is on order,

 

[mikeyMarine]

What season follows hurricane season??? Flat tire season!

 

[mikeyMarine]

things are getting pretty close to normal now, , thise that have houses, have electricity and can at leeast boil water for drinking, Flooding is still evident, standing water and river basin drainage, I so suspect some bridge damage and retention pond damage still may occur. Bartow used to be known as the city of paks and azaleas or magnolias or ***** willows or something , it had over 1000 oak trees on a registry that if you needed to trim a branch you had to ask the city, welp, they got about 42 now, and lotsa curbside debris, houses and structures not damaged as much by wind as by water, so tearing out walls etc for black mold control wiil becone a thing, I haven't heard yet any stories of FEMA money ending up in the casinos or food stamps being used for nefarious purchases ( I do know a lady of the evening who can get 20 cents on the dollar cash for food stamps, so .... ) Anyway, keep an eye out, there will be some really outrageous abuse of relief moneys/ services to keep us entertained .

 

[mikeyMarine]

I did take a trip out semburgs way, down some roads where the hooty owls carry flashlites and bears carry pepper spray or a side arm, , less damage and branches and stuff, but BUGS! good grief, I needed armor! even had something buggy looking penetrate the skin just under my chin and above the collar of the vest,

 

[mikeyMarine]

I was just going to ask how the mosquitos are. In Chicago after a huge rain we would get a hatching of flood water mosquitos. They would even have a truck go down the streets at night spraying a fog of insecticide.

mosquitos aren't bad after hyou get above 35 mph, but the standing water does give them a swampy taste

 

[mikeyMarine]

Flesh eating bacteria cases rising in Florida after storm, the bacteria live in standing/ swanp / flood waters and enter the body thru cuts and nicks in the skin, 1 in 5 die, others may have amputations/ complications.


now, jus sayin,,, water without some type of alc ,,, disinfectant in it dan be harmful to hyoor health an I aint takin no chances if I wash somethin it might fall off

 

[mikeyMarine]

update, well, flood waters are going down, some of the taller cows in the pasture have stopped swimming and are wakling around on tippy toes, contractors have picked up over a million cubic yards of debris, (tree limbs , yard stuff, not houses etc) so, things are improving, I rode from Tampa to lake wales down hiway 60 this week, there's still HUGE amounts of water standing, I continue to see new tree falls almost daily, but thankfully the winds have been light , the saturated ground makes them so unstable dogs are afraid to pee on them cause it might knock them over. Being situated in peace river headwaters area and drainage basin I see several bridges that ford the feeder creeks into the river, I am not yet convinced we will not lose bridges to wash out. It's kinda sneaky, there were few roads overtopped with water during the storm, but the ground wasso saturated before the storm the water is just sittiong waiting for a place to go, It's stinky with the decayed vegetation, lots of dead animals on the roadway as their habitat is underwater and the roads are the only place to go.
On the bright side, the weather has been uncommonly nice, and co operative for repairs and cleanup and although there was a ton of water problems, not that much structural damage in Polk county. I think we are out of the headline making phase now,
We might hear a bit about more dinosaur bones after the rivers get down far enough to examine their banks, The state has laws that say any bones discovered get sent to state, if state wants them they keep them, if not the property owner gets them or last of all the discoverer. Discourages a lot of people.

 

[mikeyMarine]

yup an we still got standing water an falling trees from round one

 

[mikeyMarine]

8 am bartow just enough rain to make everything damp, just enough wind to make EVERYTHING damp miserable cussin weather , too cool to need a refreshin beverage , too wet to ride , stuck inside with the cat