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Hurricane Ike hits Texas

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Ultra7

Tue Sept 16 2008, 03:54AM

Registered Member #1157 Joined: Thu Dec 06 2007, 12:11PM
Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 307

Home for 8 hours of sleep before I go out again for another couple of days.
Checking in to give updates.
Power restored to 9% of Harris county with projected 75% by Friday.

I have had power since I got home at 20:00 but Ms. Mandi says she was without till about 17:00, and left to check on her mother. We also have water.

Odd bit of information that I thought I'd share. . .
It is refreshing to see so many kids outside playing for a change instead of inside and on the TV.
It is also good to see adults outside helping each other out and actually talking to their neighbors, throwing footballs, playing Frisbee, and horseshoes.

I guess you take away peoples Air Conditioning, TV, Phone, internet, and video games and they actually get outside and talk to one another.

Chris Russell

Tue Sept 16 2008, 02:29PM

... not Russel!
Registered Member #1 Joined: Thu Jan 26 2006, 12:18AM
Location: Tempe, Arizona
Posts: 1052

Ultra7 wrote ...

It is refreshing to see so many kids outside playing for a change instead of inside and on the TV.
It is also good to see adults outside helping each other out and actually talking to their neighbors, throwing footballs, playing Frisbee, and horseshoes.

I guess you take away peoples Air Conditioning, TV, Phone, internet, and video games and they actually get outside and talk to one another.

I notice that a lot during power outages or other disasters. Suddenly, people aren't insulated from one another anymore, and they have to start interacting again. Enjoy it while it lasts. Soon people will be able to go back to ignoring one another again.

Glad to hear everything else seems to be getting back on track. Keep on fighting the good fight!

Quantum Singularity

Fri Sept 26 2008, 03:06AM

Registered Member #158 Joined: Sun Feb 12 2006, 09:53PM
Location: Central Ohio
Posts: 282

A little late here... only get on every so often (mainly when working nightshifts at work) but it is amazing how long Ike persisted through the US. Our house near columbus (actually just purchased a house out in the country and trying to sell the one in columbus) was out of power for 4 days, others up to a week. One tree came down in the yard but fell just a few feet short of the house, everything else was just branches. near where I grew up in upstate NY were my folks are, they recorded wind gusts over 90mph in Alexandria Bay NY.

Arcstarter

Sun Sept 28 2008, 02:26AM

Registered Member #1225 Joined: Sat Jan 12 2008, 01:24AM
Location: Beaumont, Texas, USA
Posts: 2253

I didn't get hit all that bad, i mean no one was harmed.

And we have to have 75% of our walls and ceilings and insulation ripped down and replaced, and while it happens we cannot live hear so we will have to live in our camper.

It has been a rather unpleasant situation.

My brother and his wife where staying at their apartment and the roof got ripped off and the ceilings collapsed. They said they could feel the wind coming through all of the outlets. They filmed it when it first started. They are living with us until they rip the walls out, because this is the only place they have to stay.

This whole thing kinda messed my dad up cause he was here by himself for a few days and all he did was worry about us, even when the storm was hitting.

There is two pole pigs down near me on the side of the street. I would love to pick them up but my parents would not allow it.

The only real casualty from the storm that is my 6 inch secondary. I had to put it in the garage when we left and it is all overlapped. The day before we left i did alot of work on it and i was about 5/6th done with it and now it is all ruined. Alot of my electronics got ruined other than that because my window broke and it is pretty sad. I lost a few power tools( roto zip and my cheap drill press) and i lost 2 811a's because they where on a dresser near the window and it blew them down and they broke. I lost a 1.8 amp 20 volt power supply, 1 mot, a few little 1 amp 12volt and 24 volt transformers and a few motors similar to the type on a microwave oven but bigger and while we where cleaning it all up a bunch of irfp460's and ne555's got accidentally thrown away. None of our neighbors have any major problem though, when is always good.

UPDATE: i went to go look at my secondary and it got scratched while my parents moved it, so i would have to get some more wire.. AHHHHH

OH WELL.

Ok, this is my 4th time i edited this post..
This whole thing also brought my anxiety back

but i am really happy that everything else(other than the house) is alright. I am not sad at all about this whole thing. Ok, that is a complete lie, but i am really thankful that everyone i know is alive and well. If you drive through here in beaumont, you would see that not many people sustained more damage than us. HEHE.

Just went through my stuff again... I lost two ignition coils because they where at the bottom of a plastic bin and the where under water because the bin filled up with water due to the broken window(which is getting fixed tomorrow). One of the coils was hei or whatever it is called. Does anyone know where to get some cheap ignition coils? I tried mine out and it must have arced internally because it worked alright at first and then the spark died down to almost nothing. I emptied the can out and it was nothing but water.

Bored Chemist

Sun Sept 28 2008, 09:13AM

Registered Member #193 Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 07:04AM
Location: sheffield
Posts: 1022

Sorry to hear about your problems. Hope it gets sorted out reasonably quickly.

Arcstarter

Sun Sept 28 2008, 02:40PM

Registered Member #1225 Joined: Sat Jan 12 2008, 01:24AM
Location: Beaumont, Texas, USA
Posts: 2253

Bored Chemist wrote ...

Sorry to hear about your problems. Hope it gets sorted out reasonably quickly.

Thanks, its really nice to hear that.

Myke

Sun Sept 28 2008, 06:13PM

Registered Member #540 Joined: Mon Feb 19 2007, 07:49PM
Location: MIT
Posts: 969

For ignition coils you could put them under some mineral oil and then attach a vacuum pump to the container to get out the air. If the vacuum is good enough, the water might boil away and then it should be fine as long as there is no carbon tracks.

Hope that you can get everything fixed and working again sometime. It's sad to hear what happened...

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