Hurricane Michael 2018

My son's school cancelled for today so he gets to hang out with mom. The charity shotgun shoot that I was going to shoot was rescheduled for next month. Creek didn't look too far up this morning. I told my wife that she may have to come pick me up at the end of the driveway in our john boat or my 2 seater kayak.

CHRIS
 
I went outside around 1:30 AM and it was windy with no rain. got up today and just a bunch of junk in the yard.
 
Seems like the wind is done here. About 11am the wind/rain was S->N for about 45min. Then it was calm for an hour or so. About 1pm the wind/rain was N->S for about 45min. No trees down, close though... Just sticks and leaves.

Looks like the clouds are getting lighter, a little rain with a few gusts...
 
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The heavy rain just moved out of The Containment Area.
 
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Rain since yesterday seems like the wind picked up around 1000 today. Lots of trees started falling around 1430 in and around W-S. Traffic was just snarling as I was coming to work. From the wife's report it's a mess now.
 
WRAL says we only got 2 inches in the Containment Area (RDU airport, actually).
There was A LOT of water in the road.
 
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I left Raleigh at 14:00 drove through driving rain. Home at 15:15.
Was calm for 5 mins ..as soon as I touched the patio furniture the wind came up hard. 60+ Id guess.
Lasted ~45 mins.
Now it’s a light rain and light breezes
Oh and power is out .
I ve heard no less than 15 down trees on roads and houses from the scanner
 
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Hellacious wind gusts in The Containment Area now.
 
Hellacious wind gusts in The Containment Area now.
I was just feeling that we might not have much wind left in Apex, and then that first big sustained a guest came. We have one tree down in our driveway ( several hundred feet between us and the road), but I don't think it messed up the fence. Can't get up there yet to move it because I'm afraid another one will fall on me. :) So waiting until those big nasty bands on the radar look like they have passed us
 
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I was just feeling that we might not have much wind left in Apex, and then that first big sustained a guest came. We have one tree down in our driveway ( several hundred feet between us and the road), but I don't think it messed up the fence. Can't get up there yet to move it because I'm afraid another one will fall on me. :)

Good call. Wait till it is calm. When I am up in the mountains and it is windy I avoid the woods as much as possible. I've got some learners and dying trees that just need a little persuading. Had one go down when I was reading on the deck last month. One hell of a noise and crash. It was almost exactly 90' of hardwood. That would really hurt.
 
A lot more stuff has fallen in this storm....there are limbs all over the yard. And I'm not going out and about like I did in the last storm! The winds have calmed down a bit, but all the thumping freaked me out, so I'm staying in and waiting for the power to go....
My friend in the Florida panhandle fared well, most of the action was to the east of where she lives. Now I can worry about family in Va., I guess. And cousins near Raleigh....
 
I was just feeling that we might not have much wind left in Apex, and then that first big sustained a guest came. We have one tree down in our driveway ( several hundred feet between us and the road), but I don't think it messed up the fence. Can't get up there yet to move it because I'm afraid another one will fall on me. :) So waiting until those big nasty bands on the radar look like they have passed us

I could help you tomorrow for an hour after 11:30am , saw is already in the truck.

I don’t think your neighbor would like it at 6:30 am... ;)
 
I could help you tomorrow for an hour after 11:30am , saw is already in the truck.

I don’t think your neighbor would like it at 6:30 am... ;)

I'll let you know if I can't get it this evening. Thanks! :cool:
 
My power is out. Bad thing is there is a decent size oak across the road in front of the house that took out the line. It affects maybe 6 houses, so it'll be pretty far down the list to get repaired. Killed my DSL too. 12k generator is humming and hooked to the house LP... no phone or Netflix, but I got everything else.
 
It started to clear up at our place about 615, so I went out and took care of that tree. There was an awesome big rainbow. But then the power went out. Still out now, so we are over at the edge of Cary/Apex eating dinner. Almost everything we passed on the way (hwy 64) had no power, shopping centers and everything were out
 
Lost power in Wake Forest around 6. Just fired generator up to open freezer for ice to make a stiff drink now that kids all in bed.

Cool off fridges and freezers then go radio silence again. Think I'm going to make a generator "house" to keep that noise maker out of sight in my back yard vs. in driveway.
 
Got the generator fired up when got back from dinner, so we can run lights until bed and fridge and well pump. Tested whether I can run fridge on a 1500w power inverter I got from @Mike79 a while back. It works! I'm going to try that overnight so don't need to worry about waking up to run the generator
 
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Just d/c'd my generator for the night. Will run it again in AM if the power still out.

Note to self - buy more Jack...running low
 
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This one was a lot worse that the last as stated above. Many of you know I work for the city of Greensboro. Anything that was near the numerous creeks in Greensboro yesterday had flooding issues. When the tornado came through in April, the damage was confined to one part of town. About every section of town we got a tree call on yesterday looked like the tornado area. Didn’t quite have the amount of structures damaged but there is a large amount of trees down in Greensboro and tons of folks without power.
 
Widespread power outages. Left chapel hill, came down 15/501 to 64 and then went up 421 towards high point. Apparently there was a tree down on BR 85 that had it closed, but there wasn’t a barricade or cops when I went by. I just went down 85 to 311 and came back up. Lots of traffic lights out along the entire route and stupid MF’ers treating it like it means fly like a bat out of hell instead of a 4 way stop.

Got home. Lights out. Family sitting with candles. I got out the generator and hooked that in. Got the fridge and freezer cooling again and had some lights. Damn that thing is loud. Virtually no internet access as even with a couple of bars the Verizon was unworkably slow. Power came back on about 10 last night, but Rectum Internet is still down (tv works).
 
After I had posted that we got power back last night, it went off about 10:30pm and is still off now. The refrigerator ran on the power inverter all night – it was about six or seven hours before it gave the battery low warning. So at least I know I can do that in the future. Running on generator now.

I agree with @Jeffncs – I have thought about building some kind of generator enclosure so I can put it behind the house and it will be quieter and protected from the weather.
 
Widespread power outages. Left chapel hill, came down 15/501 to 64 and then went up 421 towards high point. Apparently there was a tree down on BR 85 that had it closed, but there wasn’t a barricade or cops when I went by. I just went down 85 to 311 and came back up. Lots of traffic lights out along the entire route and stupid MF’ers treating it like it means fly like a bat out of hell instead of a 4 way stop.

Got home. Lights out. Family sitting with candles. I got out the generator and hooked that in. Got the fridge and freezer cooling again and had some lights. Damn that thing is loud. Virtually no internet access as even with a couple of bars the Verizon was unworkably slow. Power came back on about 10 last night, but Rectum Internet is still down (tv works).

Still a few lights out around Durham, almost got nailed by a van when I crossing at a light that was out on Main Street.
 
Still a few lights out around Durham, almost got nailed by a van when I crossing at a light that was out on Main Street.
Had a few still out in High Point and in Alamance county along hwy 54 and then in Carrboro. Thankfully more folks were treating them like a stop. The funny thing was that I think even as a 4 way stop traffic moved better and faster than it does with the light.
 
The refrigerator ran on the power inverter all night – it was about six or seven hours before it gave the battery low warning.

That is impressive. Is this something you rigged or is is a commercially available unit?
 
That is impressive. Is this something you rigged or is is a commercially available unit?
Looking online I saw that refrigerators don't usually draw a lot of wattage, they just have a spike each time they start up. Everything I found said a 1500W power inverter should be more than enough, and I already had one of those, so I decided to try it. Some people had gotten by with a 1000W inverter.
It is just the inverter hooked to a deep cycle battery, and the fridge plugs into the inverter.
How long it lasts would depend on how much power the fridge uses and the size of the battery, and I guess also the efficiency of the inverter.
The inverter is kind of like this one. I can get the exact model later if that is important. :)
https://www.cobra.com/collections/p...MIxLLPkYaC3gIVk4rICh2iGwH4EAQYAyABEgLAE_D_BwE
In fact, it may be that exact power inverter, just rebranded. The outlets and the power display look the same as what I have.
For the battery, get the biggest one you are OK to carry over to your refrigerator and have sitting there beside it while the power is out. :) and of course the battery needs to be charged before the power outage.
If it was an extended power outage, you would need to have multiple batteries to cover a longer time period, or if you have a generator running during the day, you could power the fridge from the generator each day and also run a battery charger to recharge your battery each day so it would be ready for the night
 
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Looking online I saw that refrigerators don't usually draw a lot of wattage, they just have a spike each time they start up. Everything I found said a 1500W power inverter should be more than enough, and I already had one of those, so I decided to try it. Some people had gotten by with a 1000W inverter.
It is just the inverter hooked to a deep cycle battery, and the fridge plugs into the inverter.
How long it lasts would depend on how much power the fridge uses and the size of the battery, and I guess also the efficiency of the inverter.
The inverter is kind of like this one. I can get the exact model later if that is important. :)
https://www.cobra.com/collections/p...MIxLLPkYaC3gIVk4rICh2iGwH4EAQYAyABEgLAE_D_BwE
In fact, it may be that exact power inverter, just rebranded. The outlets and the power display look the same as what I have.
For the battery, get the biggest one you are OK to carry over to your refrigerator and have sitting there beside it while the power is out. :) and of course the battery needs to be charged before the power outage.
If it was an extended power outage, you would need to have multiple batteries to cover a longer time period, or if you have a generator running during the day, you could power the fridge from the generator each day and also run a battery charger to recharge your battery each day so it would be ready for the night
This is exactly the info I as looking for. Since I am electric-challenged, would you give the specs for your battery. I know nothing about them. Also, your charger. Yes, I have a generator so I can charge batteries, but don't want to run it 24 hours a day.

Also, I'm curious how long does it take to charge the battery after you run it all day?

Thanks again
 
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This is exactly the info I as looking for. Since I am electric-challenged, would you give the specs for your battery. I know nothing about them. Also, your charger. Yes, I have a generator so I can charge batteries, but don't want to run it 24 hours a day.

Also, I'm curious how long does it take to charge the battery after you run it all day?

Thanks again
I'll definitely get you the info. We are camping this weekend, so please remind me if I don't get back to you this week.
The battery charger I usually use maxes out at 6A, and that is not enough to charge the battery quickly (like running the generator a few hours during the day) if you have discharged it overnight. It would be better to have a higher amp charger. I believe many charge at 10A or more. I'll look at my older chargers when I get home and see. I want to have a faster charger for that type of situation.
 
Typically Deep cycle batteries do not like being charged over 10 amps, life expectancy and amps hours will diminish rapidly.
I good 3 stage charger is what's needed and time... You can get to 70% charge in about 8 hours. But will need a lower amp and longer charge time after that to get full saturation and 100% charge. That will help to reduce sulfation and extend battery life.
 
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