Hey Dogs - Glad to see you and Cat made it through ok. Thanks for sharing the tips. I’ll be buying the helmet light soon.
You mentioned communications - same issues here. I’ve heard something like 300 cell towers are/were in bad shape, whether damaged or lost power and running out of backup power. I’ve had spotty cell service since Sunday night. And I don’t have a landline so that is out, although some of my neighbors don’t have internet, landline service or cable. I’ll have to think of something there.
I’m frankly shocked that not 1 tree in my immediate neighborhood snapped. I’m on a ridge and it’s normally windier here than down below so maybe the trees have adjusted themselves to the winds over the years. But I’m not an arborist so I don’t know for sure. What I do know is the 3 trees that are in striking distance of my house will become next year’s firewood.
Mike - As far as water, at least here in the Northeast, we have plenty of fresh water and ample amounts of rain fall in any given year, somewhere between 40-50 inches of rain. There’s the occasional drought, sometimes severe as in a few months, but they don’t last like they do in Australia.
Let’s hope this was the only hurricane we have to deal with this year and for the next several years, if not decades.
And glad you and Cat weathered the storm so well. It’s a great feeling when you know you are as ready as you can be. Love the tip about knowing where they will set up shelters in advance.
I have some peach jam that became ice cream or waffle topping as well.
Were any of you watching your barometers ? How much of a warning did they give and how far did they dip? I was just wondering in the event that news is unable to warn people . Did you have Red sky at night or morning ?
[quote=Full Moon] Were any of you watching your barometers ? How much of a warning did they give and how far did they dip? I was just wondering in the event that news is unable to warn people . Did you have Red sky at night or morning ?
FM
[/quote]
I watched ours drop from about 958 to 950 in the two hours before the storm hit. Pretty sobering when the reported eye pressure was the same as what was measured outside the house - looking up to see blue sky when we were in the eye was definitely eerie.
We had a golden red sun Friday night and couldn’t see the sun Saturday morning. So much for weather adages.
Thank you . I do not think I will give up watching the signs anyway .
One thing crossed my mind is how they were reporting the $ amount of damages before the wrath of the storm was even over …
I had one of those little red cross radios to listen to during the storm.After it was over I wanted to listen to NPR on the FM band while my power was out and I found that while the AM worked ok with the straight antenna, the FM only seemed to work if I was holding the radio in my hands. I assume I was acting as the FM antenna.
Anyone care to explain this?
Thanks.
Joe
[quote=joesxm2011] I had one of those little red cross radios to listen to during the storm.
After it was over I wanted to listen to NPR on the FM band while my power was out and I found that while the AM worked ok with the straight antenna, the FM only seemed to work if I was holding the radio in my hands. I assume I was acting as the FM antenna.
Anyone care to explain this?
Thanks.
Joe
[/quote]
No not really on the lizard DNA part…
The human body has an electromagnetic near field effect that boosts FM antenna performance in some cases by as much as 10 dB.
Twiggy probably boosts antenna response only 3 dB. Rosie O’Donnell or Michael Moore? Maybe 48 dB.
Thanks Dogs.
Unfortunately that explains why I was able to boost the antenna response by such a large amount
One other thing that came to mind today while I was looking at better quality headlamps to buy is that with good quality LED flashlights you are not supposed to use rechargable batteries, at least the CR123 kind. I am not sure about AAA or AA.
My main pocket light is a SureFire LX2 LumaMax and I purchased a less expensive Fenix flashlight to put in my emergency pack.
While reading the instructions for the Fenix I saw a comment stating that you cannot use rechargable CR123 batteries. Too bad I purchased a charger and some batteries from Amazon at the same time as the Fenix.
I called SureFire technical support and they explained that the rechargable batteries can give off more than the nominal 3 volts and it damages the circuitry that controls the LED. They said that these rechargable batteries are probably ok for cameras, but not for the LED lights.
Today I was looking at an LED headlamp from Streamlight and came upon their FAQ page that said the same thing. The FAQ page seemed a little vague when it was discussing AA or AAA rechargable batteries and almost sounded like they could not test every battery type so they were sticking with the story that only the approved Alkaline batteries were guaranteed to work. http://www.streamlight.com/faq/
It seems that the lithium CR123 rechargables are definitely not to be used.
I decided to not be a slacker so I did a little more research in the middle of writing this post.
The streamlight web site shows that they have a series of rechargable litium ion lights. They take a special charger. I am guessing that they have better control over the overcharging issues with these dedicated lights. Some of the chargers take DC so they can be perhaps more easily wired to a solar setup.
I suppose if you are getting into built in rechargable batteries the power tool companies that make tools with battery packs probably have work lights in their product offerings that might be battery compatible with the power tools.
That solar powered headlamp dogs mentioned is starting to look better all the time. However, on Amazon the reviews said that it was not very bright. It is probably ok for a headlamp, but I would also like a nice duty light for my pack or pocket.
Our place in southern Vermont is high up so we escaped flood damage. A real wake up call. @capesurvivor - thanks for mentioning that term - "anti-prepper" - it keeps me laughing.
Glad you and Cat are ok, DIAP.
We made out fine in Central NY. But a couple towns down south where my husband used to sell hardware years ago, Prattsville and Windham NY, were hit really hard by flooding. They’re nice old towns; we were sad to hear about them getting hit so badly. Here’s link to a video about the damage in Prattsville (sorry about the ad at the beginning): http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=KzG_2Ay4Klo