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Post by Ben_B on Sept 18, 2022 14:23:40 GMT -8
Ismael,
I hope you and your family are safe!
Ben
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Post by tatocorvette on Sept 18, 2022 17:49:14 GMT -8
Hello!
Doing well. Thanks. This sucker was worst than anticipated. No power which is expected. It was ugly around 3PM in my town. Let's see how long it takes to get power back but seeing lots of down poles and trees.
Will get more details tomorrow.
Thank you!
Ismael
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Post by arcticwolf on Sept 18, 2022 19:11:49 GMT -8
Glad you're safe man. Those things are no fun.
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Post by Ben_B on Sept 19, 2022 5:38:42 GMT -8
Glad to hear you’re okay!
Ben
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Post by Chris K. Hale on Sept 20, 2022 6:48:59 GMT -8
Wow Ismael, Glad to hear You are still around, we just went through a Habob (dust Storm ) immediately followed by a Severe Lightening , Rain and Wind event that lasted about an hour, 70+ mile an hour winds took out 73 Power poles and blew out 28 Transformers, around us. We were without power for about 20 hours, some people were out for 3 days and its no fun when the night temps were 104 and day was 112.. a little warm but we kept our cool and stayed calm. I hope it doesnt take as long as the news is reporting here for You to get power back up. Do you have a generator? I may buy one this year...Chris
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Post by tatocorvette on Sept 21, 2022 4:44:03 GMT -8
Hello gang!
First of all, it is really heart warming to see how we care for each other. Really appreciate it.
I'm doing fine. I'll try to be brief but the story is quite complex.
This is not our first rodeo when it comes to hurricanes and storms. That comes with the territory. Last major hurricane was Maria in 2017 and it was a beast. We are still recovering from that one. Before Maria, the other big one was George back in 1998.
But this one was a surprise. Up to 2 days prior to landfall, it was barely a tropical storm with a lot of rain. So we were getting ready for a heavy rain event with the potential of some flooding. Nothing unusual. But then the sucker strengthened overnight into a tropical storm. OK, we may get some gusty winds with the rain. Again, nothing unusual. But then it tracked south of us. That is usually more problematic. When storms and hurricanes track north of us, the nasty stuff usually stays offshore. But when they track south of us, then we get the blunt of the dirty side. Within a few hours the sucker became a hurricane packing winds of over 80+ MPH. OK, let's brace for some impact as it will track south of us. Then the sucker turned north and sideswiped us making landfall in the south west corner of the island. Puerto Rico is about 110 miles wide and hurricanes are 600+ miles wide. It doesn't really matter if they swerve a few miles. But the hurricane eye making landfall is a notch above. Some areas received up to 30 inches of rain. Massive flooding, mudslides etc. Rivers went wild and bridges were swept away like if made out of matches and toothpicks.
The terrain of Puerto Rico is very complex. Because of that, our electrical system is very complex. Ignorants are yelling on the news "Why don't you get all the electrical system underground? This is on purpose! They want the people to suffer! They don't want people to have power! yada,yada,yada". As an engineer without any filtering my response to those is "First, don't be STUPID. Second, You are ignorant AND STUPID. Third, you can get low power lines underground but not 250,000 Volts transmission lines. Fourth, The power company wants you to have power so they can charge you! Fifth, I don't talk to stupid people so good bye"
Anyways, we lost power as expected. The electrical company has never been the most efficient or the best managed but they are out there restoring the system. For hurricane Maria, the devastation was historical and unheard of. Some areas were without power for up to 10 months! I was lucky to be in the first 10% of the population to get power back then, 33 days after the hurricane and water a few days later.
This time, while some areas were hit as hard as last hurricane, the devastation was not everywhere. In my area, other than some minor debris in my yard and some stripped paint on the house, nothing major happened. So I expect (and hope) to get power and water within a few days.
When 250,000 Volt transmission lines sense a problem, they immediately open for protection. Typical of hurricanes, wind and heavy rains are not gentle so they shutdown as protection. That in turn shuts down the power generation turbines. Restarting a 3,000 Mega Watt system is no easy tasks. Trust me, it is not somebody pulling a cord like a lawn mower. So they are frantically inspecting the system for a safe (and slow) upbring of the generators. It is estimated that in some of the worst hit areas, power may take up to 3 months as everything was simply swept away.
Then there is the problem of running water. Ironically, water service gets affected due to flooding which is excess of water. The problem is that flooding is not just water. Is mostly mud and debris. That clogs everything. Plus, the water system runs on electricity. So they need power to operate.
As of the today, 3 days after the hurricane, it is estimated that water has been restored to about 30% of the population and power to only about 15%, prioritizing hospitals, water pumps, airports etc. Personally I need/want water first.
As of me, well, I'm fine. If your first hurricane gets you unprepared, lesson learned. If the second or subsequent still gets you, shame on you. I have a solar backup system of about 4KW in solar generation and 7KWh batteries. Plus I have a third redundancy of a 5KW generator. It is so loud I avoid using it. I'm an electrical engineer and I pretty much designed and installed most of it.
I also have a 350 gallon recirculating water reservoir. However, the pumps failed a while ago and it is not working properly. So I have about 100 gallons of water we are manually managing. Inconvenient, yes. Life threatening or cause for constant whining and complaining? HELL NO!
Then there is the most important utility: Internet! This time, communications were able to stand to the hurricane. In 2017 everything was blown away so we had no communications for weeks. This time, while running mostly on generators with occasional hiccups, communications are pretty much still up.
During the strongest winds I got here, which I estimate to be in the 60-70MPH range sustained for over a minute, I was concerned about my solar panels, internet PTP antenna, Direct TV dish and AC units in the roof. In that order. But fortunately everything resisted. I sent a thank you note to the guy that installed the solar panel brackets. A friend of mine lost both internet antenna and satellite TV dish to the wind.
Many areas are still in emergency mode. As part of B&R Emergency, a non profit emergency response organization, I'm standing by to provide help where needed. As of now, taking care of neighbors and family keep you busy. Also, as an engineering manager, I'm part of HPE's crisis management team and reached out to all my local team members plus many other coworkers making sure everybody was safe and accounted for.
My wife and I went back to work today.
And that's part of the story!
Ohh, by the way, my model room is safe! Concrete shed, storm grade metal door and windows, double layered roof with steel wire hold downs.
Thanks,
Ismael
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Post by Ben_B on Sept 21, 2022 11:32:43 GMT -8
Hi Ismael,
I’m glad you’re doing well! I’ve been through one hurricane and an Oklahoma tornado, and I don’t ever want to repeat either experience! Just looking at the weather radar, it looks like there are a couple more storms brewing in the Atlantic. Hopefully, they won’t impact you!
Ben
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Post by arcticwolf on Sept 21, 2022 13:24:42 GMT -8
Thanks for that update Ismael. I know what you mean about how the infrastructure works. Good luck to you guys. That same storm is currently on a direct hit to Nova Scotia as a category 4. It's a beautiful place, I have friends there and it's a keep your fingers crossed for the moment. But at least they know it's coming.
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Post by tatocorvette on Sept 26, 2022 5:59:31 GMT -8
Hello, Just a quick update: I finally got power and water back yesterday. Took longer than expected (7 days). We were able to manage with our backup systems in the meantime. Funny story: The city is dispatching water trucks to communities still without the service. They have been out for days and finally came to my street yesterday around noon. I was out, but my daughter, who is the family's official water manager since hurricane Maria in 2017 (she can collect every single drop of rain water and manage water like a boss) made sure every container that could hold water was filled. Somehow she managed to get like 50+ gallons of water! Even my car washing pail was filled. Properly managed that can last quite a few days, maybe a week. Keep in mind this is not drinking water. I was getting home and saw the truck leaving the area. Horn honks and thumbs up were in order. About 2 hours later, I hear my daughter screaming "WHAAAATTT???" as she bursted into laughter. "WATER SERVICE IS COMING BAAAACK!!!" as a faucet started to make some hissing noises and water pressure built up.  Power has only been restored to 60% of the population, and water to about 85% so there is still a lot to be done. I watched a news clip of the devastation as it hit eastern Canada. My heart and prayers to those affected. Thanks, Ismael |
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Post by Ben_B on Sept 26, 2022 6:18:47 GMT -8
Glad things are improving there, Ismael! Things are looking bad in Nova Scotia and I guess the Tampa area gets their turn later this week. It seems like we've gone from a calm hurricane season to a pretty active one almost overnight.
Ben
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Post by Joel_W on Sept 30, 2022 13:13:11 GMT -8
Ismael,
Once again, I'm back in the catch up mode. Glad to hear that you and your family made it through Fiona in pretty good shape. Now it's our turn here on Long Island as what's left of Ian will be here tonight. At least for a change it's not a Hurricane, or which we've had our fair share. Sandy was the worst. Goria almost as bad. In neither did my area loose our electric but the rest of the towns around us did. We have in ground wiring, but last major storm our luck ran out.
I'm betting that the power goes out so I miss the F1 Qual on Saturday and the Race on Sunday.
Joel
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Post by arcticwolf on Oct 1, 2022 19:19:22 GMT -8
Ismael, Once again, I'm back in the catch up mode. Glad to hear that you and your family made it through Fiona in pretty good shape. Now it's our turn here on Long Island as what's left of Ian will be here tonight. At least for a change it's not a Hurricane, or which we've had our fair share. Sandy was the worst. Goria almost as bad. In neither did my area loose our electric but the rest of the towns around us did. We have in ground wiring, but last major storm our luck ran out. I'm betting that the power goes out so I miss the F1 Qual on Saturday and the Race on Sunday. Joel Batten the hatches and stay safe Joel. Nova Scotia and NFLD took quite a hit, surprisingly - and lucky! - my friends in both dodged the bullet, power went off but that's it. Florida looks like a mess, my heart goes out to them. How's this for timing? My brother-in-law sold his place in Fort Myers 3 months ago. Apparently it's not there any more. Wow!
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Post by Joel_W on Oct 2, 2022 11:02:19 GMT -8
Paul,
That is great timing. If it was me, I'd have been the one buying the house as a summer home.
Boy did we luck out on Long Island. The predictions were all wrong as Hurricanes don't lessen to the weather reports. Thursday night, all day Saturday, and so far on Sunday, just lite rain to a mist. Hardly any winds to speak of until today. A steady 10-20 mph wind with gusts over 40 mph. But that's it.
The videos and tv reports of Florida and South Carolina are really scary as hell. The damages from what my wife's cousin who has two homes in Florida and one is in eastern Fort Myers, only lost her front door storm door. All the flooding and loss of homes, businesses, etc were mostly right along the cost. Still, I've never seen damage like that before in my 74 years.
joel
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