Verizon here in Miami with a flip phone and it was never 'down' per se, but would time out on putting a call through, or just not connect here and there.  I'd try calling family in Los Angeles, and it wouldn't go through, but then a call from my buddy in Fresno would pop up and connect perfectly.

Never was I without cell service even though my power went out at 1:30pm Saturday, well before the storm started really knocking things down.  Once my power went, my ATT U-Verse land line and internet connection went with it, but all came back on at 11:30pm Tuesday night.

Chris

Second this. AT&T sucked dick.
Borrowed brothers Verizon hotspot to keep com's up for my job.
Next time around ill pretend I didn't have it.....

I'm north of Tampa/St Pete... we had just shy of 80mph winds... Verizon cell worked... my Verizon DSL is up, though it is probably mostly fiber optic... but land line is still down

Get both- Afrcom style...  My primary phone is AT&T (prepaid) but I have a cheapo Verizon prepaid flip phone that is pay as you go type thing...  Gives you multiple comm options when in the back country or when things start to go down.  AT&T vs Verizon don't cross over.  CDMA vs GSM.

And think... Irma wasn't even really a disaster.

Low percentage of the population involved. Easily could have provided national aid, evacuation, etc; had it been a necessary.

Thank you Captain Obvious.

What's the point of your comment?

If Irma had jogged to the east, a few degrees, at the last 24-48 hour mark, it would have been a pretty catastrophic event.

We got lucky, as did the western coasts of Florida.

12 years of dodging a bullet.

Chris

In the big sceme ...yup.


But try telling that to someone who lost their home or is going through an extended camping trip in the summer months here in Florida. I doubt they'd agree with you.

The easy coast where I work looks like nothing happened but a bad thunderstorm...go west 20 miles the main roads are littered with debris still...trees that we're across main roads are there. Just sawed flush with the shoulder.
Further west you travel the worse it gets.

Then areas that flooded and are still under water.

A storm like Irma if it had ran the east coast of Fla bounced into the Carolina's and rode up the north east with out losing speed by going inland would have fucked a lot up.

Florida especially the keys took the full hit,,soaked it up...

It rained do hard here it flash flooded. Now lower areas near the river are flooded. I'm 40 miles from either coast give or take 10 miles.
As much as it sucks to say this..I'm glad she got wore down before getting to my area as a cat 2-3 as they predicted.
It would have been a nightmare for many.

I still dunno how close she came to us..the general path was almost over me.
All I know is it was three times as strong as Matthew last gear.

I agree with you 110%.  I live in Central Alabama.  Up here, we were only predicted to get some high winds and several inches of rain.  The county I live in was also the on the west side of the tropical storm warning area.

I went to Wal Mart at lunch and they were empty of bottled water.  Generators were flying off the door at Sams Club.  The news media gave the expectation that we were going to have it very rough here, maybe a notch below Florida.

We didn't lose power.  Only a few trees down due to the wind gusts.

Hurricane Charlie was my wake up call to prepping. It was my first hurricane experience and being without power only 3 days I realized just vulnerable and dependent I was on public infrastructure. All i had then was a Vector 1500 watt modified sinewave inverter which I hooked up to my car battery and idled the car. It kept my fridge cool and gave us a little power for a fan at night and a small tv. I knew nothing about batteries and ended up killing my car battery and almost burned up the fridge from to low of voltage. I decided that would never happen again if I could help it.

I live in a wood frame home and beefing it up as much as possible was a must. I put a metal roof on right over the shingles and PGT impact glass all around. Also hurricane grade Bahama shutters on the outside windows and a hurricane grade garage door. Also put Hardy board cement fiber siding over the t1-11 siding all around.

I also built an off grid solar system which I have posted about here several years ago. With that here is my Irma experience:

The first thing that was a huge time saver was only taking about 10 minutes to drop the Bahama shutters Sunday morning and the windows were all secure. Before i used to have to go around and screw in plywood and after doing that several times for false alarms it got old. Also it was real nice to look out of the sliders and watch what was going on outside as the storm hit.

We finally lost our power at 7:30 pm during the storm. I went into the garage turned off the mains to avoid any power surges coming in. Up until that point we kept the a/c running so the house would be real cool to sleep in that night. I then switched the house circuits I wanted on over to the main battery bank and the chest freezer over to the 12v bank.

The main bank is a 546 amp/hr 48v bank of 8 surrette 6cs17ps batteries and the 12 volt bank is two of the same. The main inverter is a Sunny Island 5048u run into an Outback PSX 240 auto transformer which is needed for 240 because the SI only puts out 120v. This is then run into two transfer switches which cover most circuits in the house.

The 12v bank supplies an Outback VFX2812 inverter/charger which replaced my ProSine 2.0 after it failed twice.

Monday morning I then started up the diesel genny which is a 6kw from Northern tool  and hooked it to the transfer switch that runs the a/c and hot water heater. I would heat a tank of hot water for showers and then turn on the central a/c for a few hours to cool the house down. This worked real well. The main inverter has no problem running the deep well pump and the house pump at the same time while powering the fridge and tv or other small loads. We only used the diesel to run the central a/c and water heater.

I have a Honda EU2000i which I would plug the 12v inverter into to charge that bank. I only did that because I never run either genny much and wanted to get some use out of it. Otherwise it is plugged into a circuit off of the SI to keep the batteries charged and run the freezer.

The 4kw ground mounted solar arrays provided plenty of power through the day for all the other loads and charged the battery bank back up. The solar system runs the fridge and freezer 24/7 anyways and has for the last 8 yrs without a hiccup so it performed as it usually does. I have tested the system and had off grid weekends a few times to see how things would go but this time the grid was down for real. Everything worked just as it usually does.

The only difference when running totally without grid power is there are a few inconveniences.You have to think when you have only 6kw to work with and you are trying to power heavy loads like pumps, coffee makers, microwaves etc. If they all kick on at once you can overload the system and pop breakers or if running off a genny can overload one leg easily without hitting the max output of the genny. Also having to put the genny in the garage every night is a slight inconvenience but you don't want it stolen.

Even without solar just having a battery bank to run off of is so much better than running a genny 24/7 as many on this forum can attest to. You just charge your batteries as you run the genny for heavy loads and then put everything on silent cruise and run off batteries.

Our power came back on wed about noon so we were without only 2 1/2 days. What a difference this experience was compared to Charlie.

A lot. The hard way.  This is from the perspective of someone who has transitioned from active to passive prepping.  Meaning all bases are covered as best as can be, with minimal upkeep/tinkering thereafter.  That means we can sit on the recliner, or go help.  I helped.  

Preparing for SHTF can only be done before it happens. Yes that is obvious, and is being preached to the choir, but it's second order effect is less so.

Other people do not prepare.  Then, they suddenly find themselves on a different planet, with no supplies.   Their lack of preparedness becomes other people's problems if other people let it happen.  Strangers are easy to ignore. Family much less so.

SHTF all at once.  Multiple failures happen and compound each other.  For anyone who has experience boating, it is just like the ocean.  One problem is fine.  Three build on each other and have an exponential effect on the difficultly of the situation.

There is no easy answer to this. It's a test.  Nature tests us. Her beauty during calm doesn't come without the wrath of her storm.  That's the deal.

This is why it's called survival.  There are no plans.  There is only reacting to the problem immediately in front of us. That is why people being rescued have the same blank expression.  They are tired, yes, but they are more so in a completely unemotional state with a singular focus on the next objective.  It's a primal mechanism we have built in, and it's more animal than human.  If the objective happens to be obtaining scarce food under this trance, we get violence.  

Multiple avenues of approach to family were flooded or blocked by trees.  Knowledge of alternate routes is paramount.  It needs to be pre existing.  There is no time to look at maps if family's house is flooding. And it was.

68% of jax, fl was without power the morning after.  That is grid-down.  Traffic lights do not work.  The local hospital was flooding.  That was unknown to me at the time.  An injury needing attention would have been a serious problem.  Knowledge of critical systems status like hospitals is crucial.  Comms are crucial. Cell service isn't the answer. I don't know what is.  

Alternative hospital knowledge is important.  The closest alternative hospital was over a bridge that was still closed due to winds and inspections.  That was also unknown at the time. This is an example of compounding problems.  A lot of thinking is done on the fly.  Information facilitates better decisions, maybe life saving.  We will never plan for all contingencies.  That's ok.

Family's house unexpectedly flooded.  Three generators were in the garage and therefore out of commission on hour 1 of SHTF.  That's how it goes.  Hour 1 of SHTF can easily follow at least 24 hours of high stress and little sleep with hurricanes. We start way behind the curve.  

Two extra steps of preparedness might only get us one step further in SHTF. It will never get us more than two, we never come out ahead.  We can only hope to break even, and why the real deal is not fun.  There is no winning.  There is only not losing.  Not losing while giving 100% sucks.  Gaming it out mentally is a lot more enjoyable.

Random important skills:  calm demeanor and temperament under stress and extreme fatigue, ability to change a multi-step plan on a dime, logical reasoning and critical thinking, ability to prioritize.  Most skills can be borrowed from others.  These and others not so much.

i have always kept a couple of 100 amp hour deep cycle batteries charged up and hooked together , this with a 1750 watt inverter is like having a small generator ready to go at all times, can keep the sump pump running  for a couple hours, provide power to fridge and freezer  if needed, works well for short outages of a couple hours or so,  can recharge them with truck alternator/small or large generator and recently i added 2 100 watt solar panels to my preparedness inventory with controller, solar cells are about a dollar a watt if you look around that is a good price  for me.

a small battery bank is a very versatile item it will even run my electric impact wrench to change a tire.  both batteries fit in a plastic milk crate, and this fits on a harbor freight plastic 4 wheel dolly so i can roll it around to where i need it.

the batteries last about 5 years then i change them out  cost about 75.00 each, all the other parts are reusable so min expense just pull them out and take to Walmart or whoever is having a sale on deep cycle batteries.

alex

alex

Have any guys ever heard of the Gastapper? i built something similar and it sucks from all my cars gas tanks. the only item specific thing i bought was the 1/4 hose and guide from them the fuel pump i got on amazon. it allows me to store about 65 gallons int he car and 4 MFC's of gas.

HURRICANE IRMA AFTER ACTION REPORT


Location: Miami, FL; Area of 826 and 41 (aka SW 8th St), location in terms of Maidenhead Locator System: EL95us

Date of incident: Morning of Sept 9 through late evening Sept 10, 2017 (slow moving storm)


ACTIONS TAKEN:  
Shuttered all windows, along with rear sliding door
Removed patio table glass and placed in one shed
Folded and stacked all patio chairs, to each other, then stack tied to patio roof support
Frame of patio table tied between two patio roof supports
Sheds stuffed with other outdoor items, barbecue, folding table, plants, etc … yes, plants.
Recycle bin lined with a double contractor bag.  42 gallon bag filled with water from garden hose.  Sawyer camping water filter fits on garden hose but was not used for the fill.
Plastic ‘shed’ taped shut.
Ladders placed on floor horizontally, strapped to wall using the wires that usually hold the shutters.  40lb and 30lb free weights placed on ladders.
Cars parked on the open side, away from the palm trees.
All electronics and battery backups running on wall power to maintain 100% charge at all times.
Movies/TV shows downloaded to hard drive.
Have fuel before the rush.  Use Rec-90 and treat with Marine Stabil.  Store in airtight cans.  Two year old fuel currently being used in generator.  Running great, started as soon as carb was primed.
Generator (empty, no gas) brought into house, along with cable.  Gas cans put into closest shed.
VHF ham radio and backup batteries worked great.  Have a spare antenna (VHF/UHF) in case the main went down.
Have a mulit-level, waterproof headlamp that uses common batteries.  AA is best.
Have food that doesn’t require cooking.   Strong winds outside means staying inside, no open fires.
If cooking is needed have food that only needs boiling water.  That’ll be afterward with the barbecue or camp stove.
Have camping gear ready to use.  


LESSONS LEARNED:  Multiple lessons from prior prep applied and validated (see above).


LESSONS LEARNED PREVIOUSLY BUT NOT APPLIED:

Have an Over-The-Air antenna for the HDTV.  Antenna not have’ded lol.
Have more than one gas can funnel.  Only one in hand.
Have at least three transparent shutter panels in key areas to see what’s happening vs merely wondering about that very loud cracking sound that just occurred.
Have an HT ham radio (VHF/UHF).  The one I had went swimming a while back.  These normally pick up AM/FM stations as well.
Have a base station ham radio that has both UHF and VHF.  Miami-Dade EOC had to switch to the UHF repeater since the VHF repeater was running down on fuel.
Have an inverter generator.  Far more fuel efficient and much quieter.  Order it sooner rather than later.  Genny needed only for simple stuff:  refrigerator, flatscreen TV, media players, keep up electronics and spare batteries, maybe the water heater.  House A/C usually requires a very large generator (which uses too much fuel) so a big one is pointless. ?Ordered a Champion 75531i too late.  UPS purposely held up the shipment on the last day.  THE LAST DAY.  ?Gas guzzling, loud mouthed, kinda dirty power generator currently running outside.


LESSONS LEARNED:
Test out the downloaded movies/shows setup beforehand, especially when there is still internet.  Why won’t the Apple laptop AirPlay to the Apple TV?  This is currently unknown lol.

Have a Costco card.  I do.  To my great not-surprise the Costco was closed but to my great very-surprised the Costco GAS STATION nearby was OPEN.  Only about 10 cars.
I was hauling around a full can of gas, just in case.  But I also had a nearly empty can with me, also just in case. .  I filled up the car and the can.  I was able to keep my supply maxed out while power was out with that Costco 'access'.

We're neighbors, as I'm right up the 826 in Miami Lakes.  Your Costco is near where the old AMC Mall Of The Americas was (I worked for AMC), so we probably experienced similar conditions.

I was out of power at 1:30pm Saturday and with power on Tuesday night at 11:30pm, so 82 hours.

I didn't give two shits about HDTV, or movies, but then I don't have any children to have to entertain, so that might be different for your situation.  Frankly, I didn't even miss ARF com!

A Tecsun PL-390 stereo AM/FM/SW radio was all I needed and even though I had pretty good Verizon cell service, I have a 6 year old LG flip phone, so that didn't even matter/bother me too much.  No emails, but I can check some sports' scores.

I have the dinky HF Storm Cat generator and but for grinding some coffee beans on Monday, or Tuesday, it was never needed, but again...I don't keep a lot of food in the fridge/freezer.

I have a WouXun UV2D with programmed channels for Miami and honestly, HAM is a romantic notion, but it did nothing for me over the 3.5 days.  I'm in a condo, so I had plenty of people to talk to and many AM/FM radio stations were up and running, so nothing was a surprise.

With solar chargers and 12vdc 10" fans, I could have made it another couple of weeks before my 'food' ran out, but the Miami Lakes Ale House, Race Trac, Publix and Winn-Dixie (the beef people) were all up and running on Monday, even though I was w/o power.

Certainly not Puerto Rico standards.

Chris

We're neighbors.  We should get a party started.

You don't randomly sniff your fingers and stare into the sun, do you?

Chris

My wife thought I was crazy too, until back in the 90's when we lost power for 7 days.  I cranked up the genny, put the window AC unit in the bedroom window and plugged the fridge, cable box and tv in.  We had AC, cold drinks, TV and lights.  She didn't fully appreciate it until speaking with the other neighbor ladies and they told her how awful it was.  MAny of the neighbors went to motels because of the oppressive heat.

The wife now asks me before hurricane season if everything is ready and we have plenty of gas.  Funny how perspectives change.