The Rodding Roundtable
Motorhead Message Central => Rodder's Roundtable => Topic started by: MO_JUNK on January 15, 2007, 09:05:36 PM
Evening Everyone. If you've been watching the nightly news and/or the Weather channel you've probably been hearing about the Winter Blitz along the I-44 corridor. Life is not pleasant here. I know brother (Wz-Junk) routinely posts here so thought I would would give you an update. John has been without electricity since last Friday afternoon. In anticipation of the storm he purchased a generator for basic needs. They were hit hard an ended up with a couple of inches of ice on everything. Trees are down everywhere and the roads are impassible. I live in Rolla, about 180 miles east of Wz and our area looks like a battle zone with trees and limbs down in every direction. It is an eery feeling to stand outside at night and hear the crashes of the limbs and trees in the woods. We have had periods without electricity but many in my area have been out for long periods of time. We weren't hit as hard as Wz. There is not a generator or portable heater to be found and there are long lines when kerosine is available. I talk with Wz a couple of times each day via cell phone. Today he and a neighbor pulled his generator by sled to the neighborhood well. They were able to power the well long enough for neighbors to obtain water for drinking, flushing toilets, etc. He said he made some makeshift snow shoes by screwing drywall screws through the soles of some old track shoes. We haven't heard from Hoolie(#974). He lives close to Tulsa which was hit very hard. Anyway, everyone is fine and thought you might like to know why Wz hadn't been posting as of late. He didn't mention having had the roadster out. We look forward to seeing many of you in the Summer. Sam
Thanks for the update. I knew some folks got hit real hard. John joked that he was going to be sledding the generator between the house and shop. Of course that was before we realized that h e l l froze over. Wishing everyone the best................Frank
We had that happen up here about 7 or 8 years ago in May...not so much ice as wind with trees down and loss of power for 4 or 5 days. Something made me go get a genset at Sam's Club on the morning of the 2nd day. Had previously never considered it. I think I got #4, and no's 3,2 & 1 were in line behind me. Sure helped keep the food frozen. My wife was in the hospital at the time and was released while the power was still out. We got through it okay and helped the neighbors some - those that stayed.
We all feel for you. Sounds like things are working out best as can be expected.
Charlie
Good luck to you and relay our best wishes to John......Too bad many of us are too far away to be of any real help.Sure glad John was thinking ahead and picked up that generator....But....Not nearly as glad as he is I bet!!
I made threw this storm ok, but a gererator is still at the top of the list. Im out of firewood at this time. There is still 70K out of ele in St. Louis area, its going down into the low teens tonight. There are convoys of ele trucks in the area from Mich. and Penn. , there working there butts off! If figure there's about 8 or 9 weeks till better weather.
Good Luck to the Junk Bros.
Had a storm like that go central Nebraska last week of December. Here's a site with some incrediable pictures of the ice and damage. They said on the news tonight there are still 700 people without power. Have to replace 13,000+ power poles.
http://www.extremeinstability.com/06-12-31.htm
bob
Thanks Sam, John called me yesterday and said he was sitting outside just watching all the trees disenagrate before his eyes. He did have luck in that he got the generator and also the chimney fixed right before the storm.
He got me worried about Hooley, so I called him and he was driving around the Tulsa area getting car parts. He said towns around him had power outages, but so far they were ok. He is suppose to go back on the mail route tomorrow if possible.
Sunny and cold here in Utah. Lows in the teens and highs in the 20's the last few days. We got a little snow, but it is almost all gone. I feel sorry for you guys,
Sum
A few years ago, during an ice storm, I stepped outside, just in time to see all the branches break off one side of a 40 ft pine, and fall into a pile.
Well I feel lucky then , we have about 4 to 5 inches of ice here as well in the okc area but do still have electricity, ours was more sleet than freezing rain. still burning wood in the shop, but it takes a ton a day to keep workable warm....... I hope John and everyone is ok, we had the kind he is having a few yrs ago and all you could do was listen to all the tree limbs breaking , man that is an eerie feeling... take care guys..... 8)
Hard to imagine that kind of cold, when I'm in SoCal. We're in the middle of a Live Team Coverage cold snap here, and around 3pm I closed my doors and windows cause it was actually getting chilly in the shanty. 8) 8) 8)
My son drives a big truck and he's been in the thick of it. The high today where he is was 12 above. Hope you folks all make it through ok.
Bad enough being without electricity in GOOD weather. Good luck.
Last winter we were without power for 9 days, with temperatures down around zero some of the time. We were able to get a generator the 3rd day so we were warm after that but still there is nothing better than coming home from work and finding the power restored. Then I spent the rest of the winter hauling branches to the dump. 41 trips with a pickup and trailer. That's why I just finished last winters car projects last Wednesday.
Bob
You guys really got the worst of this one. We had a lot of rain but it didn't turn to ice until most of the rain was gone. Some of our pines lost branches but not bad. Power is out here and there but ours is still on.
We keep enough survival stuff around to last a while if we need to. Having the cabin that doesn't have electricity has given us lots of experience in doing without.
Things like this are bad but some good does come out of it. I hear a lot about neighbors helping neighbors and communities working together. In today's world sometimes it takes a disaster for some of us to meet our neighbors.
I hope things get better soon for everyone. I see it's supposed to get down to 6 degrees at WZJUNK's town tonight.
Quote from: "MO_JUNK"We haven't heard from Hoolie(#974). He lives close to Tulsa which was hit very hard. Anyway, everyone is fine and thought you might like to know why Wz hadn't been posting as of late. He didn't mention having had the roadster out. We look forward to seeing many of you in the Summer. Sam
I live close to Tulsa as well, but on the west side (Mannford). We dodged this one here by about 25-35 miles. All we got was heavy sleet and a little freezing rain, not the 2-3 inches of the crap that east of tulsa got. This reminds me of when I lived in southeastern Arkansas and we got an ice storm in the early 1990's. In that one it rained for a while to get everything good and wet, then it got cold and the rain froze, then it sleeted about 2-3 inches, but the sleet stuck to the parts that had frozen, then it rained and froze on top of that. ultimately there were between 4-5 inches of ice on everything. I had no power for 2 weeks. Over in Greenville, MS, some went without power for 3-4 weeks becaust the ice was so heavy that it broke almost every power pole around. Not just the little poles, but I saw a thirty mile long section of high tension lines where the poles and towers were on the ground. Not to mention all of the tree farms that lost big. 10-15 year old pine trees were the hardest hit. older one shed their branches and survived, younger ones simply bent down and when the ice melted they straightened, 10-15 yo trees snapped in the middle and were worthless. Good luck to all in this mess
Doug
and here I thought I was going to read about an ice skating show that you and John were putting on. :roll:
Good luck to everyone. It's bitter cold here in Detroit, 20 degrees today. Just alittle ice at my place. Nothing to freak out about. The drive to work yesterday was fine.
My heart goes out to those that are experiencing issues.
Quote from: "HotRodLadyCrusr"
Good luck to everyone. It's bitter cold here in Detroit, 20 degrees today.
when i left for work sat and sun morming (at 5:30AM) the thermometer on my patio said exactly that 20 degrees. i actually had to wear a jacket to work :roll: the highs will soon get back to the low seventies where they belong :wink:
later jim
We never lost power here, but the Ice is still coating everything. I have seen some limbs down, but as far as precipitation goes, we got more sleet than Ice. There is about 1/2" built up on tree limbs and the power lines. The worst problem we have is getting around. The 2 inches of sleet we ended up with on the ground got welded together into solid Ice when it rained Sunday.
I had to run hex-head sheetmetal screws into the heels of my boots to get in and out of the Job I'm on. The general on the job spread salt in front of the main doors, and out to the porta potty, but it just sunk down into the ice and disapeared.
The State and county did a pretty good job of keeping the asphalt roads clear, but everything else is covered solid.
Quote from: "river1"the highs will soon get back to the low seventies where they belong :wink:
later jim
You and I need to discuss hooking up and me being your "winter" girlfriend or something like that. :wink:
Lots of ice here. Usually in michigan when we have an ice storm about 2 days later is melts :!: Not this time.. Lots of people without power in fact Sue went to her mothers for a bit and her sister is over there cause her power is out. We have a lot of limbs down between here and work and in the hood here.
We got off the eway this morning and both truck stops had no power as well as mickey D's and one stop light was out on the south side of the eway. It was still that way at 3:30 On the way out at 6 am we noticed the truck stop up the street was without power but it was on tonite.
Ive got a friend at work that lives about 40 miles south of here and he had ice but it all melted yesterday :?: Wierd stuff.. I was just getting ready to go to grandmas and get the harley and put it in my kids garage since she is moving and the house is for sale and also bring the coupe home.. Not gonna happen for a bit :!: Ive got till march 3rd but im thinking now.. I just dont really understand global warming i guess. Texas is getting snow ?
Dave :?:
The cold has really settled in now. Tonight should be the worst. We are predicted to reach -2. I haven't been able to reach brother today. His cell phone has been fading out at times. Thanks for all of your good wishes. I feel guilty because I still have electricity but it continues to flicker at times. It could go at any time. It's really sad to see the huge trees down. We will appreciate Spring when it arrives. Sam
Quote from: "jusjunk"Texas is getting snow ?
Dave :?:
They are getting ice and snow in parts of TX that usually don't get ice and snow. :shock:
way south of me, down around San Antonio, Austin.
We haven't been above freezing since 1 a.m. Friday the 12th :x
ice and sleet too.......started about the time the temp went below freezing.
but its supposed to warm up for a couple days, then another storm this weekend :(
Vance
Good luck all you people. I have never in all my life known of such a thing to happen in Australia. That is amazing weather. We have had the exact opposite happen here yesterday. It was 115 to 120 degrees in Melbourne and massive bushfires to the north. The smoke was that thick the carbon particles caused major power failures. The smoke actually shorted the current to the next lines and tripped the whole system out. 10's of thousands of people without power and no air con. She's a funny old world. Dave
well we still have about 4 inches of ice here and lookin like 5 to 10inches of snow for saturday... like Junk it has been below freezing since fri, odd for this part of the world, super hot and super dry all summer and now an ice age..............must be terrorists or something.. Hope you guys get power soon,as for the trees it takes along time to get over them being down...
Was wondering how the Junk bros were doing? I heard tonight on the news Springfield still has 100K without ele. Ice and snow coming tommoro in those areas. Thay have been without juice for a week now. That SUCKS!
Everything in St Louis is back on line for now. 3 to 6" of snow for tommoro.
I live right between Tulsa and OKC. Snowed and sleeted all day. Temp was up in the high 20s so it didnt do much harm, just made a sloshy mess. I cleaned the garage. :D
Sure hope everyone else is as well.
Humm, think I've got about 8", of snow that is, so far today.
Sure does look good out there.
Just talked to Wz. We both dodged the bullet on the storm that went through late yesterday and last night. We both got about 1" of snow and it stayed warm. John says it's easier to get around now. He says the tree trimming(utility)crews have been there so the power crews should be there before too much longer. He says a home burned there after the power was restored. He will wait a while after power is restored before he goes on-line. He wants to ensure that any power surges or fluctuations have passed and just wants to be sure that everything is ok. It's really pretty here but we are about tired of pretty. For Katie and I it has made for some nice nights in the hot tub. You should be hearing from brother in another day or so. Sam
Thanks for all the kind words and thoughts. We got electricity about 2 hours ago. It went off once since then. I stepped outside awhile ago and it was strange not to here the sound of generators running. One of my neighbors had his generator stolen off of his back porch this morning.
The storm was unusual in that we had very cold temperatures following the first ice storm. It has been a difficult 9 days but interesting. The only work I could do in the shop was clean up some stuff and put some junk away but I needed to do those things.
I had 556 unread email messages and only 4 that were legitimate. I think it may be time for me to change my email address.
I have a lot of tree limbs to clean but I will wait until the ice is off of the yard.
John
Welcome back John. Glad to hear you didn't suffer any real bad damage, you know like house or cars. Those times can be frustrating as well as enlightening.
Glad you are back on the electrical grid again :D . Thanks for keeping me up to date on your condition. I was worried about you.
I think if I couldn't have done something in the shop for that long I would have driven out of the area and worked in someone else's :wink: . Just think of all the work you could have gotten done on 974.
I hope the person that stole the generator uses it inside at night :twisted: . I know I shouldn't have thoughts like that.
c ya,
Sum
This is a shot of our Miata. I just moved it outside two days before the storm. I parked it partially under a Sassafras tree. Evidently this type of tree has very weak limbs. The tree limbs in the foreground were on the front of the car. I have some dents to fix but I do not think any of the glass is broken.
I saw your name last night one time that I was checkin this site. I think it was a good idea you decided to wait some so you didn't get power surged. No school buses this morning? Glad you're OK. GPster
Ill bet your glad the ele is back on. Ice sucks. Did you have to run the generator 24/7? How many gals of fuel a day? :shock:
Quote from: "rooster"Ill bet your glad the ele is back on. Ice sucks. Did you have to run the generator 24/7? How many gals of fuel a day? :shock:
I did not run the generator at night while were sleeping. It is a 5600 watt and it used about 5 gallon a day. It has a digital readout and most of the time it was about 10% of its capacity. I found out that things like a toaster, microwave oven and a portable electric heater take a lot of power to run. To run the 3 HP well pump took about 50% of capacity.
We may not have school this whole week. We usually have some snow days each school year but nothing like this.
John