As the hurricane passed by, we lost power for a little bit and thanks to the powerwalls, we weren’t even aware that it went out for a few minutes. The lights flickered, and we lost Internet. The Internet came back up within 30 seconds or so. I think it was the small blip of the batteries taking over that caused the router to reboot. I have to see about a small UPS that will fit in the QI panel. When the power went out, the app told me that we had a total of 15 hours of backup power available, and that was without taking steps to reduce consumption. I am doing research to see how to extend that time.
It does create a bit of a security concern, being one of the minority of houses with power while everyone else is without. We aren’t the only ones, though. A quarter of the houses within a half mile of the house have solar, but not all of them have battery backups, which means that they paid about half as much as we did for their systems, but they don’t work when the grid is down.
The month for power was good: we generated 1352 kWh and used 1272 kWh. That means we exported 80 kWh more power to the grid than we used, and that will be banked as a credit on our power bill for the next year.
Average power generated was 43.6 kWh per day, with a high of 58.0 kWh and a low of 18.3 kWh in any given day. Our power bill was the $30 minimum bill, plus the ever present taxes, for a total of $42. I view the entire bill as being a tax, since we are required by law to be hooked up to the grid, and the power company requires us to pay a minimum fee of $30. Without solar, our power bill would have been about $225.
Overall, I think it’s a good system and was a good buy. I have backup power and the system offsets my power bills.
A few years ago, a hurricane passed over my house, and even though the weather service was telling us that the winds were hurricane strength, the wind didn’t look that bad, even when the eyewall was over my house. So I bought a personal weather station.
I would very much like to see the weather stations that were exactly on the coast to see what the real winds were. I think that the NWS has been overhyping these things for years. I do know that “subtropical” storms were not included in named storms until 2002. What does this mean? In the 29 hurricane seasons that subtropical storms have been added to the naming system, there have been an average of 16 named storms per year, with only 4 of those seasons seeing fewer than 12 storms. In the 19 seasons prior to 2002, there were an average of 11 named storms per year, with ten of those seasons having fewer than 12 storms.
So why did the criteria for naming storms change? If you look at the statistics for named storms, something jumps out at you. The number of storms drastically increases beginning in 1995. What changed in 1995? Was it global warming?
Nope. The director of the National Hurricane Center, Doctor Bob Sheets, retired in 1995. The director of the NHC sets the criteria by which storms are classified. Politics, or science? Now the left can point to the larger number of named storms and blame the climate change boogieman.
I am not saying that the people who are dealing with damage are not suffering. I am saying that the NHC is overstating the strength of these storms in order to support pushes for “green new deal” type laws.
The problem is that every single one of the five rifles is currently in use and is roughly a 5.56mm. No mention of the Mauser, or even the Mosin Nagant. More than 100 million copies of those weapons were made, and they have been used in virtually every armed conflict for about 100 years, including two world wars.
Those of you who may not live on the Gulf Coast, Georgia, or the Carolinas may not be familiar with the true power of a hurricane. Even on the east coast, if you live north of the outer banks of North Carolina, you may have lived through a hurricane, but still don’t know just how powerful they can get.
Hurricanes are categorized by their power on what is called the Saffir-Simpson scale. The lowest is a category one, with winds of 75 to 95 miles per hour, and the highest is a Category 5 with winds over 155 miles per hour. Each category roughly doubles the power of a hurricane, meaning that a Cat 5 hurricane is about 16 times as powerful as a Cat 1.
Threats
Hurricanes have four major ways of doing damage: wind, rain, tornados, and storm surge.
Although many people focus on the wind speed, the highest winds in a hurricane are usually within a few miles of the eyewall, and therefore don’t affect many people. Unless the eyewall, which is located with 10 miles or so of the center of the storm, passes over you, you won’t see the highest winds. Here in Florida, we have pretty stringent building codes and all homes have to be built to withstand 115 mile per hour winds. Because hurricanes weaken once the center comes ashore, and the highest winds are located near the center, the highest winds tend to be within 30 miles or so of the coast. We are pretty safe from high winds. What is dangerous about wind is that it blows debris around, and it blows for hours. Sometimes up to 12 hours nonstop.
When wind blows over the ocean for long distances, it pushes water in front of it. When that pushed water encounters land, it builds up into what is called storm surge. The tides and waves build on top of this, so a 5 foot storm surge combined with a 3 foot tide and 10 foot waves means that homes will flood miles inland with up to 18 feet of water. Luckily, we are dozens of miles inland and about 100 feet above sea level, so storm surge isn’t an issue.
Hurricanes also spawn tornados. Not much you can do about those, but they don’t affect a lot of people, comparatively.
The largest threat from a Hurricane is rain. Here in Florida, we are surrounded by swamp and we are used to torrential rain. Still, 18 to 20 inches of rain is no laughing matter. When we built our house, we picked a spot that was ten feet above the nearest wetlands. We are not in a flood prone area, and I doubt we will have problems.
Let’s compare categories to see what they do:
Category One Storm
So-called Superstorm Sandy hit New Jersey as a Category One hurricane, with 80 mile per hour winds, a 6 foot storm surge, and 12 inches of rain. People from that region still talk about this storm as if they now know what a hurricane does. Piffle. The gulf coast residents don’t even close schools for a Cat 1.
Category Two Storm
The strongest storm to hit Virginia in the past few decades was Isabel in 2021, and even then it made landfall in North Carolina as a Category 2 storm. During Isabel, Hampton roads got winds of 70 to 80 miles per hour, about 15 inches of rain, and a storm surge of about 8 feet.
The storm surge and rising waters flooded the Midtown Tunnel between Norfolk and Portsmouth with 44 million gallons of water. Workers trying to secure the floodgates on the Norfolk side barely escaped. The resulting damage closed the tunnel for nearly a month. This is more an indication that people in the area just don’t know how to prepare for a hurricane than it is the power of this storm, as the floodgates should have already been closed.
Category Three Storm
Go up just one category to a Cat3 Hurricane. This is the beginning of what they call “major hurricane.” For an example, take a look at 2023’s Hurricane Idalia, which hit Keaton Beach in the big bend area of Florida with 115 mile per hour winds, a 9 foot storm surge, and 20 inches of rain. Another great example of a Category Three was Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
One of my photos from Hurricane Katrina
Category Four Storm
Up one more category to Cat 4, and you see Hurricane Ian in 2022, which hit Fort Meyers Beach with 150 mile per hour winds, a 13 foot storm surge, and pelted the Florida peninsula with up to 26 inches of rain.
Aftermath of Ian in Florida
Category Five Storm
Luckily, the US doesn’t see this strong of a storm very often. Only four Cat 5 hurricanes are recorded to have ever hit the US- Michael hitting Florida in 2018, Andrew hitting Florida in 1992, Camille hitting shore in 1969 almost exactly where Katrina would in 2005, and the 1935 unnamed Labor Day Hurricane that struck the Florida Keys. Note that three of the four strongest storms recorded to have hit the US all hit Florida. I actually have lived through three of them- all but the 1935 storm.
Andrew hit Florida with 165 mile per hour winds, a 17 foot storm surge, but was a relatively “dry” hurricane with only about 7 inches of rain. Contrast that with Hurricane Michael, which dropped 13 inches of rain on the Florida panhandle. Still, it seems that Cat 5 hurricanes are so intense that they don’t drop a lot of rain.
Ray Dalio says America’s $35,327,646,622,839 national debt will continue to grow no matter who wins the race for the White House. The national debt is bound to be ignored while the government uses inflationary policies to reduce the real burden of its debt, according to the Billionaire.
“We have an enormous amount of debt, and it’s going to keep increasing. And one man’s debts are another man’s liabilities… Nobody’s going to deal with the debt policy. That’s going to end up being monetized down the path.”
Regardless of the electoral outcome, Dalio sees the US heading towards a more “fragmented” existence, where portions of the country look to their state governments for leadership due to “irreconcilable differences” with the next administration.
The US dollar has to be inflated so we can pay on our enormous debt with less valuable, inflated dollars.
Buy PMs, Real Estate, and other things that have intrinsic value. The dollar is headed for the end.
Jaremy Smith at 22 years old was convicted of armed robbery and hostage taking for which he received a twelve year sentence. On December 1, 2023, he was released after serving less than 10 years and placed on Supervised release.
Less than 4 months later, on March 15, he sat on the side of the road with a flat tire. When a New Mexico state trooper stopped to offer his assistance, Smith asked for a ride into town. When the trooper agreed, Smith shot him in the back of the head, ran around to the driver’s side, shot the trooper twice more, then dumped the officer’s body on the side of the road and drove off in the stolen patrol vehicle.
New Mexico Trooper (Justin Hare) stops to help a disabled motorist on the highway, only to get shot 3 times in the head and neck. Shooter then steals Hare's police car and dumps his body on the side of the road pic.twitter.com/Xh1Y3wMcBL
The broken down car that he had been driving? The stranded vehicle turned out to be owned by a South Carolina paramedic who was found shot to death in Dillon County, South Carolina, also on March 15. She had been reported missing several days earlier.
During his arrest, Smith was shot several times, and emergency surgery was performed. Since his discharge from the hospital, he has been held in jail awaiting trial. His attorney filed a motion asking for a continuance due to Smith being in a “tremendous amount of pain.” He has also complained that they aren’t giving him anything stronger than Tylenol to treat the pain.
You know what? I don’t give a shit. He is seen on video murdering the cop. The trial should last about 20 minutes longer than it takes to play the video, then they should toss a rope over the nearest tree limb and hang his ass, just like they used to do. I am usually opposed to the death penalty because I don’t trust prosecutors to present all of the evidence, even when they know that the accused is not guilty.
He killed two people and would have killed more, if the cops hadn’t caught up to him. Fuck this guy.
What really pisses me off about this is that he was released before the end of his sentence for “good behavior.” News reports show that in 2014, Smith, then 23, escaped from the Marion County, South Carolina, jail after he and another inmate overpowered two detention officers. The inmates handcuffed one guard and beat the other. The inmates then stacked up chairs in the recreation area and one lifted the other up and over the recreation yard wall. Officials say the jail staff then called for help and EMS to treat the injured officer, and when the gates were opened for deputies and EMS to come inside, Smith ran out of the gated area. Deputies tracked and captured him about two hours later. How in the world is that good behavior?
Trump’s first mistake was in 2017, when he took the high road and didn’t toss Hillary’s ass in jail for her email server. Scorched earth is the only game that Democrats play.
One of the things about working in emergency services is that you have to prepare for storms before everyone else, because you will be at work as the storm approaches. As of this morning, we here at Sector Ocho are under a Tropical storm watch. In this area, we likely won’t get much in the way of wind, but there is going to be large amounts of rain to deal with. It will likely rain for two or three days. With that in mind:
We began the 72 hour checklist at 5 pm this afternoon.
All outdoor furniture inside. In fact, I need to get everything that high winds will blow around easily into the garage. “It isn’t THAT the wind is blowing, it is WHAT the wind is blowing”
5 gal Water cans retrieved and filled.
My Powerwalls this morning informed me that, due to approaching bad weather and the possibility of power loss, they are charging to 100% and will remain there until the storm passes. Electric power is handled.
I need to cut the grass this morning. Lots of rain will both make it impossible to mow a wet yard, but will also make the grass grow like there is no tomorrow.
I have two Bar-B-Que bombs (propane tanks) that need filling. Both cars already have fuel.
That will be it until tomorrow, when I will carry out the 24 hour checklist.
Stock up on Poptarts and chips for snacking
Prepare to buy Publix Subs (We like to have food for the storm that doesn’t need electricity or other heat for preparation and is easy and quick to eat, even in the dark.) Even though we will have power, it’s now a tradition.
I keep seeing those on the left demanding that we provide proof that illegal aliens are voting in large enough numbers to affect the outcomes of an election. So with that, I provide more evidence that illegals are voting.
