OT - Batten Hatches, Rig for Heavy Weather

[Bullethead]

Just a head's up that I might be off the air for a week or 2 starting about Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. There's a chance what's now Tropical Storm Isaac will be Category 3 Hurricane Isaac by then and right on top of me. That's what Gustav did in '08 and I was without electricity for 2 weeks. But OTOH, Isaac could still miss or just sideswipe me, although the odds of a clean miss seem to have evaporated since yesterday. In any case, I figure I'll be quite busy this week with the fire department.

[Dej]

Best of Luck, BH. Keep Safe.

[hood]

Keep your head down BH.Best of luck.

[Olham]

Bullet, I wish you a near miss.

Miss, because that's better for your house and health.

Near, because I know you like being in the thick of it.

Good luck with Isaac!

[Hasse Wind]

Good luck! I hope the storm won't cause too much damage.

[UK_Widowmaker]

Good Luck to all in it's wake!...Nature waits for no man

[RAF_Louvert]

.

 

Take care of yourself Bullethead. I'll say a prayer to the Man Upstairs for you folks in the path of that storm.

 

.

[Mr_Dirt]

Good Luck Bullet I hope it misses you, but you could send some of the rain my way up here in Missouri next to the Mighty Mississippi. We haven't had rain all summer and everything has brunt up. Funny thing the weather we need moisture and you donot need a storm. I will hope for the best for you and the others in your state. Good luck

John

[JFM]

Hopefully the forecast will be as poor up there as it was here. Isaac was supposed to be Cat 1 - 2 when it came here but it was still only a tropical storm. *yawn*

 

Best of luck up there.

[Bullethead]

Thanks for the concern, everybody. And I'm willing to give away all but 1-2" of the 12-18" of rain we expect in my gridsquare.

 

Tonight is my last that might be uninterrupted until the weekend. Isaac is predicted right now to go either directly overhead (bad), slightly to the west (worse), or slightly to the east (a bit better). And because the storm is so wide and so slow, we're expecting the main event to last about 36-48 hours in my gridsquare, where most storms blow over in 6-8. Thus, while the sustained winds will probably be "only" 40-60 knots with gust of about 80 knots, that will be happening all that time, along with all the rain, so trees will be falling by the hundred and quite a few will land on power lines. So all in all, I expect the bottom line to approach that of Hurricane Gustav, a much stronger storm but with much less duration.

 

Anyway, I'll use my fire department internet when I have the chance but I don't expect to have any at home (or electricity) for a couple weeks. Here's to being proved wrong

[Olham]

Damn, that sounds bad and thrilling at the same time.

On one hand, I feel sad for each falling tree.

On the other, I like it when we get startled and stirred up from our day-to-day by nature.

Please give us some signs of life, when you can.

[Von Paulus]

Take care, BH.

[Hauksbee]

But OTOH, Isaac could still miss or just sideswipe me...

How are you doing Bullethead? The storm just kissed the south coast of Massachusetts this morning.

[HumanDrone]

Hoping you are well and that no one gets killed! Be careful, BH!

 

Tom

[Olham]

Jeeze, "Isaac" DOES look frightening...

 

 

[Bullethead]

I'm now at the fire station doing my HQ job. I'm the Logistics Chief, which means I'm the head gofer. I get stuff we need and get it to where it's needed.

 

As to the storm, they say it finally made it to hurricane force. The track is still right over my head or a few miles to either side, but really that won't matter enough to worry about. We're getting the center slice either way. However, the fun hasn't yet started here. The outer edges of the cloud bands went over about an hour ago so now we're overcast and we've got a nice, cool breeze that's a bit gusty at times, but not yet a drop of rain. It's great kite-flying weather right now. The storm's forward progress is slowing down so we don't expect things to get rough here until about supper time.

 

Updates to follow as time permits ;)

[Hasse Wind]

I'm happy we don't get that kind of storms here. Blizzards can be bad too, but they don't cause nearly as much damage as a hurricane.

 

Again, good luck!

[UK_Widowmaker]

I hope BH can keep us 'up to speed'...our very own 'Stormchaser'

 

stay safe though m8

[UK_Widowmaker]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/28/hurricane-isaac-better-organised-gulf?newsfeed=true

 

Looks like BH and his Fire Crew Buddies, are going to have their work cut out!....hope all goes as well as can be hoped for guys :(

[Hasse Wind]

An excellent satellite photograph of Isaac can be found here: http://lance-modis.eosdis.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/imagery/single.cgi?image=Isaac.A2012241.1630.2km.jpg

 

By choosing 250m as the pixel size from the left you can see a wonderfully detailed picture of the storm.

[Bullethead]

1200 Wednesday my time. @ my station in hammock waiting for calls. Using smart phone. Storm hardly moving so time of bad stuff arriving keeps getting later and duratiolightn longer. Righandt now 25-30 knots gusts 45. Medium rain. Hell supposed to start1900

 

Not much business so far so catnapping.

 

Thanks for good wishes

[UK_Widowmaker]

Wow!..live action as it happens....I'm such a Voyeur

[Olham]

We all are, Widow - part of human nature - we might learn something about life and death...

[UK_Widowmaker]

Hopefully not death though :(

[UK_Widowmaker]

Hopefully not death though :(

 

the latest is that is been downgraded to a Tropical Storm