Hey Guys,

I'm up in NY for the World Police & Firefighter games and we got hit hard but the SS and I got through without a scratch......Lots of closed roads and tons of water but with roughly 16 000 police and firefighters here, we're lending a helping hand between our competitions....Hang in there NY........

Cheers, Roberto

 

I spent yesterday, last night and most of today in terror watching CNN, TWC & NECN (New England Cable News).
I don't have flood insurance or a generator and my sump pump started up yesterday afternoon in the torrential downpour.

It maxes at a cycle every 20 seconds in the wicked rainy season.
It maxed at 24 seconds yesterday, 28 seconds last night and down to about 34 seconds this morning.
It's still cycling but at over a minute per cycle.
If we lost power it would have totally flooded the basement up to ground level.

We had 2 glitches that reset the cable box, the clocks and the computer.
The second one lasted a few seconds and I had my beater sneakers on and was halfway down the basement steps when it came back on.

I should have played the lottery today but talked my buddy into selling his extra generator to me instead.

It's been heartbreaking watching all the carnage and loss on the weather shows all this time.

I hope y'all made it through ok.

 

jx3-

A month is a long time.. We ended up getting a generator.

East Coast. I remember when Andrew came thru & we felt it in WPB where I lived at that time..That was a Monster !!!

On the Treasure Coast in 9/4/04 we had Frances take my roof mostly off, & about 21 days later 9/25/04 Jean finished the job.. Just to name a quik memorable 2... Never got a double wammy like that ever before..

 

An update on my friends in NY and PA. The folks up in NY have lost their home, after the water receded they found that the house had floated six feet off of its foundation and appears to be a total loss, their truck is gone and there are no signs of it downstream. They are staying with family one town over.

Our friends in PA are staying at a motel since their house has been declared unfit due to structural damage consisting of collapsed floors. Their cars floated downstream approximately 3/4 of a mile and they found them upside down wedged in some trees.

Neither set of friends had flood insurance, this storm has left such a path of destruction it boggles the mind.

 

Sad to hear Mike..

This storm did more damage with water than anything.. 30 dead so far..

 

I guess we should be grateful, if that's even possible, for the low loss of life compared to the tornado outbreaks this year. But so many people have had so much loss and tragedy this year because of the weather, I'm ready for 2011 to wrap up and hope that 2012 is better for everyone.

I just wish more folks would get flood insurance, my friends are wiped out with no recourse and they'll have to rebuild using their savings, if you're in a flood prone area...BUY FLOOD INSURANCE!

 

An news correspondent on TWC said that 20% of Vermonters in flood plains don't have flood insurance.

That sucks about your friends.

I was worried about my buddy Nate in the boonies north of Keene (far west NH across from Brattleboro VT).
He just recuperated from throat cancer and lives in a cabin with 2 stilt legs halfway up a steep hill.
I hadn't heard from him since the day before the storm.
This morning his phone kicked right to voicemail. Twice.
He finally called me in the afternoon explaining that his phone lost it's charge and he forgot to turn it on in the morning.
Plenty of rain but not enough wind to knock any of his shelters over. Lucky.

 

Part of the problem with this is the flood that I had in the spring, which destroyed everything in my basement, including hot water and furnace, would not have been covered by "flood insurance"....... So it would just be another monthly payment that I can't afford and I would get no benefit from it..... It would make some investors rather happy though, and they have more money than I do......

Can't wait until FEMA completes their new "flood map" and makes it mandatory that I buy flood insurance that won't cover anything.

Sorry for the rant, but winter is coming and I STILL HAVE NO FURNACE !!!

 

I wonder how long it will take before the insurance companies start jacking up rates. Only to pull out of New England all together after they get most of everybody's money.

Yeah, all that time without power drove my parents to the hills of Pennsylvania As far a generators go, my wife and I have a 17,500 that can power the whole house............just start her up and throw a switch in the fuse box...........

 

Flood insurance isn't a panacea and I know that, it sucks that you wouldn't have benefited from it Greybeard, but for many folks having it or not having it means the difference between rebuilding and losing everything.

I can identify with the loss of power for what seems like forever, when Hugo tore through here twenty years ago, electricity was just a fond memory for weeks.