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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 4,116
Likes: 4
Member
Hope everyone's staying safe down there...


Bill
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 4,116
Likes: 4
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Anybody?...


Bill
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 7,380
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I've been checking this often.....

From what I know I think Greg was not in a good location....

Hope he is OK.


John
Joined: Oct 2000
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I was thinking the same thing.


Bill
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 7,380
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I know and speak to 2 PSE&G linemen who are in Fla. Last Sunday I had a brief chat, they are both in Fort Myers area. They had no info on Estero area.

They expect to leave by the 17th.


John
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 9,919
Likes: 30
G
Member
The short answer is we are OK.
The screen cage was trashed from the wind, 44 inches of sea water in the house from the surge. I just got online yesterday. We were drying the place out for 2 weeks. I did get my 5.5 kva Briggs generator going the next day after being underwater but we were running on orange cords until I could work on the house wiring. Fortunately all of my switches are at 48". I removed and replaced all the receptacles, one circuit at a time until I could clear all the circuits. I was doing that in conjunction to removing the carpet and other wet stuff. All of the major appliances are shot. The TVs that were wall hanging were above the water. I still lost a 40 a 55 and a small one I was using as a monitor. The computer room was pretty much a total loss. I still haven't got serious about my garage/shop but I expect I am losing most of my power tools.
FPL got the power back Sunday night (5 days out). I was shocked there was no warning or inspection. They just flipped the switch. They may not have know who flooded and who didn't but we saw fire trucks 15 minutes later. Nothing serious but anything with electronic controls seems to fail "on" and smoked. I did have a bolted fault in one of the receptacles I missed that actually tripped the 150a feeder breaker, not the 15a BC breaker when I flipped it on. It was something in the receptacle itself but I was too busy to break it open and see what it was. I think I set it aside tho if I can find it. Both sides of the street is piled about 4 feet high in debris and the claw truck comes by a couple times a week hauling it away. A few days later the pile is back. There are about 100 flooded cars here. I lost 3. Boats were all over, most still on trailers but some just flipped over in the grass if they broke loose from a dock. There were five next to my house along with piles of junk. When the water receded, it went out the canal next to me but most of the stuff stayed behind. My pool is a black lagoon with fish in it.
I did have one mystery. The night right after I installed the new dryer I got a tingle voltage on the kitchen faucet. They were in 2 different buildings on different panels, both tied to the big GES I have. (Multiple rods, a Ufer and 2 GECs one from each, all bonded together). I found out it also affected other grounded things in the house the same way. When the dryer stopped the problem went away and it never came back. I did check my GEC connections from the MBJ to the electrodes and they were OK. I wanted to actually do some checking but the only meter I have that survived the flood is a cheap Harbor Fright thing that is more of a random number generator than a meter. I am almost thinking it was just my imagination or some stray voltage imposing itself on my slab. I had been working 16 hours a day for a week and maybe I was just hallucinating.


Greg Fretwell
Joined: Apr 2002
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Greg,

From a guy that got involved with 'Super Storm Sandy"...I feel your pain.

Best news is that you and yours are OK!!!!

As I accepted, "material things can be replaced"

Yes, I'm surprised that the utility actually flipped the switch ON. We had to have inspections of every house on the circuit here before the cut-outs were closed. Thank you to Alabama Power crews.


John
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 4,116
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iagree What he said!!

I've never seen devastation like that up close, and hope to never see it!

Some parts of Long Island got hit pretty bad with Sandy, but I didn't experience it being centrally located and 100' + above sea level.

Good Luck with your recovery Greg,


Bill
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 9,919
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This may be the storm that completely breaks the Florida insurance industry. I am hearing the damage is worse than Andrew, even inflation adjusted. My county estimates 3 million yards of debris. In spite of the fact that this was a Cat 4 bordering on a Cat 5, I am surprised at how well things stood up. Any home even close to the old Florida coastal code (Pre Andrew) usually survived and current code houses were fine but I suspect two Cat 4s and a Cat 3 hurricane in the last 16 years blew away the weak ones. The flood was another issue. The current FEMA minimum above the datum plane is 14' here and those houses still got wet. I am guessing it was a 15 foot surge just based on the bath tub rings on the houses. I am at 11 and I saw almost 4 feet. My laser level was underwater and I suspect it is toast. It would be interesting to see what it really was tho. I haven't tried to resuscitate it yet. I am still trying to get the house back to some semblance of normal. I am patching up cabinets tomorrow. Anything that was particle board is sawdust now. I am going to make some quick and dirty drawers. No fancy joinery, just nailed together boxes using whatever lumber I have in the garage with the bottoms nailed on. I still have the pretty red oak fronts tho. They will look good until you pull them out wink
All of the real wood cabinets I built came out fine. I just needed to scrub the crud out. Using lots of bleach and green soap.


Greg Fretwell

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