Hurricane Rita Live Thread, Part VIII

www.freerepublic.com | September 24, 2005

[Howlin]

Hurricane Rita landfall is anticipated within the next few hours. Strong winds and heavy rains are battering southern Louisiana and southeastern Texas.

MSM news crews are shouting over the howling winds as they foolishly describe blowing rain, swaying trees, and crashing waves through rain splattered camera lenses. It's a hurricane. We know these things already.

An 18 wheeler rig reportedly overturned on an I-10 bridge. The fate of the truck driver is unknown at this time. Reports of widespread power outages in Lake Charles. KPLC-TV Lake Charles local news has remarkably improvised their reporting from a remote location. They are taking calls from residents, NWS, and public utility representatives, and alerting residents to local conditions.

On the flip side, CNN announced to the world that law enforcement officers had evacuated from Port Arthur TX with the rest of the population. Engraved looter invitations would have been more elegant.

Godspeed to all those in the path of this storm.

The following links are self-updating:

Public Advisory Currently published every 3 hours 5A, 8A, 11A, 2P, etc. ET
NHC Discussion Published every six hours 6A, 11A, 6P, 11P
Three Day Forecast Track
Five Day Forecast Track

Rita Forecast Track Archive
Forecast Models
Buoy Data Western Gulf of Mexico
Houston/Galveston/Beaumont/Lake Charles Wx Watches/Warnings
Jefferson Co TX NWS Weather
Current Weather Warnings and Watches for Texas
Current Weather Warnings and Watches for Louisiana
Hi Res Houston Flood Zone Map Slow load, great detail

Images:

Lake Charles Long Range Radar Still image, with loop link
Houston/Galveston Long Range Radar Still image, with loop link
Lake Charles Experimental Radar Outages and Delays May Occur

Storm Floater IR Loop
GOM WV Loop
GOM IR Still Image
Visible Storm Floater Still (only visible during daylight hours)
Color Enhanced Atlantic Loop

Streaming Video: (coverage may be intermittent)

KHOU-TV/DT Houston
KPRC-TV/DT Houston
KTRK-TV/DT Houston
KTRH-AM Houston
KPLC-TV/DT Lake Charles/Lafayette
KSLA-TV/DT Shreveport

Additional Resources:

Hurricane Rita Freeper CHECK IN THREAD

FReeper Sign In Thread (LOCKED) Check in to let us know whether you are staying, going, and when you get there
FReepers Offering Lodging To Rita Evacuees People and/or Pet Friendly FReepers Offering Shelter
KHOU Houston
KTRK ABC News Houston
KPLC Lake Charles Evac Routes, news
KFDM Beaumont/Port Arthur News, evac info
Hurricane City
Wxnation Houston
Galveston Webcams
Golden Triangle Weather Page Provides Galveston Weather, Warnings, Radar, etc.

Category	Wind Speed	Barometric Pressure	Storm Surge	Damage Potential
Tropical Depression	< 39 mph < 34 kts			Minimal
Tropical Storm	39 - 73 mph 34 - 63 kts			Minimal
Hurricane 1 (Weak)	74 - 95 mph 64 - 82 kts	28.94" or more 980.02 mb or more	4.0' - 5.0' 1.2 m - 1.5 m	Minimal damage to vegetation
Hurricane 2 (Moderate)	96 - 110 mph 83 - 95 kts	28.50" - 28.93" 965.12 mb - 979.68 mb	6.0' - 8.0' 1.8 m - 2.4 m	Moderate damage to houses
Hurricane 3 (Strong)	111 - 130 mph 96 - 112 kts	27.91" - 28.49" 945.14 mb - 964.78 mb	9.0' - 12.0' 2.7 m - 3.7 m	Extensive damage to small buildings
Hurricane 4 (Very strong)	131 - 155 mph 113 - 135 kts	27.17" - 27.90" 920.08 mb - 944.80 mb	13.0' - 18.0' 3.9 m - 5.5 m	Extreme structural damage
Hurricane 5 (Devastating)	Greater than 155 mph Greater than 135 kts	Less than 27.17" Less than 920.08 mb	Greater than 18.0' Greater than 5.5m	Catastrophic building failures possible

Previous Threads:
Hurricane Rita Live Thread, Part VII
Hurricane Rita Live Thread, Part VI
Hurricane Rita Live Thread, Part V
Hurricane Rita Live Thread, Part IV
Hurricane Rita Live Thread, Part III
Hurricane Rita Live Thread, Part II
Hurricane Rita Live Thread, Part I
Tropical Storm Rita
Tropical Depression 18

[Nita Nupress]

You guys just don't know how thankful and appreciative I am for helping me out!! Your advice and knowledge was exactly what I needed to know.

I've almost come to the conclusion that the marine batteries are dead as a doorknob. They're 5 or 6 years old and have just been sitting up all this time. I tried charging them with the car battery for 30 minutes and got absolutely nothing... nada.

We finally got our generator running yesterday, so now I have a reliable way to recharge this laptop every day. And gas won't be a problem because the generator is running off of propane. (Does anyone know how long 30 gallons of propane will last? It's a 100-gallon tank and the meter says it's 30% full.) Anyway, now that I can get online, I'm no longer isolated from the rest of the world. What a difference it makes!!

backhoe, I saw your trick for dead batteries using the Epsom salts, but we don't have any distilled water and don't have any way to get any in the foreseeable future. But it's probably best we don't be trying things we're not familiar with anyway. There are no emergency services here right now. If one of us got hurt, it would be really bad news.

Hmmmm... is there any way to use a generator to charge the marine batteries? I've already put tap water into them, so I've probably already ruined them. But it sure would be nice to have 3 fully-charged marine batteries to run this computer with. The lack of electricity is expected to last at least a month, so we're talking about a relatively long-term situation here.

Thanks again for all your help!

[Nita Nupress]

My daughter and her husband just left to go home and will be affected by the rolling blackouts

What rolling blackouts?

[meyer]

What rolling blackouts?

Entergy is utilizing rolling blackouts to maintian service in some areas north of Houston. The problem is that many transmission lines are down, so the capacity to supply the area is greatly diminished. Rather than just supply part of the people all of the time, they are spreading the burden until they can get some of the transmission lines back up.

[Nita Nupress]

Have you been able to travel at all from your current location?

No. There IS no travel allowed. The roads are blocked by police/deputies/Texas state trooper/National Guard. Everything is down: schools, businesses, banks, payroll checks, ATMs, gasoline, my cell phone service, etc. I do have water (boil only) and a land telephone. And we got our generator running today. I can now run a box fan!!!!!!

[Nita Nupress]

Oh, and my home is okay. But my neighbors got a tree across the back. Basically, in this area, if you had a tree to the north of you, it was just a matter of luck whether or not it fell. You just wouldn't believe the damage. It's everywhere. Not only trees, but telephone poles snapped in half by the wind.

[Nita Nupress]

Tom, I got your mail and that was so sweet of you! We've been able to get by because we already had the basic 'survivalist' preparations in place before the storm hit. But all these people who weren't survival-oriented are having a really bad time of things. It's heartbreaking to hear some of them call in on the radio, asking for help.

[Nita Nupress]

Nita, the offer stands.

Bless you, backhoe. Between your offer and Tom's offer, just knowing I had someone to call if I couldn't get things to work was a huge comfort!

[Nita Nupress]

Thank you!

[Nita Nupress]

I'm going to post a couple of replies here that I made on other threads. This proves I'm basically a lazy person, when it comes right down to it. :-)

You're better off in College Station; I wish I was there! My elderly parents still won't leave, so here we sit in 100-degree temps. We're supposed to be getting a cold front coming in tonight, though, so maybe the worst will soon be over.

As for the "blaming" tone of this article, what does anyone expect? This is the AP. You won't hear about how people are out with their chainsaws, clearing roads and helping neighbors get trees off their houses. You won't hear about how communities are pulling together and watching their neighbors' vacant houses and making sure everyone has food and water. HEB grocery stores is trucking in ice and bread. The Salvation Army is here preparing meals.

From what I hear, the national (and even state) media has all but forgotten this story. That seems so strange. This is a HUGE story down here. There is no gasoline, so people are becoming stranded. People who are on medications have no way of getting them. The National Guard (or Texas Guard) has roadblocked most of the counties and cities, making it impossible to go anywhere. so everyone sits around all day listening to their only source of outside information and news: KLVI radio station in Beaumont. (They're streaming it on the Net, btw, at klvi.com). If it weren't for this station, people would be totally isolated from everything but their immediate neighbor.

For instance, a lady called in yesterday needing insulin syringes. Someone in the same town called the radio station, got her phone number, then took her a supply of syringes. And when someone finds gasoline that has been trucked in and is being pumped by generator, they'll call in to KLVI to tell everyone. Yesterday, there was a 5 hour wait in line at Walmart.

For some reason, I can't get a Waylon & Willie song out of my mind: "Let's go to Luckenback, Texas..." :-)

[Nita Nupress]

Another one:

You ought to see what all they are doing here. They are rebuilding the entire electrical infrastructure here because it was totally demolished. The storm shattered the main transmission towers, the new "nondestructive" electrical poles, the regular poles and just about every line was down. The linemen are rebuilding what took 65 years to build in a month.

I can attest to that. A family member works for Entergy; he has something to do with keeping all the transmission stations going. Their huge transmission line from College Station to Louisiana was shredded, as were the main transmission lines going north and south in East Texas. He says they have NEVER seen anything that even comes close to this magnitude of devastation and destruction. I saw him today. He had been allowed to go home and clean out his freezer and pack some more clean clothes. They're working in their Beaumont headquarters round-the-clock, a tall building with no air-conditioning and no windows that will open.

[Nita Nupress]

McIlhenny Company has survived Hurricane Rita and will post more information once full power has been restored to our Corporate Office and Manufacturing Facility on Avery Island, Louisiana.

Oh, thank you dear Blessed One. That wench Rita can hit this part of Texas all she wants, but don't mess with my Tabasco Sauce!

[Nita Nupress]

I wanted to thank each one of you for your helpful advice and kind comments earlier. I don't know if you could tell or not, but I was in semi-panic mode, afraid my battery was going to die before I got my questions posted. I came back later and read all of your comments and was soooooo grateful. This feeling of being isolated is NOT a good feeling. We HAVE gotten to know our neighbors better, though. Yesterday we helped pull a tree off their house, and were able to recharge their phone and laptop with our now-functioning generator.

So, you wanna know what I've been doing for 4 days? Sitting out on the porch playing board games and cards with my young daughter. And just think: she and I are going to be out of school and work for a month or more. I don't know whether to laugh or to cry. LOL!

Thanks again for your support. It meant a lot.

Note to self: When all the stores are open again, buy an extra battery for the Dell laptop!

[Nita Nupress]

KLVI is on-air right now announcing the different places in SE Texas that are now selling generators, and I immediately thought of you. At least 5 people have already died from carbon monoxide poisoning, and with the amount of people down here using them, there will no doubt be more. Please pray for the ones in the hospital clinging to life -- I heard one of them was a small child.

There have also been several near-misses, but someone found them and called for help in time. All these sick people are being life-flighted to Houston because of lack of medical care here.

Thank you for all your tireless efforts in letting Freepers know the dangers. Because of you, I thought to close the windows on the back of my house while the generator was running.

[tincture82]

backhoe, I saw your trick for dead batteries using the Epsom salts, but we don't have any distilled water and don't have any way to get any in the foreseeable future.

Sorry to butt in here, but distilled water is just regular water that has been turned to steam and recondensed. You can make your own by boiling regular water and allowing the steam to touch a slanted receptacle (such as tin foil or any clean surface). As the steam cools on the receptacle, it will condense into distilled water and drip into whatever container you set under it.

[Nita Nupress]

It just occurred to me I probably should have posted some of these replies on the "Report In" thread that's up. Oh, well.

[backhoe]

Nita, I was wondering how you were faring- thanks for the update.

Regarding this?

Hmmmm... is there any way to use a generator to charge the marine batteries? I've already put tap water into them, so I've probably already ruined them. But it sure would be nice to have 3 fully-charged marine batteries to run this computer with. The lack of electricity is expected to last at least a month, so we're talking about a relatively long-term situation here.

If you have a battery charger that runs off house current ( surely a neighbor has one if you don't-- ask around-- offer to charge their batteries in exchange, it uses very little power ) you are all set-- just plug the charger into an outlet on the generator and being sure to hook positive ( red lead ) to the + on the battery, and negative ( black ) to minus - .

The tap water won't kill a battery immediately- it depends on how many minerals are dissolved in the water-- can vary from weeks to months, so you might try slow charging them. By that, I mean a day or two per battery. Sometimes, that will revive them.

Try this, also-- open the batteries and sprinkle a teaspoon of Epsom Salts into each cell, recap the cells, rock the batteries to stir the electrolyte, and let sit a few hours, then try to charge. It can't hurt, and might reduce sulfation on the plates ( that's what makes 'em go dead ) enough to take a charge.
One other "trick of the trade" for attempting to revive a dead battery is this-- if the battery charger has a selector for fast or slow charge, or high or low charge, or a current ( amps ) selector, set it on the highest setting for a few hours. Sometimes, that will "startle" the battery back to life.

Now then, regarding this?

the generator is running off of propane. (Does anyone know how long 30 gallons of propane will last? It's a 100-gallon tank and the meter says it's 30% full.)

If you can find the manual for the gen, it ought to have that info somewhere. Not all do, however- a web search for the engine manufacturer might reveal it.

How many horsepower is the engine? Eight? Sixteen? Twenty? And to complicate things, fuel consumption is very dependent on how heavily you load ( draw electric power ) the gen-- obviously, the more power you consume, the faster you burn fuel to generate it.

An old rule of thumb ( which may be inaccurate, given modern, more efficient engines ) was "one pound of fuel per horsepower- hour."

In other words, for my 16-hp plant, an hour run would theoretically burn 16 pounds ( or about 2 gallons of gasoline, At eight lbs. per gallon ) of fuel. This is a very crude approximation, however.

You might get a more accurate idea by noting the fuel gauge reading and timing a one-hour run and re-reading the gauge.

A further note? I think- but am not positive- that you should be able to run your gen off smaller bottled gas cylinders, like those used with outdoor Bar-B-Q's... does anyone know more about this?
It should just be a matter of adapting the connectors, but it's been so many years since I looked at a big propane cylinder that I'm not certain how to advise you.

How do you safely check gas lines for leaks?

Soapy water and a brush.

Paint all connections thoroughly with the mixture ( dish detergent is perfect, in a pinch, any soap that makes bubbles will do ) and carefully observe, in good light, for bubbles, or a "crawling" appearance of the fluid. Never use a flame for leak checking. I know, that should be obvious, but I have seen "professionals" do it. Yi!!

[Cboldt]

... is there any way to use a generator to charge the marine batteries?

You need a battery charger; or at least a source of DC voltage that is greater than the battery's voltage. If the generator is electric start, it has a battery charging system built into it.

Does anyone know how long 30 gallons of propane will last?

That will depend on the size of the engine it's running, and how hard that engine is working. At least you should be able to get the propane tank refilled. A month of "roughing it"! Be careful!

[Cboldt]

At least 5 people have already died from carbon monoxide poisoning, and with the amount of people down here using them, there will no doubt be more.

There was a huge spike of CO poisoning up here in the ice storm of '98. Very sad. And given the odd "out of electricity" circumstance, the usual media campaign isn't effective.

[OwenKellogg]

Nita,

It sounds like this is worse than Y2K!

Seriously, I know things are rough and I wouldn't want to be in your situation. But your attitude is so much more refreshing than the whining and blaming we see on tv. Thanks for giving us a dose of good Texas frontier spirit.

Hang in there. This is one to tell the grandkids about.

--Owen

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

Thank you for your reports - and I am glad to see them on this thread. The news media are moving away from the disaster news....not totally but trending that way. Thanks for live reports and thank GOD you are okay and have your communication to the outside world working - your laptop. I haven't read all your posts - just these latest ones. My heart and prayers go out to you and to all who are suffering and sweltering in the heat (I am glad to know you have a fan hooked up now). The news media should be ashamed if they leave this "news" - it is a disaster of such huge proportions they should be getting detailed reports daily from as many areas as they can - if for no other reason than to prod those who are shuffling papers and bureaucracy to get straight and get the help to those in need.