first damage-finally

[WA1GFZ]

Looks like the far end of the 75 meter reference dipole hais broken loose. Still in the air and can see the end insulator. It has been up since 1985 and have not been able to drop it for years. I think I will be able to lower it and check the center insulator. Rope was caught in a dead branch on the back side

[W1UJR]

‎12:42AM Just lost power, system auto-switched over to the generator, first time we've really had to use it since the installation last December.

Odd thing, the storm is not really here yet, perhaps tree down, or systemwide outage, or those space aliens they've been talking about on the Discovery Channel, not sure, either way, the lights are on, the radio is working...and oh yes, the internet is still up.

[KM1H]

Lost power 5 times over 10 minutes at 7AM with just a normal light breeze. Its starting to gust now but rain comes and goes.

[WA3VJB]

Lost half a dipole, driveway all cluttered up.

Power now out for 12 hours, but generator running smoothly.

The brook down the hill  in back from us is flowing heavy, but not as bad as I've seen it.

We seem quite lucky in this part of Maryland.


I understand things are quite bad down Steve/K4HX's way, the Tidewater area of Virginia. They have a lot of shallow root pine trees that are way tall. Soft ground, a little wind, and over they fall.

Report of major infrastructure damage to the power grid, much of which is above ground in that area.  Not just neighborhood feeders, but they're down too.  It may be a week before the juice flows again.

Cable TV is out, apparently both main providers (Cox & Comcast) have failed regionally. And most people are too far from either Norfolk or Richmond to pick up the pissweak digital "upgrade" television signals.

[AJ1G]

TO: AMFONE.NET
FROM: AJ1G
UNCLASS

SUBJECT: 28AUG1050 SITREP AT COMMSTA AJ1G STONINGTON CONNECTICUT:

1.  TOTAL LOSS OF ALL AC POWER AT OR AROUND 0500 LOCAL
2.  ESTABLISHED COMMS WITH W1VTP and N1SNG ON 3870 KHZ ON EMERGENCY
     BATTERY POWER WITH ARC-5 AND AN-GRC-9 AT ABOUT 0930 LOCAL
3.  COMMENCED SNORKELING AT 1005 LOCAL
4.   1 SMALL OAK TREE DOWN 1 LARGE MAPLE TREE LEANING AND WILL LIKELY 
      COME DOWN ON WIND SHIFT TO WEST
5.   LATEST  WIND REPORT FROM GROTON NEW LONDON AIRPORT WINDS   
       SOUTH 47 GUSTS 60 RAIN HAS STOPPED
6.    GOOD LUCK TO ALL

CO SENDS

[WBear2GCR]

On Long Guy Land...

One stupid tree got pushed over. Thin tall pine thing.
One problem though...
It is on the property line.
It fell to the neighbor's side and rests on his eaves...
He is not a fun/cooperative type.

The sole redeeming factor is that the top of a larger pine on his property
snapped and fell onto his roof too. So, he has to hire someone to get that taken care of no matter what.  So, he can't get too pissed off at me for the trees on the property line that he thinks ought to have been cut down already (they really should be - but until a few months back it wasn't up to me to decide...) making this all my fault... because HIS TREE broke too... geez.

Can't wait to see the bill for this... hoping he has a low deductible on his homeowners... otherwise it looks like I may be on the hook... dunno.

The joy of bleeding money for no benefit continues...

Other than that the great HURRICANE was more or less a bust... just a strong summer storm. I guess that's good.

                    _-_-bear

Of course when I get back upstate it will probably look like a giant elephant went a stompin'....

[w1vtp]

Bruce

I'm really jealous.  I do have an 8 KVA generator with the hookup needed but don't have the auto setup.  Gotta make plans on upgradine.  Get on the air!  We need a live status report

Al

[WA1GFZ]

Just took a walk outside and saw the stream and woods. 75 meter antenna is fine. It is just hanging low due to the slack I put on the line on this side of the stream. A bunch of little sticks in the yard. Rain should clear out soon.

[Ralph W3GL]

Bear,

Couple years ago I had a similar problem.  Big branch on a Maple
out in the back of the acre fell into the neighbors side yard just missing
his camping trailer that was parked there.

He came knocking on my back door all frothing & foaming, screaming
that I should get my "tree" off his property, RIGHT NOW!!  

I checked with my HO insurance guy and he said that if the branch came
from a "dead" tree it was my responsibility however if it was a living
branch, IE had green leaves  etc, his insurance was the responsible route
for his clam.

YMMV, check your insurance carrier...

[W1RKW]

running on generator power.  lost power around 615AM.  Dipole and vertical are still up. No damage to the home, property or trees.  Basement dry. No flooding from brook.  Lots of twigs and leaf debris. Aside from that, I can live with this clean up.

Storm is going by.  Anemometer is showing wind switching over to a N/NW/W 'erly direction from S/SE.  Barometer beginning to climb.  It's jumped .09"Hg in the last 20 minutes.  Lowest it got here was 29.05"Hg.

[W1UJR]

Bruce

I'm really jealous.  I do have an 8 KVA generator with the hookup needed but don't have the auto setup.  Gotta make plans on upgradine.  Get on the air!  We need a live status report

Al

It was sweet Al, was downstairs cooking up a late night snack, the power flicked twice, went out. Heard the generator autostart, loud snap of the contractor as it pulled in, we had lights. Went back to the stove, started it again, and cooked up my snack. The generator shut off at 5 AM this morning when the power came back on.

If this happened last year, I'd have to go out to the barn, carry the generator over to the house, get it started, unreel 100 feet of extension cord, take the screen off an outside window, snake the power cord downstairs to a sump - basement floods, and I'd still be sitting in the dark.

I got my advice on the genset here, have a 20 KW model, runs on propane. With the water well and propane stove and furnace, we're off the grid!

I was on the air today, monitoring 75 and 40 meters, 75 seemed to crap out about 10 AM.

Still have the rest of the storm coming over, so more excitement may yet come.

[W1UJR]

Lost half a dipole, driveway all cluttered up.

Power now out for 12 hours, but generator running smoothly.

The brook down the hill  in back from us is flowing heavy, but not as bad as I've seen it.

We seem quite lucky in this part

Great photos Paul!

[vincent]

Thankfully Irene is gone and the damage was less than expected.

[AJ1G]

Winds backing down here now...tree that came down was not an oak, was actually a big crab apple that was torn out by the roots, must have gone down when the wind shifted to south by the way it fell.  The 17500 KW  Generac straps...even dried a load of clothes in the dryer this morning.  Son Ben  lost power over in Westerly RI early this AM also, running on my old 4 KW Coleman.  Son Dave in Vernon, CT never lost power.

Local radio station, WBLQ 1230 kHz in Westerly doing a great job with public info storm reporting.  Its basically a one-man show run by someone who believes in keeping plenty of local news and community info content in the station format.   Most of the other local stations still just running their off the satellite canned music programming.

Early this morning, was listening around the BCB and 75 meters on my Grundig Yacht Boy battery portable.  Was amazing how quiet the background noise was with everyone's RFI generators shut down!

[WA3VJB]

Yeah Chris, I had the R1000 on this morning off DC and thought the same thing -- WOW the amount of artificial noise we put up with. It has really crept up there in recent years.

Generator still on first tank, 6 hours after powering up. Average load.

The sun has come out, the blue skies are back, but the power might be out for quite a while.

[WU2D]

20M Dipole still working but now Vertically polarized. 80/40 Dipole in woods still tuning fine but acts like something might be intermittent. Damage control will have to wait.  Gen on ready but knock wood  - no loss of AC.

Looks like it was not as intense as some straight line storms we have had. No trees down around me. Storm starting to wind down in Manchester NH.

Mike WU2D

[W1RKW]

Talked to my parents down in Waterford early this morning.  Tried to reach them again 130PM, no response.  Called the local PD and they stated half the town is without power and landline service.  Asked if they would check in on the folks since I couldn't reach them as the OM has a heart condition.  The PD phoned back about 30 minutes ago.  All is well and confirmed landline service is DOA.

Listening to the scanner it sounds as if cell phone service is spotty too.  

Repeaters are busy.

Took a short trip out of the neighborhood to survey some damage.  I couldn't get to far.  Rt 16 has wires down due to broken trees and limbs in both directions.  Power will be out here for more than 3 days.  It's a pretty good mess here.

I think next year I will be pulling a Bruce and have  standby genset installed. Got a 10KW portable and it's easy to setup up and runs 90% of the homestead. Just plug in the umbilical and throw the transfer switch but it would be better not to have to wait until rain stops to drag it out or get wet and risk getting electrocuted.

[Ed/KB1HYS]

so far so good here. Many short duration power outages (< 5 mins) but the firetrucks have been back and forth in front of the place (we live on a main road) about 6 times.   Still waiting out the large pines. They've dropped a lot of boughs but nothing bigger than 2 inches in diameter yet...

My son is doing some intern work at the local ER.  It just happens to be the day he's scheduled to go since he's taking an EMT class.  I think he may have some interesting stories this evening after he gets home.

[Opcom]

It is on the property line.
It fell to the neighbor's side and rests on his eaves...

This happened to me. The insurance agent told me that if the tree fell on his property that it will be his home owners insurance and his liability to his own property that will pay for its removal as well as damage and that I have no liability. I said "huh??" He said Yes... That's Texas. Your mileage may vary.

[Jim, W5JO]

It is on the property line.
It fell to the neighbor's side and rests on his eaves...

This happened to me. The insurance agent told me that if the tree fell on his property that it will be his home owners insurance and his liability to his own property that will pay for its removal as well as damage and that I have no liability. I said "huh??" He said Yes... That's Texas. Your mileage may vary.

Be sure, for sure.  Here anything that hangs over the property line belongs to them.  Anything on your side is yours.  He should have cut the limbs back by OK law.

[Tom WA3KLR]

From 11 miles south of Allentown PA:

Yesterday I slackened the 160, 80 and 40 meter dipoles.  High winds several times today, but they are o.k.  No trees down in the area that I know of.

A hard work day for me today.  We lost power at 1:50 am.  I never did get back to sleep.  I discovered in the morning at 5:50 am that the basement had about 2 ½” of water.  Never had this much before and never had the floor fully wet in the 21 years I've been here.

Set up the 5 kW Coleman MAXA 5000 ER Plus generator I bought before Y2K right outside the garage doors with a tarp and tent poles and stakes.  Started the generator about 7 a.m.  Babied the sump pump duty cycle all day to ensure that it didn’t get too hot.  Manual power management of all the breakers.   The dehumidifier running solid of course.  Power came back on at 2:00 p.m.  The wife bailed some too.  Finally incorporated the shop vac.  The generator used slightly less than half a tank for the 7 hours.  I believe the tank capacity is 5 gallons.

Now the floor is almost all dry and leaving the sump pump to cycle on its own as normal.  Most stuff is on those gray shelving assemblies but there were cardboard boxes of stuff that did get wet.  This will be a good thing to cause us to get rid of some junk.

Last night I made sure that the rain gage was empty.  The first I got out to it this morning it was full so I’m not sure how much we had but it was at least 7.75” onto ground that was already fairly saturated.

[KA8WTK]

I understand things are quite bad down Steve/K4HX's way, the Tidewater area of Virginia.

I have had a couple of cell calls from my son who lives in Williamsburg, not real far from Steve. They lost power  about 8:30 PM and have a couple of wet spots on the ceiling of their 3rd floor apartment. When we talked to them this moring, the power was still out. He said the parking lot there was littered with shingles. Cell towers were probably overloaded or damaged as they kept dropping out.
They were going to drive into the Colonial Village and feed a friends pet this afternoon. Haven't heard what they saw yet, waiting for the call.

Bill KA8WTK

[The Slab Bacon]

Had night from hell here! ! ! !  Our power went out around 6:30 PM, long before the worst of the storm got here? ? ? ? Went outside and fired off the generator, and switched over to generator power. I had no choice cause the sumper pumper was cycling every 1-2 minutes.

After firing off the genny it ran for 20 minutes and crapped out. (I test ran it for 30 min the night before) Refired it and it crapped out again after 15 minutes, did this 3 or 4 times. Found problem to be a sticking electric fuel pump. Dissasembled and repaired the fuel pump and restarted it again. The genny than ran flawlessly for the rest of the night.

Since I was allready soaked, I walked up and checked in on a couple of the neighbors. Came back home and was really looking forward to some dry clothes and a plop onto the couch. As soon as I walked in the door, the YL met me at the door to tell me the sumper pumper had crapped out.

I ran down into the basement to find the water allready 6" deep! I franticly removed all of the junk from on top of the pit cover and extracted the pump. About that time, one of my neighbors called me to ask if there was anything I needed. (He was out in the mess) so I asked him to stop by Home Dumpo and snag me a pump. He went to 2 of them and both were sold out of them.

By then the water was about 8-10" deep in the front of the basement, and I was starting to get a bit frantic. Figgering that "nothing from nothing leaves nothing" I took a stab at dissasembling and repairing the old pump. I didnt have much faith as it is 7 years old and they generally only last me around 5 years. After fighting with all of the rusty corroded screws, I was actually able to get it apart! !  I found that a big piece of cheese had been sucked in and jammed the impeller. I frantically reassembled it and dropped it back in the hole. (By then the water was close to 18" deep in that corner and getting deeper quick.) It fired off and ran flawlessly! Took about 1/2 hour non stop run to pump it all out. Yay! ! ! !

And then for the ultimate slap in the face, the power came back on around 11:30, so I had to go back outside to shut down the genny right as the storm was really raging! ! Go figger!!

Preparedness.................... Bah Humbug! ! ! !      

[KB2WIG]

"  I found that a big piece of cheese had been sucked in and jammed the impeller. "


I would have thought it would be an eggplant.

klc

[W2VW]

Did your shed move any more Ralph?

Bear,

Couple years ago I had a similar problem.  Big branch on a Maple
out in the back of the acre fell into the neighbors side yard just missing
his camping trailer that was parked there.

He came knocking on my back door all frothing & foaming, screaming
that I should get my "tree" off his property, RIGHT NOW!!  

I checked with my HO insurance guy and he said that if the branch came
from a "dead" tree it was my responsibility however if it was a living
branch, IE had green leaves  etc, his insurance was the responsible route
for his clam.

YMMV, check your insurance carrier...