Hurricane matthew and east coast

That is a powerful storm.Get you and the woman to an inland spot.

 

We're right by I-95, inland enough?

 

Yeah you will probably be ok that far in. Prayers for you and all along the coast. My stubborn mom is only a few miles from water. Really stressing me out.

 

my heart goes out to yall in Fl, but I gotta admit, I am unbelivably relieved that focker looks like its gonna miss the va beach area. We got over 15 inches of rain over a four day span a little less than two weeks ago. The ground is still so soft and wet that a cat 2 or 3 hurricane would have leveled this place. I have a bunch of big azz oak trees in my yard that I was getting seriously worried about getting blown on to my house because the ground is so waterlogged.

 

Thanks dude, I'll be turning the SUP into a sail boat, should be able to pick up some decent speed with 130mph winds, got my Roy Stuart helmet and jump suite ready to go!

And good luck to your Mom's.

 

You should be OK as long as you're in a decent structure. Only real reason to evac is storm surge flooding or living in a trailer home. I wouldn't evec unless absolutely needed. Evacs sometimes get worse than staying put especially if you get going late. I think you said you have no covering for windows? Is there a solid room (closet, bathroom) in the interior of the house with no windows you can escape to if sh!t gets real bad?

 

It's a solid house , the side of our house is pretty close the sides of our neighbors hosues, so the East and West sides of the home should be safe. Our neighbor on the East side has a 2 story house and we have a 1 story, so his house will probably take the brunt of the wind from that direction.

The front of our house faces South and has one large window that we're going to put plywood over after work. There's an oak tree in the front yard that is a concern.

The back of the house has a big window for our bedroom and family rooms and I have a screened patio with glass sliding doors to the family room / kitchen area. We'll be putting wood on the two windows and leaving the sliding glass door / screen patio alone. Lake is only 20-25 away from there, so hoping it doesn't overflow.

We do have a bathroom and laundry room with no windows in the center of the house, plus the garage. Our Master Bedroom has a window but it's blocked by the neighbors house from most anything from getting to it (I think).

 

If I was not enamored with that tree and I had the time and the tools (or the cash and someone willing to do the job), I'd make a preemptive strike on that tree.

We have some ugly scrub oaks here, so I started culling the troubling ones close to the house.. still a few more to go, but the questionable ones to the NE of the house or driveway went first.

 

Sounds pretty good. I'd still be a bit concerned aboot that sliding door. Once the wind gets in bad sh1t happens. Most oak trees are pretty solid in storms but a few species are very weak. Can't do much aboot that.

Assuming Matthew tracks as forecast, the winds should start from the SE, then east and then north as he passes. The worst will be when he's right along you and to the north. At least you'll be on the 'good' side of the storm. Much worse in the NE quadrant and of course the eyewall itself.

 

It's a rental house so can't do anything like that but we did recently have it trimmed up a bit because of hurricane season. But that doesn't stop it from falling on the house lol

 

Guess we'll find out soon enough, gonna hope for the best.

 

Right.. I forgot you mentioned it was a rental. Well sounds like you've got things covered (or will by the end of the day).

Also sounds like the tree is situated in the best position given the projected path, and wind, as Vahallalla mentioned.

We'll be praying/hoping for the the best, and staying tuned to the updates from the FL SI community.

 

Can you put an "X" or maybe "*" of duct tape on it, so that in the worse case scenario, it would not shatter all over the place? I think I read or saw this somewhere.

Of course, if nothing happens, then you need to clean of any tape residue...

 

If it was trimmed properly that will help. As long as there's no dead or weak limbs it should be OK. And the worst winds should blow away from the house.

That's all you can do. Prepare as best you can, hunker down and ride it out.

Just now started raining here. Loosely connected to the outflow from Matthew. And so it begins.

 

Stay safe Valhallalla and the rest of the SI Florida crew. Making offerings to my gods for you guys.

 

F'kn A. Get me two. I think I'll be OK. I am worried aboot the guys and gals upcoast though. I had pizza last night. Srsly. Chinese tonight?

 

I'd personally double down on more pizza, but you know what they say, variety is the spice of life.

 

+1 Can't have too much pizza in times like these. Variety is nice, but so is comfort.

That's funny because I too ordered and ate pizza last night, and today for lunch.

Thanks SS, burn one in the name of Matthew.

Yeah and it's leaning away from the house too, so that's a positive. Well, sounds like you're up first, God speed dude!

I thought the same thing. My wife asked some of the engineers at her office and they said that's actually not a good thing to do, but IDK, seems legit to me.

Yeah, and I just realized we have one in the back yard too between our property line and the neighbors, so we actually have two to worry about. I haven't trimmed that one and he has a bird caged pool that might get the business from that tree, hope not though. The good news is the tree out front is leaning away from the house so hopefully it falls that way if it happens to fall. I don't think it will, but never know with these things.

 

Hmmm. This perked my curiosity, so I googled "is it a good idea to duct tape glass doors in storms" and it seems that it is indeed NOT a good idea to tape windows/doors.

The prevailing logic (an example from one source) is as follows:

"Taping up windows prevents them from shattering."

No. No it does not. In fact, it can make matters worse. When untaped windows get hit with flying debris, they're liable to shatter into a million tiny pieces. Sure, that sounds bad, but consider the alternative. When taped windows are hit with debris, they still break, but into larger, more menacing, dangerous pieces. These are the shards that could cause really damage to you. So forget the tape; it's just a pain to clean up afterwards anyway.

 

That's one way of looking at it I suppose. I'll skip the tape.