Folks along the northern Eastern Seaboard likely haven't been through a major tropical cyclone like Irene.

I've been through many (in FL) and many at sea.

This is not entertainment, and not matter how well-prepared East Coasters think they are, they're not.

And I don't just refer to folks on the shore - rain and wind inland account for more deaths and injuries. When power (and maybe water and sewer)is out for several days, it's more than a temporary inconvenience.

After Frances (80 mph winds at the house) power was out at my house for 9 days and at the office for 3. I had generators at both sites. Jeanne (95 mph winds) dropped by a few weeks later. Power out for 3 days both places. None of my neighbors had gensets, so my SOB made the rounds running refrigerators.

I had no damage because I retrofitted my house to 130 mph standards.

Northeastern houses aren't fitted to those standards.

Bottom line: Leave, and leave early, before the panic.

It's too bad that the Weather Channel and major news networks have cried wolf so many times. Now that the real thing is coming, I fear that a lot of people are thinking that this is just another dramatization. From the looks of things, I think this is the real deal.

Real Weather

quote:

I had no damage because I retrofitted my house to 130 mph standards.

...Want to tell what you did to upgrade your house to those standards???

On mine, it was fairly simple, because the basics (mandated by the older building codes) and the deihn of the house.

It started as a stilt house, 16' wide on the main (2nd) floor. The PO filled in the first floor, which is 12' wide. I had CB stem walls built under the overhang in front; a 4-wall addition was made in back, but it was outside the overhang. I had CB columns placed under the rear overhang. The CB walls had concrete pours every 3' with rebar embedded (including anchors to the slab)

The prior owner also added an upstairs wing to the west. Underneath was a 2-car carport, and from the carport to the end, a workshop. The 20' span of the carport was supported by (I'm not making this up) a single 3" steel support pipe in front and back. Each pipe was anchored to the floor by 2 lag bolts bare into the concrete; the top was anchored into the support beam by a cluster of 10d nails! I had 3 CB posts built in their place, front and back.

Now, to the retros:

1. Front overhang: Load was transferred to the CB stem wall and all the joists were anchored with hurricane straps to the stem wall. The upstairs footers were already strapped to the joists, but the joists were bare.

2. Rear overhang: Similar, except a beam was inserted on the new posts, the joists anchored to it, and it anchored to the posts.

3. Carport: This was enclosed with wood frame construction. The beams were anchored to the new posts, and the joists strapped to the beams.

4. Workshop: This was enlarged, encroaching 8' onto the old carport. Its ceiling was 1/4" plywood, screwed in place. The ceiling was removed, the wood I-beam joists were boxed in (really to increase load capacity) and the joists strapped to the existing wall studs.

4. Roof: The roof is 5V29 on the old house, fastened with ring nails. All the edges were reinforced with long screws through the metal, through the purlins, into the trusses. Eave troughs were installed, which act as a vortex generator.

5. Engaged End: The most energetic winds are on the right forward quadrant of a tropical cyclone (in the northern hemisphere), and 95% of them are expected to cross my part of the state from SE to NW. Strongest winds are expected from the SE through NE.

The house is oriented ENE to WSW. On the ENE end, a 12'x19' addition was built from CB lower floor (12'x16' below; there's a bay window upstairs). Upstairs is frame, using 2x6s.

I built this all myself, so could go overboard (150 mph rating). The floor and the wall footers are secured every 3' by connecting with 1/2" rod to J-bolts embedded in the wall. Corners are considered vulnerable, so 5/8" rods are bolted through the floor/footers and anchored with special angle anchors on the side of the stem wall. These result in a theoretical total uplift resistance of around 400,000 lbs.

There are 9 windows in the upstairs (now the dining room); the space between is typically 4-2"x6" studs, strap-wrapped to each other and loop-wrapped to the headers and strapped to the footers.

Siding is T-111 5/8", installed in sections rather than contiguous panels. MechEng 101 calculations would show this to be the case.

Since I also built the trusses, I used yellow pine and used a (more complex) modified Howe truss instead of the usual trusses. The use of a CAD program made the complex cuts easy to calculate. This design has about 300% the uplift strength (and 250% downforce) of commercially-built, and the pine (instead of spruce) adds 150%.

Purlins were also yellow pine at the end, and 8' stub purlins were installed, so that centers are 1' at the eaves instead of code 2'. 5V25 sheetmetal was installed, significantly stronger than 5V29. All panels were secured with screws.

To further strengthen the corners, diagonal 2x4s were run and fastened to the trusses.

The overhang for the bay window was plenty strong because I chose the wood I-beam dimensions to handle the 3' cantilever. However, this is supported by 2-4x4 PT posts, strapped to the joists and anchored to 1 cu yd concrete footers.

An additional design benefit for this ENE addition is flooding; that end also would be upriver if the water rose high enough (it never has), and it is far more resistant to damage then the prior frame wall (with that wretched masonite siding).

When we get a mandatory "evacuate" order down here can Mini and I come up and stay at your bomb shelter?

Sure. I may not be there...

See if you can spot Rusty's beach house.

Well, Irene has hit North Carolina and is heading north. We have prepared the best we can. We are fortunate not to be on the New Jersey shore, but are only 40 miles away. I told Kathleen that if we get to 6:00pm Sunday and all our trees are still standing, we can deal with everything else. We have the Barth ready to use for living quarters if we lose power. It is out in the street away from most of the trees. Just gotta hope for the best.....

I talked to my daughter in Raleigh a couple of times today and everything is good there. She said it was windy but they were getting some much needed rain. When I was up there last week it was bone dry!

One of the problems and my biggest concern in dealing with the high winds. Our ground is saturated already from the rains over the last two weeks. And they are calling for 6-12 inches more from this storm. I'll deal with flooding. But, that means trees are gonna blow over and I'm praying not mine...

Irene can be tracked on NWS radar.

Below the image is a tab marked "AutoUpdate is Off". Click and turn it on. At the upper left are arrows, which will switch to the next radar in the chain.

Made it thru the night with no major problems. Our electric even stayed on most of the time! Hope others were as fortunate.
Only problem I have is a little water in the basement and my computer went into some sort of funk. I hit "F1" to get it to work again. The "F2" key was for some program that I did not know what it was about so I went with the other key.

My favorite Ice Cream stand. Weir's in Washingtonville.





Kayaking in the Newburgh Mall Parking lot is always a fun thing.



Here's where we go to get our car washed.



We have many roads closed in our area - the NYS Thruway was closed for 2 days and sections of it are still closed now. It took me 2 hrs to drive 20 miles today because I kept getting turned around.

For me, Irene did no damage as our house is built on a hill, my vehicles were moved away from trees and we did not venture out until the day after the storm.

Bill, good to read you all are safe and sound. this will be one of those storms you can tell your grandchildren about. Good luck.
Doorman

NOT THE ICE CREAM STAND !!!
Glad y'all doing fine. Now thinking about all that lost ice cream