Author Topic: take cover! ! (Read 978 times)

Ranger99 · « **on:** May 15, 2013, 05:04:28 PM »

anyone in the metroplex area may want to
hunker down right about now.

it's raining hard as i've ever seen it, the
storm warning sirens are going off, and
this house just got through shaking like
i've never seen it do

i think sasquatch is jogging on the roof right
now if anyone wants to come and snap a few.
lord knows i'm grateful for the rain after these
drought years, but. . . . . .

Sourdough · « **Reply #1 on:** May 15, 2013, 05:50:20 PM »

Which Metroplex?

Ranger99 · « **Reply #2 on:** May 15, 2013, 05:58:03 PM »

dallas - fort worth
republic of texas

Ranger99 · « **Reply #3 on:** May 15, 2013, 05:59:59 PM »

thankfully, most of the bad stuff
left here, but those poor souls in
southeast oklahoma are getting it now

Ranger99 · « **Reply #4 on:** May 15, 2013, 10:00:42 PM »

about 80 + - miles west and south of
here in hood county 6 dead and unknown
number injured at last report from at least
one and possibly up to four tornadoes.

Oldshooter · « **Reply #5 on:** May 15, 2013, 10:48:11 PM »

We got a lot of rain down here in Southeast Texas, but no sasquatch or "bigfeet"

Dee · « **Reply #6 on:** May 15, 2013, 11:24:29 PM »

I was in Rockwall when wife called. Heavy lightening knocked out part of the power there. Grandberry got hammered. Tornado a mile wide. Still countin and lookin for folks.

FPH · « **Reply #7 on:** May 16, 2013, 12:05:11 AM »

How did Austin and San Antonio fair......Whitesbore also Ranger........Thanks just found out......haven't talked to anybody yet. I was last told " it looks like rain".

Oldshooter · « **Reply #8 on:** May 16, 2013, 03:17:10 AM »

Well Ranger....................you still with us?

I'm seeing the reports this am sounds like it was a bad time up there!

williamlayton · « **Reply #9 on:** May 16, 2013, 03:19:08 AM »

S/E Republic got spared----Cowtown took the brunt this time. SA and Austin were not under the umbrella.
This is the time of the year---there will be more.
Blessings

Ranger99 · « **Reply #10 on:** May 16, 2013, 08:17:39 AM »

me and mine muddled through ok
by some miracle.
got kinda stunned when the house
was shaking and the glasses in
the kitchen cabinet were clinking together.
sister & family in southern tarrant co.
still without power and minus a few shingles
but ok. poor folks in hood cty. took a pounding.
last i saw, 6 confirmed dead- 100+ injured

an aside:
for the life of me, i can't understand why folks
around here don't better prepare for weather emergencies
and natural calamity since we already know the score.
news footage of folks trying to evacuate etc.
and wearing tank top and shorts and flip-flops.
i can't think of a worse mode of dress for trying
to negotiate a debris and broken glass littered
street than that. i have lanterns and flashlights
and keep a brass shut-off tool near the gas and
water meters (as recommended by the gas co.)
i guess an old habit passed down from my folks,
when the clouds are ripe for tornadoes, and the sirens
are going off, i have on clothes, and am ready to
get out of dodge at a moments notice.

i don't wish bad luck on anybody for any reason,
but dang, some of your own luck has to be made yourself.

Oldshooter · « **Reply #11 on:** May 16, 2013, 09:15:24 AM »

Glad you and yours all made it ok. I saw the news this morning and that was a very bad storm.

Ranger99 · « **Reply #12 on:** May 16, 2013, 12:15:50 PM »

the worst one in hood cty was ef-4

spruce · « **Reply #13 on:** May 16, 2013, 01:40:58 PM »

Glad you made it okay.

Maybe you or someone else on here can answer a question I've had for a long time. Seems from the pictures of damage that come out of "tornado alley" that most houses don't have basements. See a lot of them just built on slabs. Is that because of the water table or what......??

Ranger99 · « **Reply #14 on:** May 16, 2013, 02:31:50 PM »

most of the "modern" houses around here are built
with a floating slab foundation, whereas the older ones
like this one here are built with pier and beam construction.
i would guess it's simple economics. floating slab is the
cheapest way to build a house. this oldie here is pier aand
beam with a concrete footing on the perimeter, and real
2x4's that actually measure 2"x4" .
i would think that most homes in the northern parts of the country
have basements because of the ground freezing that would affect
structural integrity of a slab house. that can however, bite you in
the rear. this area is full of what can be called heaving black dirt.
this type of soil when dry will contract and crack with cracks i've
seen as wide as 4-5 inches and i don't know how deep. there
are areas around town with a good limestone base, and some
split-level homes and maybe some with basements, but it wouldn't
work here. too much swelling and contracting of the soil.
all the newer homes have floating slab, and we also have
10 pages of foundation repair companies in the yellow pages.
another deal, you may or may not have heard of or remember,
the f5 tornado of jarrell texas not quite 16 years ago this month.
it wiped an entire housing subdivision clean from the ground,
nearly 40 some odd houses and some trailers or pre-fab.
close to 30 killed. those houses were all slab.

spruce · « **Reply #15 on:** May 17, 2013, 02:59:25 AM »

Thanks Ranger. I kind of suspected it had something to do with water or soil conditions.

Around here (Michigan) basements are by far the preferred type of construction, although there are a few with slab or crawl spaces. Footings have to go below the frost line even for a slab so going down another 4 feet or so for a full basement isn't that much more expensive for us.

Dee · « **Reply #16 on:** May 17, 2013, 03:13:43 AM »

Lightening got a direct hit on the west side of my house. Funny thing lightening. It fried Linda's new treddmill's motor, the DVD player & Directv box, the door bell, and part of the security system. Skipped the refrigerator, and TV, all on the same breaker.

BBF · « **Reply #17 on:** May 17, 2013, 08:01:43 AM »

Tongue in Cheek

I can understand why there is a good number of religious folks in that part of the country.

BTW

Why no Storm cellars or Hidieholes?? Even a hunk of good size culvert in the ground with plenty of drainage is better than riding out a storm in the bathtub. Yes.....No ??

Ranger99 · « **Reply #18 on:** May 17, 2013, 10:26:21 AM »

in this neighborhood there are very few
fraidy holes, a couple down the street,
but i think they were built as fallout shelters
in the late 50's
depends on where you're at.
the last house my mothers family lived in
in east texas had a shelter. her aunt made them all
go get in every time there was a thunderstorm.
her mom was in a tornado in the early 1900's
and the school teacher made them all go out
of the school house into the cotton field and
lay down in the rows just as the tornado took
the schoolhouse piers and all and wiped the
ground clean with no trace of the schoolhouse
remaining. by some miracle all the kids and the
teacher made it. my dad was in the one in dallas
in the late 50's and made it.
i've managed to squeek by and been on the edge of
a couple. must be genetic

Dee · « **Reply #19 on:** May 18, 2013, 01:00:18 AM »

Well, got home last night. TV in living room. NOT OK. Gotta replace it too.

I have a storm cellar. Not everyone however can AFFORD a storm cellar. They are not that cheap, and some neighborhood yards there is no room. Are they a good idea? I had one put by my back door, and had one put by my mothers back door. The problem sometimes however, is TIME TO GET TO IT.

BBF · « **Reply #20 on:** May 18, 2013, 02:28:56 AM »

On occasion we do get some leftover stuff from Hurricanes hitting the East Coast. They call them Tropical Depression I think. Anyway regardless of the Name, I consider them more than plenty enough for me.

Oldshooter · « **Reply #21 on:** May 18, 2013, 03:11:27 AM »

We have storm shelters down here! We call em swimming pools. If ya dig a hole deeper than 4 or 5 ft. it fills with water! If its small enough its called a well! When people put in pools they have to hurry and fill em with water or they float up out of the ground.

I have seen some people place a shipping container down then pile dirt around it above ground to make storm shelters. I have one I may do that with, 40x8x8, now that is a Texas size shelter.

BBF · « **Reply #22 on:** May 18, 2013, 10:55:33 AM »

Are you telling me the ground water level is that high in TX ??

FPH · « **Reply #23 on:** May 18, 2013, 11:10:22 AM »

Quote from: BBF on May 18, 2013, 10:55:33 AM

Are you telling me the ground water level is that high in TX ??

If it is not drought conditions I've seen water table at 3'(brine water).......my drinkable water well is at 168 '.

Oldshooter · « **Reply #24 on:** May 18, 2013, 11:15:55 AM »

Yep! at least here in the coastal area. Not out west or North. I'm about 20 miles from the Gulf and about a Block from the Neches river. I can dig a 15 ft hole in the back pasture and have 6 foot of water in it by the time I get the tractor and back hoe out of it. I have plans to dig a pond for catfish, bass and cotton mouths soon. I say the snakes cause anywhere you have water you have those stanky little buggers.

Ranger99 · « **Reply #25 on:** May 18, 2013, 02:46:16 PM »

must be around kountze or woodville
or right around muggy-as-heck or mosquitoville

Oldshooter · « **Reply #26 on:** May 18, 2013, 02:51:51 PM »

Quote

must be around kountze or woodville
or right around muggy-as-heck or mosquitoville

Yep! South of kountze. and just North of mosquitoville. lil past muggy-as-heck ! So you Been here huh!

Hows ya moma and em.

FPH · « **Reply #27 on:** May 18, 2013, 02:56:14 PM »

Quote from: Oldshooter on May 18, 2013, 11:15:55 AM

Yep! at least here in the coastal area. Not out west or North. I'm about 20 miles from the Gulf and about a Block from the Neches river. I can dig a 15 ft hole in the back pasture and have 6 foot of water in it by the time I get the tractor and back hoe out of it. I have plans to dig a pond for catfish, bass and cotton mouths soon. I say the snakes cause anywhere you have water you have those stanky little buggers.

I'm out West. However I'm in the old river bed and we do irrigate out of the once mighty Rio Grande. 18" of clay, 12" of sand........muddy water. I had to pump ground water to be able to install a cable vault for Ma Bell.

Ranger99 · « **Reply #28 on:** May 18, 2013, 03:03:01 PM »

well. . .if you could throw the johnboat
in the neches and somehow make it
past b.a. st. lake and past crockett n.f.
and stop at 294 west of alto, the
outpost is about 2-3 miles west.
had some friends east of daisetta,
one in hemphill, one in onalaska,
some still between trinity and riverside.

ironglow · « **Reply #29 on:** May 18, 2013, 03:08:57 PM »

I hope things work out for you folks in the Lone Star..prayers sent out.. It seems each area has it's own peculiar challenge, where I live we have winter storms...and locally, we are located in a "snow belt" area, meaning we get much more snow than say someone only 8-10 miles away..
Others, beach erosion, forest fires. flood plain or sinkholes.. No perfect place, I guess..