Hurricane Harvey

In reply to bmw88rider:

If you come down here, you have a bed in the Grosh and hot meals in the house and extra hands to help where needed. Just send me a PM.

THIS just reminds me to fire up the genny.

Bought one this past Saturday....not wanting to loose food like during Ike and being able to AC the master bedroom.

After Sandy, we were w/o power for 7 days. Having the generator made that time much more bearable (we're on a well), and we saved hundreds of dollars worth of food by running it. It was a pain to keep running all day (I shut it off at night), but it was well worth it.

I rode out Matthew last year here at my home 3 miles inland off the Atlantic. Lost about 8 trees, no power for 3-4 days but it wasn't too bad otherwise.

My job has me assess residential damages. By and large we dodged a bullet. I only had a couple homes with structural damage due to wind, the other structural were trees into homes. Mostly non complex claims with blown off shingles, leaks, downed trees and fencing.

Flooding is a whole different animal and way messier. Homeowners insurance doesn't cover flood and I have a feeling many don't have flood insurance. In that case there may be FEMA assistance but they sometimes (not sure of their requirements) request a denial of your claim from your homeowners carrier first.

dj06482 wrote: After Katrina, we were w/o power for 7 days. Having the generator made that time much more bearable (we're on a well), and we saved hundreds of dollars worth of food by running it. It was a pain to keep running all day (I shut it off at night), but it was well worth it.

It also made me super popular with everyone in the neighborhood who didn't have power. People didn't ask to store food in my freezer or use the well to get clean water though... they wanted to charge their phones. Idiots.

Greg Voth wrote: Flooding is a whole different animal and way messier. Homeowners insurance doesn't cover flood and I have a feeling many don't have flood insurance. In that case there may be FEMA assistance but they sometimes (not sure of their requirements) request a denial of your claim from your homeowners carrier first.

We have a separate flood insurance policy that is through FEMA but it's handled by Allstate. I don't FEMA would request a denial from a homeowner's policy if you already had a direct policy through them. We were required to get one because we were near a flood plain and are by a large angry river. With this situation, do insurance companies just try to step up and do something for people if it is a once in a 1000 year event? I don't know.

It looks as if I'll be headed down to Houston this evening to help out. Some friends are in the mandatory evacuation area and they don't have an SUV or truck so I'll try to make it to them with my truck to bring back some of their bulky items and let them stay at my house for a while.

IF You and your family have no where to goto we have a place in Keaton Beach Fl trailer ... 12 hrs from houston free to any GRM in need ... 3 months

I doubt any homeowner carriers are going to cover flood damage as they treat claims equally going off the policy.

It's possible if the roof is missing and the house flooded but there's no flood insurance they will cover the damages as it ends up being overlapping.

I can tell you through it's pretty clear when you go into most flood homes. There's usually a water mark line with debris and a little staining on the ceiling isn't going to get coverage for the tens of thousands of dollars of flooring/drywall/cabinets and contents that are damaged.

My only direct experience is people that have had floods and didn't have a flood policy have filed claims. They basically told me they understood there was no coverage but they were told by FEMA that to qualify for any assistance they needed a denial from their homeowners carrier. Not sure if this is across the board/ region to region/ event to event.

My understanding is all flood policies are underwritten through FEMA.

If you are in a flood zone that requires flood insurance your mortgage company would have made you aware of it and either you have a flood policy or they forced placed one.

The coverages are different than your standard homeowners insurance policy on what they will and won't pay for as well. I was flood certified several years back but never ended up handling flood coverage claims so I don't recall the specifics.

In reply to carguy123:

Sent you a PM. Stay safe.

I'm probably going to end up bringing FEMA trailers down there. I was just offered to help a buddy who has a boat, but I'm on my way to deliver a trailer to Colorado.

mazdeuce wrote: We're also a community of sharing. During hurricane Rita we borrowed a generator on day four of the power outage that had already been to two houses. We used it for about 48 hours and then we passed it on. Even the SCCA autocross generator went to 3-4 houses before it was all said and done. There will be huge power loss, but there will also be huge areas where power stays. We tend to buy generators for work or play and use them for emergencies.

Do you have your own now?

In reply to Woody:

Nope. We debate it occasionally. What I'd like do is get the electrical part of a generator and hook it to the PTO on the cabover. Using a 345 International gas motor to power a generator isn't exactly efficient, but the motor is completely disassembled, so it's all theoretical at this point anyway.
We've eaten most everything cold so all we'll lose is condiments. Water is off a commercial well with a generator that feeds the neighborhood. The grill has propane. We'll lose hot water and AC, but that's more annoying than a real problem. Life is pretty simple. We'll be ok.

In reply to mazdeuce:
You've lost power? I'm cornfused....or are you running the volt as you internet generator?

We haven't lost it yet. Bunch of flickering and we can watch it go in and out in the coverage maps. My whole neighborhood is 80 foot trees. If it blows at all one will go across the lines. I've lived through enough storms here to know that.

Coast guard is flying around. I think we just happen to be on a line between the airport and wherever they happen to be saving people.

Sounds like you got the piney woods and I have hard woods. Davey T came thru neighborhood earlier this year to trim , but that's still no guarantee....

Hi everyone, longtime lurker here. Mazdeuce, if you didn't know there are generators that are made to connect to a PTO shaft. Farmers use them a lot when they are away from electrical sources. They put out a lot of power and are very reasonably priced for the amount of power you are getting. Here is a link to northern tool. Best of luck out there, and I love all your build threads! http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200308467_200308467?cm_mmc=Bing-pla&utm_source=Bing_PLA&utm_medium=Generators%20%3E%20PTO%20Generators&utm_campaign=NorthStar&utm_content=165951

In reply to TheHairyFalcon:

Thanks for joining! I've seen those before. The question is whether to use something like that or try to find a welder/generator with a bad motor and adapt that. Who doesn't want a 6000lb welder with long tube headers?
Either way, it's not so much that I neeeeed a generator, it's more that I just happen to have a transmission with a PTO. And way too much free time to sit around and think about it.

In reply to mazdeuce:

There's a place I drive by every couple months that has 2 68-70 Chevy tow trucks for sale. One dually, one single wheel.

Every time I drive by I have a different idea of what to do with the PTO's.

Having used a 69 Chevy tow truck before, the only problem I see is the PTO probably runs too slow to power a welder. (And I'm sure the International PTO runs at similar speeds.)

In reply to David S. Wallens: I've been sending to the Red Cross regularly as well. They really do a good job in situations like this to support the victims and responders.

759NRNG wrote: As the mayor of Houston succinctly stated this morning you simply can't have 6.5 million people evacuate en masse..... to where Norman Okla.? I watched SH249 during IKE turn into a parking lot. Quite a few in this town don't have a pot to pi$$ in let alone exit stage left. The dynamics are thus....continued neighborhood/commercial development coupled with bayous/creeks that cannot withstand said runoff equals widespread flooding....whether it be hurricane related or a stalled series of springtime fronts.....All please stay safe and dry.....out

After the last storm I would have thought they'd have come up with a better plan than just tell people to stay put. It looked like it was going to be bad a week ago which would have still given them a chance to take at least get the people who couldn't leave on their own and bus them away from the storm even if it was just to cots in schools for the time being. It's certainly easier and cheaper to move people before the storm hits than to pluck them out of the water. When Sandy hit I spent the days leading up to it moving people out of senior centers and housing projects to higher ground, and we kept guys on in case we would need to evacuate further.

mazdeuce wrote: In reply to carguy123: Sent you a PM. Stay safe.

I never got the PM, but it turns out I don't have to go tonight. We are going to play it by ear and it could be any day over the next few days. The friends have found a safer place and don't want to leave because they say it could take 24 hours on the road just to get outside of Houston.

But I may end up going anyway with my church group. We'll see.

In reply to carguy123:

Keep me in mind for a local contact/point of support.

mazdeuce wrote: In reply to TheHairyFalcon: Thanks for joining! I've seen those before. The question is whether to use something like that or try to find a welder/generator with a bad motor and adapt that. Who doesn't want a 6000lb welder with long tube headers? Either way, it's not so much that I neeeeed a generator, it's more that I just happen to have a transmission with a PTO. And way too much free time to sit around and think about it.

Having built a generator once, I recommend it. It was a fun project. 3 cylinder Kubota diesel and a Harbor Freight 10kw generator head. It will run the whole house if you are careful, and it's fairly quiet.

As an added bonus, we haven't had a major hurricane since, and I built the generator in the late 90s.

I hope you guys and gals are staying dry.