Post Ike - off topic

[Gummby3]

To the 98% of you with a conscious of the well being of others, feel
free to read. To the other 2%, feel free to not read.

We made it through on this end. Ike definitely had a LOT of wind.
That's all we can figure out. The storm has barley gotten through
Houston (I'm roughly 3 hours north) and our power was knocked out 8 am
Saturday morning. We got it back about an hour ago. The actual storm
didn't hit us until around 10 am. That shows how big this monster
was. No real damage. Broken tree branches mostly. The chimney cap
is missing and there still is no sign of it. LOL For someone that has
never gone trough a hurricane (this is my 3rd), it is so strange how
the winds work in them. My house was relatively undamaged, but two
blocks over, a tree fell and split a house in two. Luckily, nobody
was hurt. I still believe that you have never experienced anything
until you've been in the eye of a hurricane. 2-3 hours of straight
wind and rain and the nothing. Going outside, there is absolutely no
wind. No rain. No sound. Nothing. Depending on how big the storm
is, this lasts for about an hour or more. At this point, you make
sure what is nailed down is still nailed and the windows are still
covered. Then, you get the nasty side of the storm.

I will say this, the oil speculators must really be on a tight leash
by Congress, or they're just scared to do anything. Gas prices here
are $3.79. That's not much more than it was pre-storm. This was at
Wal-Mart earlier today. I have never seen a Wal-Mart with the shelves
that empty before. With employees still out of the area, this Super
Store had only 13 cashiers. They were even calling people to work on
their day off, not to mention bringing in employees from surrounding
stores. There were more stockers than there were anybody else. They
had the doors on one side locked with a sign directing everyone to use
the McDonald's doors. There, they had 5-6 greeters to watch for
theft. All in all, with a storm this massive, the destruction and
injuries could have been considerably worse.

[Sue H]

Glad you made it through ok; I've been through a blizzard that was
really bad (so bad that to get outside, we had to shovel snow INTO the
house... as the drifts litterally covered the doors up to the top!).
I've been through hurricane Isabelle a couple years back (we were VERY
lucky) with only tree down and a couple limbs which damaged fences.
Many people lost cars, roofs and some lost their lives. All of that
was nothing to Katrina is still recovering! You gotta have a plan in
place.

I heard gas was supposed to be 5.00 or so a gallon. I noticed that
the thing people did need the most during the storm was ice; that's
because some medications need to be refrigerated. We've not yet
bought a generator. I should put that on my priority list as it seems
these storms are getting more and more and worse and worse annually.
It almost seems apocalyptic doesn't it? Hurricanes, Earthquakes,
tornadoes, floods, and now all the meltdown in the US with all the
major banks etc. We should have 60-70% more in our 401k and we lost
in all our stocks to the point there's almost nothing left. So time
to get back on track; think carefully who'll be the next President and
start praying!

Post by Gummby3
To the 98% of you with a conscious of the well being of others, feel
free to read. To the other 2%, feel free to not read.
We made it through on this end. Ike definitely had a LOT of wind.
That's all we can figure out. The storm has barley gotten through
Houston (I'm roughly 3 hours north) and our power was knocked out 8 am
Saturday morning. We got it back about an hour ago. The actual storm
didn't hit us until around 10 am. That shows how big this monster
was. No real damage. Broken tree branches mostly. The chimney cap
is missing and there still is no sign of it. LOL For someone that has
never gone trough a hurricane (this is my 3rd), it is so strange how
the winds work in them. My house was relatively undamaged, but two
blocks over, a tree fell and split a house in two. Luckily, nobody
was hurt. I still believe that you have never experienced anything
until you've been in the eye of a hurricane. 2-3 hours of straight
wind and rain and the nothing. Going outside, there is absolutely no
wind. No rain. No sound. Nothing. Depending on how big the storm
is, this lasts for about an hour or more. At this point, you make
sure what is nailed down is still nailed and the windows are still
covered. Then, you get the nasty side of the storm.
I will say this, the oil speculators must really be on a tight leash
by Congress, or they're just scared to do anything. Gas prices here
are $3.79. That's not much more than it was pre-storm. This was at
Wal-Mart earlier today. I have never seen a Wal-Mart with the shelves
that empty before. With employees still out of the area, this Super
Store had only 13 cashiers. They were even calling people to work on
their day off, not to mention bringing in employees from surrounding
stores. There were more stockers than there were anybody else. They
had the doors on one side locked with a sign directing everyone to use
the McDonald's doors. There, they had 5-6 greeters to watch for
theft. All in all, with a storm this massive, the destruction and
injuries could have been considerably worse.

[Mr Black]

Glad you made it through relattively ok Mike.
We get some nasty storms down here in Aus, but nothing like Ike, that thing
was HUGE.
Our real concern down here is fire; and heading into our summer on the back
of a drought, we are in for a very nasty bushfire season.

MrB
--
<><><> ANNOYING USENET SINCE 1996 <><><>

To the 98% of you with a conscious of the well being of others, feel free
to read. To the other 2%, feel free to not read.
We made it through on this end. Ike definitely had a LOT of wind. That's
all we can figure out. The storm has barley gotten through Houston (I'm
roughly 3 hours north) and our power was knocked out 8 am Saturday
morning. We got it back about an hour ago. The actual storm didn't hit
us until around 10 am. That shows how big this monster was. No real
damage. Broken tree branches mostly. The chimney cap is missing and
there still is no sign of it. LOL For someone that has never gone trough
a hurricane (this is my 3rd), it is so strange how the winds work in them.
My house was relatively undamaged, but two blocks over, a tree fell and
split a house in two. Luckily, nobody was hurt. I still believe that you
have never experienced anything until you've been in the eye of a
hurricane. 2-3 hours of straight wind and rain and the nothing. Going
outside, there is absolutely no wind. No rain. No sound. Nothing.
Depending on how big the storm is, this lasts for about an hour or more.
At this point, you make sure what is nailed down is still nailed and the
windows are still covered. Then, you get the nasty side of the storm.
I will say this, the oil speculators must really be on a tight leash by
Congress, or they're just scared to do anything. Gas prices here are
$3.79. That's not much more than it was pre-storm. This was at Wal-Mart
earlier today. I have never seen a Wal-Mart with the shelves that empty
before. With employees still out of the area, this Super Store had only
13 cashiers. They were even calling people to work on their day off, not
to mention bringing in employees from surrounding stores. There were more
stockers than there were anybody else. They had the doors on one side
locked with a sign directing everyone to use the McDonald's doors. There,
they had 5-6 greeters to watch for theft. All in all, with a storm this
massive, the destruction and injuries could have been considerably worse.
--
Mike
Gummby3
-= Star Collector =-
www.star-collector.net
Celebrity addresses the way they should be - free.

[Sue H]

Yeah, I hadn't thought about that. We used to get a lot of fires in
Arizona and in California where I lived. Also in California there we
mud slides sometimes (and we did also have a lot of car accidents due
to smog-like 30 car pileups etc) and we lived on the San Andreas fault
line, which was pretty scary as every year they'd predict in the next
so many years, the "big one" is coming. It's never come, but it's
gotta sometime! I would guess Australia would be continually worried
about drought and fires and on the coasts, maybe tidal waves because
of earthquakes out to sea. I guess there's no place safe to live! I
thought the center of the US might be nice go to, but there's a lot of
tornadoes there as well. Oh well, life seems to be a gamble.

So where do you suppose the safest place on Earth might be?

On Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:15:29 +1000, "Mr Black"

Post by Mr Black
Glad you made it through relattively ok Mike.
We get some nasty storms down here in Aus, but nothing like Ike, that thing
was HUGE.
Our real concern down here is fire; and heading into our summer on the back
of a drought, we are in for a very nasty bushfire season.
MrB

[Mr Black]

Post by Sue H
Yeah, I hadn't thought about that. We used to get a lot of fires in
Arizona and in California where I lived. Also in California there we
mud slides sometimes (and we did also have a lot of car accidents due
to smog-like 30 car pileups etc) and we lived on the San Andreas fault
line, which was pretty scary as every year they'd predict in the next
so many years, the "big one" is coming. It's never come, but it's
gotta sometime! I would guess Australia would be continually worried
about drought and fires and on the coasts, maybe tidal waves because
of earthquakes out to sea. I guess there's no place safe to live! I
thought the center of the US might be nice go to, but there's a lot of
tornadoes there as well. Oh well, life seems to be a gamble.
So where do you suppose the safest place on Earth might be?

hmmm... well, the centre of Australia would be one of the safest, somewhere
like Alice Springs.
http://www.alicesprings.net.au/

[Sue H]

Some survey here suggested Boise Idaho might be safest here.

On Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:57:09 +1000, "Mr Black"

Post by Mr Black

Post by Sue H
Yeah, I hadn't thought about that. We used to get a lot of fires in
Arizona and in California where I lived. Also in California there we
mud slides sometimes (and we did also have a lot of car accidents due
to smog-like 30 car pileups etc) and we lived on the San Andreas fault
line, which was pretty scary as every year they'd predict in the next
so many years, the "big one" is coming. It's never come, but it's
gotta sometime! I would guess Australia would be continually worried
about drought and fires and on the coasts, maybe tidal waves because
of earthquakes out to sea. I guess there's no place safe to live! I
thought the center of the US might be nice go to, but there's a lot of
tornadoes there as well. Oh well, life seems to be a gamble.
So where do you suppose the safest place on Earth might be?

hmmm... well, the centre of Australia would be one of the safest, somewhere
like Alice Springs.
http://www.alicesprings.net.au/