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Hurricane Ian


Dan Gould

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Dan appreciates the concern, and our people and animals are all fine. We got power back last night at 7 pm so exactly three days without. TTK mentioned the cool temperatures in the aftermath and they were a blessing though the house still warms up substantially when it is mid-80s in the afternoons.

The generator never did  start. But Sue heard of a feed store offering the few they had left for "cost". I don't know if it was really "cost" but she got the last one, and they were giving them out fully gassed so I'll chalk it up to "people helping people ... with a little profit tacked in." :g

We were very stressed out Friday and Saturday because once we got the fridge running and cooling back down we were about to be out of water for horses - I mean, after Saturday breakfast, we had no water at all to fill buckets or outdoor tanks. We had successfully wired the old generator into the well pump during the last storm but everything she tried would not work. And she went out trying to find the right cable and all she could find was the four-prong plug for the 220 volt output.

Plan B became going to a nearby farm that had power and bringing back 100 gallon tub with whatever water stayed inside on the trip (not to mention making the pickup truck unusable until that water was used up). However late Saturday morning I was explaining our woes to our neighbor who casually mentioned that he is an electrician and probably has the kind of wire we need to run 220 volts into a pump. 30 minutes later, water.  That was people helping people.

We filled the tanks up with water but decided since we had so much work yet to do that we would get the fridge on again and take showers end of day. The electrician warned us to kill the breaker to the pump in case the power comes up, so when we are restarting the pump ... it turned out power had come on 5 minutes before. So her aunt and uncle are calling because the power came on and then it went off (and Sue found no labels on the electric box near the pump so she had killed all the breakers). I shudder to think that without the breaker off we might have been sending 220 volts back at whoever was turning on our power at the same time we were trying to restore water and per a youtube video she watched, would have killed him/her.

Sue and I restored fencing for King's backyard. We have a handyman who fixed half the shingles yesterday afternoon and has on section of ridge caps left, plus what I am guessing is about 80 linear feet of siding on the apartment/garage side of the barn. 

(He's also replacing my brake pads at no charge - he installed new brakes on Susan's truck Friday afternoon, charging her $100, and checked mine and said rotors are fine, pads are at the end and said he'd do mine for free if I just get the pads. Given its 93,000 miles and all I have ever done on this Kia is to change oil, replace tires once, replace a battery twice, brakes gotta be close to the end, so I jumped at that offer.  He's a good guy and when he's done with the work he's gonna get a little extra $$ from me.

So, bottom line, all is good, and we should be restored to pre-hurricane condition by mid-week.

 

Plus new brakes on both vehicles. :g

 

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6 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said:

Whew! So glad to hear such a positive report, Dan, even if it took a bunch of headache and worry to get there.

Thanks. Getting caught up on reporting of the effects at Fort Myers and Sanibel and feeling very fortunate that this beast didn't come ashore on the path I first posted.  The barn/apartment might not have survived and you can extrapolate the effects on the horses and possibly the family members living in the apartment.

As it is I am getting out for about $1500 cash out of pocket, including the new generator, not even close to the hurricane deductible.  And all the animals big and small are ok.

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