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Thread: Hurricanes - What would you do?

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    Hurricanes - What would you do?

    Well, been watching with gritted teeth the hurricanes hitting the USA over the weekend (my kids are with their dad in Michigan at moment) and i asked myself, what would i do if i lived there and i had been given an absolute warning that we were going to be hit.

    I came to the conclusion that i would stay put and try to protect my property and my family if i had a basement.

    I am so worried for those people over there now, how frightening it must be and how awful.

    What would you do?

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    Re: Hurricanes - What would you do?

    I think ones own life, that of ones friends, loved ones and the people who would feel obliged to rescue you, if you stayed, are more important than property

    So very reluctantly; I would follow the advice of the experts and evacuate, this time they have had time to consider the situation,


    As you say it must be awful, to leave your home knowing, it might not be there when you return

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    Formerly known as DavidJames David Bailey's Avatar
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    Re: Hurricanes - What would you do?

    Quote Originally Posted by Trouble View Post
    I came to the conclusion that i would stay put and try to protect my property and my family if i had a basement.
    Staying in the basement is possibly not the best choice when the main danger is flooding...

    Quote Originally Posted by Trouble View Post
    What would you do?
    I'd secure my real valuables, then get out of town as directed.

    I also wouldn't vote Republican ever again. But then I never would...

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    Basically lazy robd's Avatar
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    Re: Hurricanes - What would you do?

    I think it's very difficult to know whether what you say you might do when not actually in that situation would match what you actually would do if your home was a few feet deep in rancid flood water. I had a dream on Saturday night that a house I was living in (it wasn't the same as the house I actually do live in which is weird in itself) suddenly flooded before I had any chance to react, move items upstairs, etc, etc The dream itself was disturbing enough, I can't begin to imagine how awful it must be for those that experience it for real.

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    Re: Hurricanes - What would you do?

    Beach party for me with some pics for the forum

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    Re: Hurricanes - What would you do?

    get my kite out of the attic, Maybe ill be able 2 get it off the ground for once!

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    Re: Hurricanes - What would you do?

    It's pretty hard to get what a hurricane is really like. A hurricane is an intense low pressure zone. The air rushes into to this low pressure zone, causing the incredibly high wind speeds. A Cat-3 storm has sustained wind speeds in excess of 175 KPH. A Cat-5 storm will exceed 250 KPH. In a Cat-5 storm, everything short of a reinforced bunker would be at risk of being destroyed. In residential houses the pressure differential (high pressure in the house; low pressure outside) tends to lift roof up. The wind gets under the lifted roof and throws at the neighbour's house. Without the roof, the house is destroyed. A basement stands more chance of surviving, but I wouldn't bank on it. It might also be interesting trying to get out - depending on the amount of debris around. Your presence wouldn't make much difference to whether the storm decided to level your house.

    Hurricanes form over water - they need deep, warm water to form. Because of the low pressure and the cyclic force, they lift the water under them. For Cat-3, this is around 3 meters. For Cat-5, it's over five meters. When the storm hits land, it carries all this water on to the land. In addition, the warm water gets pulled up to the clouds to produce intense rain through-out the storm. This produces an effect like a localised tsunami - huge volumes of water carried onto the waterfront then tries to rush back out to sea. One of the problems in New Orleans is the water was carried over the floor protection and then couldn't drain back out. On top of that the rain flooded the river.

    In Florida, all important public buildings - fire and ambulance stations, command and control for emergency services, and police HQ - are bunkers. They're single story, reinforced, dug into the ground, and almost windowless. Despite this, the counties have a joint response plan to any emergency. The county that's hit is expected to be wiped out and unable to provide emergency resources.

    I've been through a few small Cat-1 and Cat-2 storms - these aren't really hurricanes, but they're pretty intense. A well build building should survive quite easily. If the storm could reach Cat-5, and if I were close to the coast - less than 5 KM - I'd run. If it's a Cat-5 storm, then nothing is guaranteed to survive. If I were more than 5 KM from the coast, I'd stay if I had a reinforced bunker to stay in.

    Things are nice and all, but you have to be alive to enjoy them. And if a storm wants to break something, it usually does. Regardless of whether people are there or not.

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    Senior Member rubyred's Avatar
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    Re: Hurricanes - What would you do?

    I would get out and leave the area, and make sure that my family left with me. Does anyone know about insurance if you lived in a place where hurricanes happened frequently, is there such a cover or is it an 'act of God'? That would probably make a difference to what I considered valuable, however I would take what was sentimental to me.
    It was spooky looking at New Orleans on the news its a bit like a ghost town, you half expect the dust and the bits of grass to blow across the screen like in the spaghetti westerns.
    if you love the life you live then you'll get a lot more done

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    Re: Hurricanes - What would you do?

    Quote Originally Posted by rubyred View Post
    Does anyone know about insurance if you lived in a place where hurricanes happened frequently, is there such a cover or is it an 'act of God'?
    Insurance in Florida - the most frequently hit state - is relatively high because of the cost of hurricanes. The presumption is that you will get hit at some point, with damage ranging from minor (windows and exterior) to major (rebuilding). The actuarial calculations take this into account, making premiums very high.

    Most Florida houses are low: single story with a low pitch to the roof. They tend to build without any overhang on the roof and small, strong windows.

    This is one of the causes behind the mortgage crisis: people with money bought second (winter) homes in Florida, causing a housing boom. However, even if the house is fully paid off, a lot of people can't afford the insurance so have had to sell up. A friend's house there was valued at about 600K three years ago; it's now valued at closer to 200k.

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    Re: Hurricanes - What would you do?

    Quote Originally Posted by geoff332 View Post


    I've been through a few small Cat-1 and Cat-2 storms - these aren't really hurricanes, but they're pretty intense.
    CAT 1 and 2 are grades of Hurricanes

    Category One Hurricane: Winds 74-95 mph (64-82 kt or 119-153 km/hr).
    Category Two Hurricane : Winds 96 to 110mph

    These have to be maximum sustained winds not gusts

    So our storms 1987 October Jan 1990 although had gust close to 100mph didnt have sustained windspeeds much above 69

    People with a interest may want to have a look on here


    Hurricane Gustav Pt II - Netweather Forum - UK and Worldwide Weather Discussion

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    Registered User Lynn's Avatar
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    Re: Hurricanes - What would you do?

    Its down to a Category 2 now but that still means pretty strong winds, around 100mph. Have heard 2 million people have been evacuated from the state of Lousiana.

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    Re: Hurricanes - What would you do?

    Quote Originally Posted by geoff332 View Post
    Insurance in Florida - the most frequently hit state - is relatively high because of the cost of hurricanes.

    This is one of the causes behind the mortgage crisis:
    The change of a Cat 5 hurricane hitting anywhere in mainland USA is about once every 500yrs. Lower cat will of course be more frequent.

    To suggest part of the current mortgage crises is due to hurricanes and linked to Insurance is likely suggesting last years floods are linked to people not getting a mortgage this year in the uk

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    Re: Hurricanes - What would you do?

    Quote Originally Posted by Lynn View Post
    Its down to a Category 2 now but that still means pretty strong winds, around 100mph. Have heard 2 million people have been evacuated from the state of Lousiana.
    First time 99% of them will have been outside of their home town

    I heard it was just one extended family , therefore cira 2 million sounds about right

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    Re: Hurricanes - What would you do?

    Quote Originally Posted by stewart38 View Post
    The change of a Cat 5 hurricane hitting anywhere in mainland USA is about once every 500yrs. Lower cat will of course be more frequent.
    Three hurricanes rated Cat-5 at landfall have hit the continental States since 1928 - the Labour Day Hurricane in 1938 (admittedly, that hit the Keys), Camille went up the Mississippi in 1968 and Andrew bashed Florida in 1992. Prior to 1928, Cat-5 didn't exist to classify storms, but one suspects that 1938 wasn't the first big storm to hit the US. I'm not sure where you got the 500 year figure from, but by my count, that's less than once every 30 years.

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    Re: Hurricanes - What would you do?

    Quote Originally Posted by geoff332 View Post
    Three hurricanes rated Cat-5 at landfall have hit the continental States since 1928 - the Labour Day Hurricane in 1938 (admittedly, that hit the Keys), Camille went up the Mississippi in 1968 and Andrew bashed Florida in 1992. Prior to 1928, Cat-5 didn't exist to classify storms, but one suspects that 1938 wasn't the first big storm to hit the US. I'm not sure where you got the 500 year figure from, but by my count, that's less than once every 30 years.
    Yeah - but those were the only 3 in the last 2000 years (excluding the one in August of 1794 which was rated at between 4.95 and 5.12 and which blew away a saloon bar in Watsonville, Wyoming. (The measurement then were a bit 'iffy'). Of course, this was before Florida had been created and reclaimed from the sea.

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    Cool Re: Hurricanes - What would you do?

    What would I do?

    After having my wooden home blown away for the umpteenth time, I would stop building houses out of wood and take a 'three little pigs' approach. Like this perhaps

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    Re: Hurricanes - What would you do?

    When I was in the army stationed in Belize we had a hurricane, very frightening we basically strapped a building to the ground and everyone went in it.

    When the American firemen were trying to move residents out of their property in front of forest fires loads of people refused to leave their homes so the firemen gave them body bags.

    Life or property?
    Not a hard choice really.

    DTS XXX XXX

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    Re: Hurricanes - What would you do?

    Me?
    I wouldn't be stupid enough to choose to live in an area that's prone to regular natural disasters.

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