Ed_Wischmeyer
Well Known Member
There’s a strange feel to the air – and it’s not the hazy, unusually cool air from a weak cold front that just came through. There’s a deliberate quiet, a quiet resolve, a studied anticipation, like waiting in the hospital at 5 AM for your name to be called for cancer surgery.
Irma is what’s about to happen, a mandatory evacuation order that starts in two days, one way flow on the freeways out of Savannah, and each individual’s preparations. My house is on an island with two roads to it, each maybe two feet above high tide. There are trees all over the island, many of which bowed low to Hurricane Matthew or maybe to a small tornado that it spawned. Power goes out frequently, and Matthew took out the power for nearly a day. I will evacuate, mandatory or not.
If the big pine tree next door takes aim at my house, it’s game over. If there are roof leaks, I’ve got many things covered that I’ll want to keep dry, with photos and valuables in the closet in the center of the house. Valuable papers and the laptop will go with me. The garage / shop is two feet lower than the house, and if the storm surge is only single digits deep, the shop should stay dry. If not, some of the low-lying shelves and drawers have been emptied. Some of them.
The hangar is rated for 75 MPH winds, but a category 3 hurricane, anticipated, has winds of 111-129 MPH. Some of the valuables in the hangar are in tubs, some are in the back of the car, and some will tough it out in the hangar, covered with plastic drop cloths or trash bags.
A friend is going to fly the RV-9A to safety, somewhere, and I took it down to fill it up at the gas pits this morning. It started at the ridiculously low RPM that it always does and took 22 gallons. Then it wouldn’t start and had to be towed back to the hangar. The Bendix in the starter motor had died. Not to fear, another friend will be going to another airport tomorrow and will borrow the starter motor off an RV-7 under construction and do the surgery tomorrow.
I’ll be taking the RV-8 from Savannah to Knoxville to visit my sister, Saturday if the weather allows, tomorrow afternoon if I have to. Both planes were pre-flighted today, oil checked, etc., to avoid last minute surprises. Almost worked. Almost.
When do I come home? When the power is back on, the roads are passable and I have a place to park the airplane. Hopefully, the hangar will survive, and it will be almost like Christmas, opening all the tubs of randomly packed goodies aeronautical. And there will, I hope, be a different feel in the air, tinged with loss, no doubt, but looking forward and with a different kind of anticipation.
CHECK THAT: Latest forecast is that Irma might be headed for Knoxville. Do I know anybody in Alabama or Mississippi?
Irma is what’s about to happen, a mandatory evacuation order that starts in two days, one way flow on the freeways out of Savannah, and each individual’s preparations. My house is on an island with two roads to it, each maybe two feet above high tide. There are trees all over the island, many of which bowed low to Hurricane Matthew or maybe to a small tornado that it spawned. Power goes out frequently, and Matthew took out the power for nearly a day. I will evacuate, mandatory or not.
If the big pine tree next door takes aim at my house, it’s game over. If there are roof leaks, I’ve got many things covered that I’ll want to keep dry, with photos and valuables in the closet in the center of the house. Valuable papers and the laptop will go with me. The garage / shop is two feet lower than the house, and if the storm surge is only single digits deep, the shop should stay dry. If not, some of the low-lying shelves and drawers have been emptied. Some of them.
The hangar is rated for 75 MPH winds, but a category 3 hurricane, anticipated, has winds of 111-129 MPH. Some of the valuables in the hangar are in tubs, some are in the back of the car, and some will tough it out in the hangar, covered with plastic drop cloths or trash bags.
A friend is going to fly the RV-9A to safety, somewhere, and I took it down to fill it up at the gas pits this morning. It started at the ridiculously low RPM that it always does and took 22 gallons. Then it wouldn’t start and had to be towed back to the hangar. The Bendix in the starter motor had died. Not to fear, another friend will be going to another airport tomorrow and will borrow the starter motor off an RV-7 under construction and do the surgery tomorrow.
I’ll be taking the RV-8 from Savannah to Knoxville to visit my sister, Saturday if the weather allows, tomorrow afternoon if I have to. Both planes were pre-flighted today, oil checked, etc., to avoid last minute surprises. Almost worked. Almost.
When do I come home? When the power is back on, the roads are passable and I have a place to park the airplane. Hopefully, the hangar will survive, and it will be almost like Christmas, opening all the tubs of randomly packed goodies aeronautical. And there will, I hope, be a different feel in the air, tinged with loss, no doubt, but looking forward and with a different kind of anticipation.
CHECK THAT: Latest forecast is that Irma might be headed for Knoxville. Do I know anybody in Alabama or Mississippi?
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