Some Useless Data
Same gas station price of a gallon of 87 octane: last Tuesday $3.489, last Friday $3.539, today $3.599. Last delivery of fuel to the station, last Tuesday. Your ‘free market’ in action.
Longitude along the northern Gulf Coast: Panama City – 85.7, me – 86.6, Pensacola – 87.2, Mobile – 88.0, Gulfport – 89.1, New Orleans – 90.0. Distance of one degree of longitude at Latitude 30.5 – 59 miles [96 kilometers]. This means that Mobile is about 118 miles from New Orleans because they are separated by 2 degrees of longitude.
I got my Mother’s generator fired up after getting gas, pumping up the tires, checking the oil. I have located all of the necessary 12-gauge extension cords that I use for the two 20 amp circuits, so if the power goes out, she has a small working air conditioner, her refrigerator won’t defrost, and she will have a reading light, etc.
All of the rechargeable stuff is charged, and there is an inverter for the car to take the load off the generator, if those devices that don’t have built in solar panels need recharging.
Water has been stockpiled, as has extra kibble for all cats feral and domestic. Food supplies have been verified.
Chainsaws have new chains, and there is an adequate supply of oil.
The Cherry Garcia has been purchased. I am ready.
18 comments
Stay safe, Bryan!
Safe is easy, Juanita, it’s sane that’s hard these days. 😉
Hang in there, friend! For your amusement, some old doggerel about Ben and Jerry’s and SlimFast, both owned by Unilever…
Stay safe, Bryan!
We were downgraded to Tropical Storm Warning status in the 4PM advisory, so it looks like it is lusting after the Big Easy on the anniversary of Katrina, about which I hope to write later … as soon as I find my stainless steel colander™.
it’s sane that’s hard these days.
Sane is hard to come by these days…with or without the stainless steel colander!
Who knew about Ben & Jerry’s/Slimfast unholy marriage? Corporations, jeez.
i always [heart] your doggerel, steve! and i didn’t know that about ben&jerry’s and slimfast.
as for the ice cream, great minds thinks alike, or almost alike. i decided at the last moment last night that i didn’t have enough cat litter after all, and of course i had to pick up some ice cream to make the trip worth it. guess what i had for supper tonight…
I always appreciate you sharing your disaster list, Bryan. Living out in earthquake country has made me aware of certain preps, but I am clueless what I would do with a hurricane/ tornado bearing down on me.
Stay dry and safe!
Conspiracy theories about hurricanes, Juanita … I mean, really, why does anyone listen to these people?
Unilever had a lot of cash, so instead of creating any jobs, they bought up existing companies to add to their conglomerate. They aren’t the worst corporation in the world, but they control too much of it in certain product lines.
Ice cream makes the time go quicker.
I noticed that the storm was almost due South of you at 10PM, Hipparchia. Still not a Hurricane, and it’s slowing, which will increase the storm surge. New Orleans’s new and improved system will get some real world testing.
We were posting at the same time, Ellroon.
I see the Imperial Valley had another cluster episode. Those were really unnerving – multiple hits in quick succession and you had no idea when or if the earth would stop trembling under your feet. I can plan and prepare for the storms, but earthquakes just happen.
yep, ivan [2004] was supposed to go to new orleans too, and veered over here at the last minute. at the very last minute – new orleans had done major evacuations, only to have a nothingburger of a rainstorm. i’ve always wondered how much that figured into the non-evacuations that didn’t happen for katrina [2005].
i’m cautiously hopeful that the mississippi river will get this one, but other than already eating the ice cream, i’m not coming out of hiding until that sucker makes landfall.
people from various other parts of the country sometimes ask me how i can stand to live in hurricane alley. let’s see… wildfires, earthquakes, mudslides, ice storms, tornadoes, avalanches, blizzards, dust storms… why would anybody live in any of those places?
speaking of storm surge, the nhc has provided me with a new toy this year – storm surge maps:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/033838.shtml?gm_psurge#contents
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/033838.shtml?gm_esurge#contents
At least they have blocked MRGO, which acted like a battering ram against the flood wall on the East side of the city, but there is going to be flooding with all of the rain forecast. The pumps only remove an inch the first hour, and ½ inch/hour afterward.
Yeah, I played with the maps. With that ridge building in and slowing the storm, the surge will be pushing into the bays for at least two high tides, and blocking the drainage from upstream, so there will be inland flooding in my north county and yours.
If this thing goes where they say, New Orleans will actually get higher winds than it had from Katrina. They should issue life vests and hole saws to people when they register to vote in the parish. The surrounding parishes are also in trouble if the rain forecast holds. The rain will be trapped by their levees, and they don’t have the pumps to get rid of it. At least the Mississippi is way down, so there is a lot of available storage for water.
As near as I can tell, Isaac has sucked in dry air and is so large that it can’t really intensify rapidly. Katrina expanded after it intensified, but Isaac’s wind field has been hundreds of miles across since the Caribbean.
Ivan got sucked over by a trough building in before landfall. There is a trough coming down, which is why the UKMET model has been well East of the others, but it isn’t having the influence the model thought it would. If Isaac had intensified in the southern Gulf, I would be waiting for it to come ashore here. Troughs don’t affect tropical storms as much as they do hurricanes.
The NHC forecasters are getting really annoyed with this storm. Let’s just hope the newest candidate to come off of the African coast doesn’t follow Isaac’s path. I want a break.
*Sets up her stainless steel colander stand* Just $10.95… But, for you — Free!
I hope you hovered over the ™ symbol and saw that I gave you credit, Аня, even though the link is dead.
i noticed it, and knew where the tm symbol was linked to even without hovering over the link!
so yesterday between storm bands, because i had already eaten all my hurricane ice cream, i went out and got a chocolate frosty root beer float at wendy’s drive-up window.
Well, there’s nothing like a hurricane for an excuse to indulge. Who wants to be washed out to sea with too few root beer floats consumed?
Yes, thank you, Bryan. I finally had to take Out, Standing In Her Field down because I burned out after Katrina and my ability to be outraged never recovered. The whole site was gathering dust.
So glad you made it through this storm, and hope they miss you and yours for the rest of the season.
🙂
You need a storm every so often to be sure that everything is still working and available if you need it. This weekend I’ll be pulling all of the ice packs out of the freezers and put things away until they are needed.
When I have the time I will make a few changes that I will need to deal with the fact that I’m older and can’t throw things around like I used to.
I use this as a controlled outlet for anger, and I have amassed a lot of it over the years.