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Preparing for Irma

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?
 
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Best of luck Ed.
Sounds like you prepared as well as you can.
If you have lots of gas... you can always park in our Prescott hangar !!
Hang in there... nick
 
CHECK THAT: Latest forecast is that Irma might be headed for Knoxville. Do I know anybody in Alabama or Mississippi?

Well, you can (know someone in MS, that is..).

Slobovia Outernational, just north of Jackson MS. I've got room for at least two RVs, and we have two spare bedrooms, if needed.

Anyone needing to head this far north & west, PM me or email me at [email protected]

Charlie
 
Scary. I can't imagine the feeling... Best of luck with everything and I'll be keeping you and everyone affected by Irma in my thoughts and prayers.
 
I'm not far from you Ed... about a half-mile to the west of I-95. Best of luck to everyone... this could be a bad one.
 
Thanks to VAF, my RV is now safely hangared in Raleigh and I am catching a flight back to TPA. Will feel much better knowing my "baby" is safe. I thought relocating it may be overkill, but with the new forecast models now, I am glad I did.

Thanks to everybody that offers up space for people affected.

Chris
 
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House is buttoned up, hangar as secure we could make it, plane fueled and ready for an early morning departure. We are heading to stay with two of the best people I know in Conroe, TX. Mojo now has 99.9 hours on th Hobbs and is looking forward to exercising her IO390 on her second trip to the lone star State in 2 months. Fingers crossed we come back to minimal damage.
 
Here's hoping for the best for you all. Spent my day getting spares for the sump pumps and redirecting downspouts to help keep the basement dry, as we might get a bit of rain out of all this. Pretty sure the plane can stay here in the hangar for this, but will watch it.

Prepare yourself for the lack of info after the fact. Like Turbo, we are blessed to spend a lot of time on a sunny island, thanks to a family home down there. The lack of communication after the fact has been excruciatingly painful. After scouring the internet all day, finally got some pictures from the island:

https://twitter.com/anniken__/status/905856259525668864

Many fun nights of community bingo in that collapsed pavilion. :( No word yet on if the house survived, luckily all of the family was off island. Being part of the younger generation, and mostly unencumbered with other obligations right now, it will be my job to head down once the airport opens to survey what is left.
 
Opportunity to make new friends in Alabama.

Ed,

I can give you the same offer as Charlie. You may not know me yet, but I can offer hanger space at Huntsville International (HSV) for as long as you need it. I also have a spare bedroom.

Brian
 
Yesterday I went to put gas in the RV-9A, did that, and then the engine wouldn't turn over. Starter motor. My friend Mike borrowed a starter from an RV-7 under construction when he was at another airport, then discovered that that starter was the same as on the -9A. Mine had a busted shear pin, but there were two spare shear pins on my starter, and one of those did the trick. He also found that my starter was missing a jumper for 12 volt operation. He borrowed the jumper from the other starter motor, and now the G3X ADHRS stays on line during engine start. A friend will fly it out tomorrow -- I get the airplane moved, he doesn't have to drive to evacuate. And the insurance company will reimburse him (me) up to $500.

Meanwhile, I was considering my RV-8 options. Got it filled up, got the house taken care of, had a good nap in the hangar after all the running around and was considering my options. Good flying weather this afternoon, probably good tomorrow morning. But come tomorrow morning, I'd have no good alternatives -- heavy traffic, not much gas available, no place to go, etc. So I left this afternoon, had a nice flight, and am in Knoxville till Monday -- when Irma will have tracked me down.
 
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