Hurricane Laura

[Muzz]

Thinking of all you guys in the Texas and Louisiana areas (and those in front of wherever it decides to go).

Stay safe; our news indicates it ain't pretty!

[oldbike54]

 We have a few board members in the hard hit areas , check in please .

 Dusty

[delrod]

Bump. (did I do that right?)

[fotoguzzi]

Right now the eye is almost on El Dorado..  2:50CDT

[blackcat]

Potentially two more are headed across the Atlantic....

[Charles in Lake Charles]

I'm alive and well staying in a motel in Baton Rouge.

Will be checking to see if I still have a functioning house as soon as
they clear up some of the rubble.

Charles in Lake Charles.

[oldbike54]

 Thanks Charles .

 Dusty

[Muzz]

I'm alive and well staying in a motel in Baton Rouge.

Will be checking to see if I still have a functioning house as soon as
they clear up some of the rubble.

Charles in Lake Charles.

When I looked on the map on our news and saw "Lake Charles", you immediately sprang to mind Charles.  Our map showed it headed your way and you were in it's direct flight path.

Good to see you are all right and hopefully so is your house.

[davedel44]

Back in Galveston dodged the bullet.  Little wind 45mph very little rain.
Just heard from Mark Perry  Lafayette Guzziti are good.

[Tom]

Charles, good to hear that you're okay.  Anyone hear from Phil Grundy?

[rocker59]

I'm alive and well staying in a motel in Baton Rouge.

Will be checking to see if I still have a functioning house as soon as
they clear up some of the rubble.

Charles in Lake Charles.

    I hope it's not too bad, and can be cleaned up and repaired quickly.  Thanks for checking in.

[Phil/TX]

Phil here, we were lucky, the storm was 50 miles east of us, just a little wind. But my heart is out to Charles and all the people in LA, we know, as we survived Rita, Ike, and Harvey, all tough storms.

[twowheeladdict]

Thinking of all you guys in the Texas and Louisiana areas (and those in front of wherever it decides to go).

Stay safe; our news indicates it ain't pretty!

Not sure why coastal areas don't mandate certain construction standards to avoid damage from Hurricanes like earthquake prone areas have in place.  When Michael took out Mexico Beach a few years ago, one guy's Hurricane proof house remained intact while the rest got washed away. 





An interesting fact is those of us living in the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys need the remnants of tropical storms in order not to be in a drought this time of year. 

Our fields were getting crispy before this tropical season started delivering some rain our way.

[larrys]

Not sure why coastal areas don't mandate certain construction standards to avoid damage from Hurricanes like earthquake prone areas have in place.  When Michael took out Mexico Beach a few years ago, one guy's Hurricane proof house remained intact while the rest got washed away. 



 

They do today but only since the early 80's when FEMA was created. Still many pre-FIRM buildings in coastal flood zones. FIRM is FEMA's Flood Insurance Rate Maps. I manage a municipal building department in a coastal town. We have a thousand properties in coastal flood zones. Improvements to pre-FIRM buildings are limited unless the building is to be made a FEMA compliant flood resistant building. New construction in flood zones is strictly regulated. The houses in the photo are likely in a VE flood zone, being up on pilings like that. VE zones are the worst place to build, as FEMA describes a VE zone as "an area that is not only subject to flooding, but also subject to the destructive actions of waves."
Larry

[AJ Huff]

I find it's quite the contrast in news coverage and national attention between a category 4 hurricane in Iowa and a category 4 hurricane in Louisiana. Good luck to the areas in Laura's path with your cleanup 

-AJ

[oldbike54]

I find it's quite the contrast in news coverage and national attention between a category 4 hurricane in Iowa and a category 4 hurricane in Louisiana. Good luck to the areas in Laura's path with your cleanup 

-AJ

 Uh , when  did Iowa have a Cat 4 hurricane ? 

 Dusty

[AJ Huff]

August 10th. And you kind of proved my point Dusty. We had 140mph winds, 6 inches of rain, and $4 Billion dollars in damage and counting.

-AJ

[screamday]

August 10th. And you kind of proved my point Dusty. We had 140mph winds, 6 inches of rain, and $4 Billion dollars in damage and counting.

-AJ

Ya.....inland it's called a "Derecho". Never heard of that before the latest Iowa storm.

[GeorgiaGuzzi]

Ya.....inland it's called a "Derecho". Never heard of that before the latest Iowa storm.

When I heard Derecho my first thought was “straight”? What does that have to do with anything?” Turns out a lot. Hope y’all in the Midwest are able to hang in there and rebuild. Does crop insurance cover a derecho?

[old head]

we got a lot of rain and wind in Baton Rouge, but we dodged a bullet also.
My brother in northern LA not so lucky, he lost a few trees.

[John A]

When the nice looking weather lady in Minneapolis was reporting on the storm in Louisiana she called Lake Charles Charles lake a few times. Doesn’t take much to amuse me

[blackcat]

Not sure why coastal areas don't mandate certain construction standards to avoid damage from Hurricanes like earthquake prone areas have in place.  When Michael took out Mexico Beach a few years ago, one guy's Hurricane proof house remained intact while the rest got washed away. 

All new construction in Florida has to be built to those higher standards and it does add significant cost to constructing those homes. After Michael wiped out Mexico Beach the building standards for north Florida had to be raised to the same levels as South Florida with windows that can withstand 135? mile winds if I'm not mistaken. My house was built in 1928, single story brick/wood frame construction and it has withstood quite a few storms but I don't know how well it would do against a Cat 5 hurricane. The joke in our house is that if we evacuate it will be to the garage which was built to modern hurricane specs a few years ago, with threaded rods from the cement slab thru to the top wall plates at each corner of the building, also bracketing each window (three) and both garage doors along with imbedded steel straps from the slab to the king studs. The only week point in that garage is that the windows are not 135 mile windows but we are way past the barrier island and we are built on the highest spot around here which is good and bad, but we do not need flood insurance. 

And that Mexico Beach house cost a lot of money to build according to the owners, but that little town does not have a barrier island to diminish the impact of a storm and of course they built right along the water front. Older homes were just wiped out from the storm surge especially if they were on a slab. Shame, it was a very pretty little area, I haven't been back since the storm.

[PJPR01]

This was the 1 house left standing on the Bolivar Peninsula after Hurricane Ike.  The architect who built it apparently got a lot of new business when this was published on the front page of the Houston Chronicle.

We went down there the day after the hurricane, and took relief supplies with 10 Land Rovers in our Houston Land Rover club to the folks affected.

The destruction was total...months of clean up followed, similar issues on Galveston island, with 3-4 story high piles of debris collected for months afterwards.

[larrys]

This was the 1 house left standing on the Bolivar Peninsula after Hurricane Ike.  The architect who built it apparently got a lot of new business when this was published on the front page of the Houston Chronicle.

We went down there the day after the hurricane, and took relief supplies with 10 Land Rovers in our Houston Land Rover club to the folks affected.

The destruction was total...months of clean up followed, similar issues on Galveston island, with 3-4 story high piles of debris collected for months afterwards.



 

The architect shouldn't have gotten the kudos. The credit should have gone to the structural engineer who designed the foundation and support structure for the building and all of the structural details for the building. Architects just draw the pretty pictures. Engineers do the real structural design work.
Larry
Larry

[Texas Turnip]

Tyler, TX is 200 miles north of the gulf. All motels were full yesterday morning, yet we only got a few sprinkles. WOW did you see on the news were the long train was bload, blowed or is it blode off the tracks? Now that takes some force!
I was delivering to a pizza joint on Galveston Island a number of years ago and asked the owner about how expensive his insurance was. He said, no insurance as I always get a new place built after a hurricane.

Thanks to my Guzzi friends on the coast for checking in.
Tex

[PJPR01]

Good point, the engineer was the one to get the credit.  I was using the term generically not completely 100% per the definition of what each profession does. 

Either way, the house was the only one standing!  :)

[twowheeladdict]

They do today but only since the early 80's when FEMA was created. Still many pre-FIRM buildings in coastal flood zones. FIRM is FEMA's Flood Insurance Rate Maps. I manage a municipal building department in a coastal town. We have a thousand properties in coastal flood zones. Improvements to pre-FIRM buildings are limited unless the building is to be made a FEMA compliant flood resistant building. New construction in flood zones is strictly regulated. The houses in the photo are likely in a VE flood zone, being up on pilings like that. VE zones are the worst place to build, as FEMA describes a VE zone as "an area that is not only subject to flooding, but also subject to the destructive actions of waves."
Larry

Good information.  Thanks. 

[Tom]

This was the 1 house left standing on the Bolivar Peninsula after Hurricane Ike.  The architect who built it apparently got a lot of new business when this was published on the front page of the Houston Chronicle.

We went down there the day after the hurricane, and took relief supplies with 10 Land Rovers in our Houston Land Rover club to the folks affected.

The destruction was total...months of clean up followed, similar issues on Galveston island, with 3-4 story high piles of debris collected for months afterwards.

What about the buildings in the upper left of the photo.  The one with the yellow roof, is that a home too?

[wirespokes]

WOW did you see on the news were the long train was bload, blowed or is it blode off the tracks? Now that takes some force!

Ha hahaha
Actually, the correct word is 'blown'.

[Two Checks]

Not in the South! Bless their hearts.