Hurricane Irma

[101TUG]

for now in ST Lucia no more that 30kt wind

 

[Lou_tribal]

Following current forecast it should remain as is in St Lucia but should be a bit harder in Martinique, Dominique and Guadeloupe (60knots and up).

Hope this one will not knock to hard on the beautiful Martinique.

Stay safe!

L

 

[Planobilly]

Marathon

I was very lucky. I have no damage to my house. The pool fence was ripped out and I had to pump out the pool and remove a bunch of sand. Landscape issues but all in all very lucky. There is a three story building between me and the ocean so that protected me a lot. There is water and cell service but no power. I just spent the day there cleaning up and returned to my house in Homestead.

The house next door flooded and the house behind me was totaled out. The damage in Marathon is really bad. Boats sunk everywhere. Houses ripped apart. I had no reason to go across the seven mile bridge so I can not speak to the issues in Big Pine and further toward Key West.

I am beginning to feel like I did in Viet Nam....why did I survive when so many around me did not. I also feel sad because I have gotten to old to do much in the way of helping other people.

Best wishes to everyone for a speedy recovery. If there is anything I can do to help just ask.

Billy

 

[cardude01]

Billy

Great news! Glad you made it through fairly well. Sorry about the ones that didn't.

 

[101TUG]

Get friends a phone from Martinique Le Marin round 65kt there.
Here in St Lucia nothing that 30kt
now Maria CAT5 pass on dominica and Guadeloupe that going to be a disaster
I'm waiting swell go down and I'm going back to St Barth, a lot of boats trap every here.. I'm afraid many people going to lose boat again

this is tragedy this year, could you imagine BVI USVI again they going to take CAT5

Hugues

 

[Donsan]

Hope Hurricanes Irma and Maria haven't wiped out all my favorite rum distilleries.

A man has gotta have a drink ya know.

 

[Gmarr]

I just realized that I hadn't seen Donna online at all? How did she fare?

 

[BandB]

I just realized that I hadn't seen Donna online at all? How did she fare?

Wifey B: I had the same question and messaged her and no answer. Hope to hear from someone near her.

 

[BerettaRacer]

Hope Hurricanes Irma and Maria haven't wiped out all my favorite rum distilleries.

A man has gotta have a drink ya know.

Mt Gay rum comes out of Barbados, far enough south to miss everything, lol.

Ron Centenario is Costa Rica.

 

[cardude01]

Mt Gay rum comes out of Barbados, far enough south to miss everything, lol.



Ron Centenario is Costa Rica.

Centanario is my favorite rum. We got hooked on it when we had friends living in Nosara CR for 10 years-- we visited them often. [emoji57]

Pura Vida!

 

[BrianSmith]

Smartini rode out Irma in the Key West Bight Marina, secured as well as we could secure her. Only damage is where we rubbed pilings in two places, but until we get there (tomorrow), we won't know how that happened - we thought we were tied quite well bow and stern to keep us off those pilings.

We have 8 large inflatable fenders which were deployed all around the boat, but with winds as high as they were, I can imagine them flying out of position. In fact, in one of the pictures that's been sent to us by someone in KW, we can see one of them on the aft deck. Gonna have to figure out a way to keep them in place next time.

We're going back to check on the boat (which is our only home), move back aboard, and then find the best way we can help Key West (and maybe other keys) recover. We've got a chainsaw, work clothes, and time on our hands.

If anyone needs info on anyone or anything in Key West, please let me know, and we'll do our best to get it for you.

 

[cardude01]

Dang Brian, sorry about the damage. However, it could have been much worse!

Good luck during the recovery. Thanks for helping out others in need.

 

[BandB]

Sorry about your damage, Brian, but happy it still appears to be in livable condition. Do you have a watermaker?

We're hoping after Maria clears to be able to go to Key West by boat. It hit us during the hurricane as we realized that boats were in general much more self sufficient than houses.

 

[BandB]

Wifey B: Donna update from third party source.

Not a scratch on boat, some damage to house and computer didn't fare well but she's ok, just not in computer communication at the moment. So happy to hear.

 

[BerettaRacer]

Centanario is my favorite rum. We got hooked on it when we had friends living in Nosara CR for 10 years-- we visited them often. [emoji57]

Pura Vida!

In my old bar drinking days I was a Mt Gay fan.

Years ago I had to deliver a 130' Feadship from Ft Laud, thru the canal and up to San Diego. I think we did like 6 wks in Costa Rica, so I brought back 2 cases of Centenario Anejo Especial, just for medicinal purposes of course, lol
(Still have about 1/2 case left)

 

[BandB]

Dang Brian, sorry about the damage. However, it could have been much worse!

Good luck during the recovery. Thanks for helping out others in need.

Any update from you?

 

[cardude01]

In my old bar drinking days I was a Mt Gay fan.



Years ago I had to deliver a 130' Feadship from Ft Laud, thru the canal and up to San Diego. I think we did like 6 wks in Costa Rica, so I brought back 2 cases of Centenario Anejo Especial, just for medicinal purposes of course, lol

(Still have about 1/2 case left)

Wow. That's quite the delivery!

We really enjoyed Costa Rica. We stayed a month one summer and flirted with the idea of moving there. Then we remembered we had kids and responsibilities. [emoji23]

 

[BandB]

Never go through a hurricane alone

Wifey B: And if you can help, don't let others go through alone.

We had a whole gang of people with us and it was so reassuring. My hubby told me we'd be ok and just being told that and being held made me feel safe. However, in talking to and seeing people since the hurricane, one thing we've seen almost universally is those who went through it with family, with friends, with support did so much better. We've talked to, helped, been heavily involved with some singles, including a girl who had lost her father recently and was alone in Rockport, a single pregnant girl, and a young single mom here. We're heard from others first and second hand. It's just not a time to be alone. If something happens, no one there to help you. No one to share the fear with. And for a single mom worried about her young child, even more terrifying. We also have met and talked to a few elderly and saw the same to be true. Even the tough men who had been through many found it worse. We talked to one who his neighbor came and had come to his house and he was quick to say how much safer he felt.

We didn't think of it this time, our first hurricane. However, in the future we will and we're encouraging those singles who work of us to pair up or gang up as well. Even if you're in an evacuation zone and evacuating doing it with someone else is so much easier. We are helping a young single mom right now who ran to Savannah with her 3 year old daughter and went to a shelter there. Had she had just one friend with her it would have been a far different experience.

Just something we didn't think about before, but will next time.

 

[BrianSmith]

Sorry about your damage, Brian, but happy it still appears to be in livable condition. Do you have a watermaker?

We're hoping after Maria clears to be able to go to Key West by boat. It hit us during the hurricane as we realized that boats were in general much more self sufficient than houses.

We do have a watermaker, but I'm leery of using it the harbor. Maybe at high tide, so I 'm starting with clean water? Thoughts?

 

[Sailor of Fortune]

The company I work for has a tug, crane barge and material barge headed to key west to clear the main ship Chanel of sunk boats and debris. My little info on it is there are 19 picks at least

 

[sdowney717]

Smartini rode out Irma in the Key West Bight Marina, secured as well as we could secure her. Only damage is where we rubbed pilings in two places, but until we get there (tomorrow), we won't know how that happened - we thought we were tied quite well bow and stern to keep us off those pilings.

We have 8 large inflatable fenders which were deployed all around the boat, but with winds as high as they were, I can imagine them flying out of position. In fact, in one of the pictures that's been sent to us by someone in KW, we can see one of them on the aft deck. Gonna have to figure out a way to keep them in place next time.

We're going back to check on the boat (which is our only home), move back aboard, and then find the best way we can help Key West (and maybe other keys) recover. We've got a chainsaw, work clothes, and time on our hands.

If anyone needs info on anyone or anything in Key West, please let me know, and we'll do our best to get it for you.

How about running a line from fender bottom under the hull and tie off on other side or to another fender on the other side?

 

[BandB]

We do have a watermaker, but I'm leery of using it the harbor. Maybe at high tide, so I 'm starting with clean water? Thoughts?

Well, it may come down to what are your alternatives. There are special filters for harbor conditions. However, with no one running boats and no one fueling, the water should be decent and you can just check it. I assume you have a filter of some sort after your watermaker too.

 

[CDreamer]

Re: harbor water & high tide

I'd be concerned about the runoff, and what's introduced from that rain water, as sanitary lines, sewers, etc may have overflowed. eColi is remarkably resilient. I have a good friend who is very sick from being in floodwaters in Houston, trying to help others. I realize the situations are different. Just my .02...

 

[BandB]

Re: harbor water & high tide

I'd be concerned about the runoff, and what's introduced from that rain water, as sanitary lines, sewers, etc may have overflowed. eColi is remarkably resilient. I have a good friend who is very sick from being in floodwaters in Houston, trying to help others. I realize the situations are different. Just my .02...

Illness in Houston is a major concern of mine and it won't all be immediate. There will be a long term health impact and we won't really know for a long time or may never know how much. You don't just take a bucket of soapy water and wash away all the impact of the flood.

 

[CDreamer]

Not to hi-jack the discussion of making water, but I think this is important for anyone impacted by Irma. I had 18" of water in my house during the Harvey rain event.
After complete tear-out, the mold remediation company has done a great job, drying out the remaining structure and spraying. But I've also used a kit I ordered from Biocide Labs that "fogs" the house and a/c system with a hospital grade biocide that will kill anything from mold to H1N1 to HIV to eColi. It goes where sprays can't. Then a complete (3rd) spray-down inside, and a 400 cfm scrubber that filters the air for 2 days with multiple HEPA filters. That traps the released mold spores.
Obviously I'm mostly focused on mold prior to closing up walls, but that rain water soup contained God-knows-what, from human and animal waste to chemicals from everyone's garages.

That's what eventually runs off the streets into the bays, rivers and lakes. I don't know whether a boat's water maker membrane can filter at that level...maybe it can. I can tell you that City of Houston has bumped the chlorination in the water system.
Several young doctors - friends of my children - spent a week volunteering at the main shelters. Cuts and abrasions and fast-moving infections were a large % of what they were treating for, with some pretty serious antibiotics.

I certainly hope the island nations apply some of their recovery funds to health care.

 

[BandB]

Not to hi-jack the discussion of making water, but I think this is important for anyone impacted by Irma. I had 18" of water in my house during the Harvey rain event.
After complete tear-out, the mold remediation company has done a great job, drying out the remaining structure and spraying. But I've also used a kit I ordered from Biocide Labs that "fogs" the house and a/c system with a hospital grade biocide that will kill anything from mold to H1N1 to HIV to eColi. It goes where sprays can't. Then a complete (3rd) spray-down inside, and a 400 cfm scrubber that filters the air for 2 days with multiple HEPA filters. That traps the released mold spores.
Obviously I'm mostly focused on mold prior to closing up walls, but that rain water soup contained God-knows-what, from human and animal waste to chemicals from everyone's garages.

That's what eventually runs off the streets into the bays, rivers and lakes. I don't know whether a boat's water maker membrane can filter at that level...maybe it can. I can tell you that City of Houston has bumped the chlorination in the water system.
Several young doctors - friends of my children - spent a week volunteering at the main shelters. Cuts and abrasions and fast-moving infections were a large % of what they were treating for, with some pretty serious antibiotics.

I certainly hope the island nations apply some of their recovery funds to health care.

Great post. This is the hidden destruction of Harvey and of other places that have flooded. Houston had everything in the water from bacteria to toxic chemicals. Many people will not be doing thorough remediation of their homes as you are doing. I have some knowledge of industrial remediation from small issues to major ones like lead smelters. What needs to be done in Houston is far beyond the scope most are aware of and beyond anything that practically can be done. For that reason, Harvey will be with us for years. There will be patients seen 20 years from now where doctors ask if they were in Harvey or if they live in an area that was struck by Harvey.

Just an example of how things might occur. Retinal specialists started running into "macular degeneration" in the late 70's and early 80's in younger people than is common who lived or had lived in coastal Alabama, especially in the Mobile area. Many had laser surgery and lost vision in at least one eye. It was some time before they determined it wasn't macular degeneration but was histoplasmosis. More research saw many other conditions linked. Pulmonary conditions are very common in that same population and actually the most common condition caused by histoplasmosis. All caused by a fungus.

You're focusing on mold because it's what you can detect and hopefully by getting it, you'll get other threats as well.

I hope medical care is emphasized in these other areas too. When you've had so much water rushing through there is no such thing as a minor cut or even a common cold as everything must be looked at differently. And at the same time the exposure is heightened, the ability to achieve good personal sanitary care is impossible. In a normal environment, if you get exposed to a toxic chemical you immediately hit the showers and get clean and then treated. You sterilize all areas impacted. However, in these conditions the exposure continues and the ability to clean is very low.

You pointed out the hidden threat to many, but the threat that may be the most long lasting and ultimately cost the most in human suffering and lives.

 

[101TUG]

Marina Fort Louis in ST Martin under Iram
Around 12' of tide

 

[BrianSmith]

The company I work for has a tug, crane barge and material barge headed to key west to clear the main ship Chanel of sunk boats and debris. My little info on it is there are 19 picks at least

I might be able to count 19 from our slip in the Key West Bight Marina. Go over to the Garrison Bight, where the big mooring field is, and there are at least another dozen. It's an absolute mess down here.

 

[BrianSmith]

How about running a line from fender bottom under the hull and tie off on other side or to another fender on the other side?

A bit of a challenge, perhaps, but if it held the fenders in place and prevented all the dock rash we got, I'd have been happy to do it! Good idea to remember for next time.

 

[Sailor of Fortune]

I might be able to count 19 from our slip in the Key West Bight Marina. Go over to the Garrison Bight, where the big mooring field is, and there are at least another dozen. It's an absolute mess down here.

The original 19 boats were contracted to be cleared out of the channel so cruise ships could transit has been completed (I'm getting second hand info from others). The gov't contracted for our equipment to keep clearing wrecks/sunk boats for a specified time and dollar amount. I think they will be in the Keys for a while. Lots of our employees live in Florida so its personal,me included.