Complete Disaster Non-Preparedness: DC Grocery Stores Out of Food, Gas Unavailable

[Sammich]

An example of how things can get bad really fast no matter where you live. 2 million people are still without power. 3 day kits should be increased to 2 weeks minimum. Complete Disaster Non-Preparedness: DC Grocery Stores Out of Food, Gas Unavailable, Grid-Down As Summer Heat Rages After a short but unusually severe thunderstorm that roared through the D.C. area on Friday night, the entire Washington Metropolitan Area was thrown into chaos. Three days later, countless traffic lights are still out, hundreds of thousands of residents are without power, including myself, grocery stores and gas station are closed for lack of power, and the federal government is encouraging employees to telework. I received a message from PEPCO that most D.C.-area residents may not have power until next Friday at 11:00 pm – a full week after the storm hit. With temperatures this week set for the mid to upper-90s, that is a long time for residents to be with air conditioning, or fans, or refrigerators.

[rightwing401]

As shame that they have to endure such trials. As someone who lived through Katrina, I'm fully aware of how much of a nightmare the opressive heat can be without any source of artificial coolant, and how important it is to be well stocked should SHTF. Sadly, I'm sure quite a few of these folks were the kind that looked at the people in "Doomsday Preppers" and thought, "Man, what a bunch of fringe nutbags." Really hope there's a lot of reasonably generous individuals out there in the disaster zone that are willing to help out the elderly with food and keeping them cool.

[Sammich]

As shame that they have to endure such trials. As someone who lived through Katrina, I'm fully aware of how much of a nightmare the opressive heat can be without any source of artificial coolant, and how important it is to be well stocked should SHTF. Sadly, I'm sure quite a few of these folks were the kind that looked at the people in "Doomsday Preppers" and thought, "Man, what a bunch of fringe nutbags." Really hope there's a lot of reasonably generous individuals out there in the disaster zone that are willing to help out the elderly with food and keeping them cool. It also came out that emergency services were unavailable for 48 hours following the storm. That meant all of those unarmed anti-gun people in D.C. who dialed 911 hoping that government would save them from the criminals were greeted with a busy signal.

[LouCipherr]

Huh. No mention of West Virginia in that article? We were hit harder on the WV panhandle than MD, DC, PA or even Virginia. I was in our house in West Va when it hit - it sounded like a FREIGHT TRAIN tearing ass up the mountain seconds before it hit - and 20 seconds before it hit, it was as calm as you could imagine. No wind, no rain, no nothing but lightning. A huge, 100+ year old oak was snapped about 20 feet from the top - twisted right off (and the trunk was at least 20-22 inches in diameter) and if it wasn't for two small little maple trees right up against our back deck, the entire back side of my house and the entire back deck would've been ripped right off. It missed our deck by 4 inches at the most. Talk about LUCKY! Our house out there is an A-frame, so there is no attic. The only thing between you and falling trees is a layer of shingles, tar paper, a sheet of 3/4" plywood and some foam insulation! *shudders* The winds were easily 70mph+ and were steady the entire 30 minutes it hammered us up there. We lost power 30 minutes after we showed up and had to head home - which was the most spooky trip I've ever made. There were NO lights anywhere. No other cars. No street lights. No house lights. No stop lights - the entire city of Martinsburg was PITCH BLACK. Wanna talk about a place looking like the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse? Look no further than Martinsburg & Inwood, WV. Scary shit, man. In my 41 years of living, I've never seen winds or a storm like that. The news was saying it was a "Derecho" storm, but I call bullshit from what I saw on the radar. It was a "bow echo" storm: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bow_echo "Damaging straight-line winds often occur near the center of a bow echo. Wind speeds can reach up to 100 mph (160 km/h) and can produce a damage path extending for hundreds of miles. Bow echoes are capable of producing straight-line winds that are just as strong as many tornadoes. A strong bow echo will produce more widespread and intense damage than the majority of tornadoes. Also, bow echoes create a favorable environment for tornadoes to form." Here's a picture taken on 06/29/11 of the storm that hit us in WV: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Microburst_June_29th,_2012_Charleston,_WV.jpg That's an intimidating looking MOFO isn't it?! I'll post pictures of our downed tree next week - I'm heading up there tonight with chainsaw in hand to get working on it over the next few days. I'm glad mother nature saw to it that her maple tree was in the way of that mighty oak, or I would've been faaaaaaar beyond pissed. That would've been a destroyed house exactly one month to the day that we settled!

[Sammich]

I heard from a guy that said a city in W. Virginia shut off water service because the water company couldn't track water usage for billing due to the power being out. What shitty thing to do.

[Philly_SWAT]

Lou, I didnt know that you were in WV. I myself was born in Bluefield. Almost Heaven!

[Mike70]

a few years ago, the remnants of hurricane blew through here with winds that were still hurricane force. there were gusts at 100 miles an hour. nothing around here was built to withstand that. the power was off for over a week in some places because thousands of trees were blown down. almost 2 million people in SW Ohio alone were without power. there was no chaos or panic. what happened showed us that at times like that it is more important than ever to pull together. i lived in a small town when this happened and we weren't high on the list of the power company. some of the other men and i in our neighborhood took turns packing empty coolers in our cars and driving over 60 miles one way to some of the grocery stores in cincinnati and clermont county that had backup generators to get ice and basic supplies. i don't think i've ever been as proud of the people i lived around as i was that week. luckily, this was in late sept. and it was only in the lower 80s to upper 70s. one more reason everyone should own at least a small grill. you can cook on it or purify water if necessary and you don't need electricity. i worked in the aftermath of hurricane Andrew for 37 days and for the most part, the way those folks pulled together and conducted themselves is something that americans should be proud of. In the disaster situations i've seen (and i live in a place that tornadoes just love to death) people are far more likely to pull together and help each other out. i think we underestimate the "better angels of our nature" way too much. for most people the natural response to things like this is a more of a burning desire to help one another out as opposed to a burning desire to run wild in the streets. and to add one further thing: a complete disaster to me would be finding yourself locked in a hotel room with Halle Berry and nothing but a bottle of chocolate syrup - and then finding out the chocolate syrup was low fat and sugar free.

[LouCipherr]

I heard from a guy that said a city in W. Virginia shut off water service because the water company couldn't track water usage for billing due to the power being out. What shitty thing to do. OMG, if that's true, that's one of the shittiest moves i've ever heard a state/city pull. Unreal! In our community, we're on what they call a "public well" - we still pay for water, based on the meter out front, but we get it from a well that serves the entire community rather than city water pumped to the houses. We didn't lose water, so we were lucky - can't believe they pulled that kind of crap! Lou, I didnt know that you were in WV. I myself was born in Bluefield. Almost Heaven! Well, I only own a vacation home out on the panhandle (in Gerrardstown, about 7 miles southwest of Martinsburg) but I don't live there full time. I would love to, but a bit far from my work at the moment. I do, however, love the state. As with any state, some of the people leave something to be desired, but there's plenty of really nice people out there - and some fantastic scenery! We were just up there for the weekend and it came through almost as soon as we got there - not fun. -- -------- Post added 13-Jul-2012 at 02:44 PM ---------- Previous post was 09-Jul-2012 at 03:42 PM ---------- here's a few pictures of the tree that almost took out our deck and the corner of our house: From the deck: The tree that snapped (right side of the pic), showing how close it was: The poor maple tree that was torn to shreds but saved our ass (and our deck and house!) - thank you mother nature for growing that maple there!! A shot from the ground level: One more from ground level: Talk about a close call!! To be honest, the pictures don't do the size of the tree any justice whatsoever. Damn Elm trees. They're nice to look at, but weak as hell.

[Mike70]

Damn Elm trees. They're nice to look at, but weak as hell. thank dutch elm disease for that. ever notice how many of these anecdotal disaster stories start out like this: "i heard from a guy whose neighbor told him that his nephew said..."

[LouCipherr]

thank dutch elm disease for that. Well holy hell, Mike - I never knew anything about 'dutch elm disease' - but now that I look it up, in the words of CJ in Dawn04 - "Fu*king figures!" Thing is, this tree didn't look dead, rotten, or even like it was "suffering" - it just looked like a totally healthy tree that just got twisted in the wind. That being said, there are lots of Elms on our property that DO look like they've got "something" and quite a few of the branches (big ones at that) are dead as a door nail while the rest of the tree seem to be thriving ok at this point. Not sure how much longer that'll last though as most of them, if you look at the wiki page here look just like the picture labeled "An infected English elm at West Point, NY, July 2010" - one dead branch near the top while the rest of the tree "looks" like it's thriving. Shit. Anyone here do tree work in West VA? I got quite a few I need taken down!

[Mike70]

Well holy hell, Mike - I never knew anything about 'dutch elm disease' - but now that I look it up, in the words of CJ in Dawn04 - "Fu*king figures!" Thing is, this tree didn't look dead, rotten, or even like it was "suffering" - it just looked like a totally healthy tree that just got twisted in the wind. That being said, there are lots of Elms on our property that DO look like they've got "something" and quite a few of the branches (big ones at that) are dead as a door nail while the rest of the tree seem to be thriving ok at this point. Not sure how much longer that'll last though as most of them, if you look at the wiki page here look just like the picture labeled "An infected English elm at West Point, NY, July 2010" - one dead branch near the top while the rest of the tree "looks" like it's thriving. Shit. Anyone here do tree work in West VA? I got quite a few I need taken down! dutch elm disease is the worst thing to hit north american trees since the demise of the American Chesnut tree due to a blight that came over on a boat from asia. at one time there were billions of chestnut trees all over the eastern part of north america. they are almost extinct now with just a few hundred trees holding on. there were millions of them in ohio and now there are only 5 left in areas kept secret by the dept. of fish and wildlife. about 3 BILLION trees died in the chestnut blight. no, i'm not a tree hugger. i do a lot of hiking and am one of those people who hate not knowing things. so, i've learned to recoginze all the common tree types.

[LouCipherr]

dutch elm disease is the worst thing to hit north american trees since the demise of the American Chesnut tree due to a blight that came over on a boat from asia. at one time there were billions of chestnut trees all over the eastern part of north america. they are almost extinct now with just a few hundred trees holding on. there were millions of them in ohio and now there are only 5 left in areas kept secret by the dept. of fish and wildlife. about 3 BILLION trees died in the chestnut blight. no, i'm not a tree hugger. i do a lot of hiking and am one of those people who hate not knowing things. so, i've learned to recoginze all the common tree types. Well, thanks for passing on the information about the elms (and not the chestnut trees - I had no idea!). Amazing what you can learn when your house almost gets taken out by a tree! Mike, do you do tree work? Wanna come to West VA and help a brother out???

[Mike70]

Mike, do you do tree work? Wanna come to West VA and help a brother out??? nah. i'm just a geek who knows the difference between a maple and an oak. i also have a sense of amazement about nature sometimes. i've stood next to trees in california that were already old when the Roman Empire was at its height. it's also weird to think that the oak tree in my yard will probably still be there 500 years from now. you can tell how old the forest around your place is too just by what kind of trees are there. there is a hierarchy among trees. certain species start a forest and as it ages, they are replaced by the top dogs of the tree world (at least in the east). if there are lots of oaks, maples, poplars, hickory, beech, and ash trees, it's an old forest. to keep with the tin foil hat set, i think it's all a conspiracy between the oaks and maples who have finally settled their differences. first the chestnuts go. then the elms and now ash trees are under assault from a pest as well.

[LouCipherr]

nah. i'm just a geek who knows the difference between a maple and an oak. i also have a sense of amazement about nature sometimes. i've stood next to trees in california that were already old when the Roman Empire was at its height. it's also weird to think that the oak tree in my yard will probably still be there 500 years from now. Dammit. Well, ya can't blame me for trying.

[Mike70]

Dammit. Well, ya can't blame me for trying. if i did tree work, i'd probably be all up for it. those elm trees might give you a nasty surprise one day - the kind that tends to drive up insurance rates and make owners want to drink a gallon of moonshine then throw themselves down a well. and in your case, i would probably break my south of the ohio river rule. i usually do not walk south of the ohio river. i'm a north/northeast kind of guy and haven't ventured anywhere in the south in over 15 years. probably never will again. i don't even go into kentucky and i can see it from the hill that i live on. except for cutting through the I-471 shortcut to cincy, but you are only in kentucky for like 3 miles.