JimH wrote:
We had wind gusts up to 75 mph from Ike Monday night. The storm took
out old standing oak trees, amongst others, as well as large sections
of large tree brances and trunks.

Our suburb, along with all surrounding suburbs, looked like war zones
the next morning with fallen trees over power lines, house and roads.
2 large trees took down 3 utility poles and power lines feeding our
(and many other) ever though our lines are underground. Needless to
say I was 10th in line at Costco Monday morning to purchase a portable
generator as we had no idea how long the power outage would last (and
we have suffered through too many in the past). Portable generators
could not be found through any source by noon that day.

Some 350,000 folks in Greater Cleveland lost power as well as hundreds
of thousands (perhaps over a million) in Columbus and across the rest
of the State. We lost power for 24 hours and were lucky to get it
restored so fast. Parts of the State (including parts of Clevleland
and Columbus) will not be restored till the weekend.

My neice living in Texas took the brunt of the storm (although she is
in middle Texas) and does not expect power to be restored to her house
till the end of the month.

As I said before in another thread the footprint of this hurricane was
tremendous. As a result it made a major hit across an entire State as
far north as Ohio.

Ike was one nasty storm!

Monday *night*? It messed with us around 3 Monday *morning*. That's when
we lost power. We didn't get it back until 11am Tuesday. We also lost a
third of an old weeping willow in the back yard and a few shingles from
the barn roof, but little damage other than that. I'm thankful it wasn't
a couple of days quicker than that. My nephew was married on Saturday in
our hayfield, selected because of the view of the valley to the east.
There were tents, of course, and they definitely wouldn't have survived.
As it was the portable facilities hadn't been picked up yet, and they,
uh, were no longer right side up. (Good thing he hadn't wanted our front
yard for a location!)

We didn't get any rain to speak of, but one spot east of Lake Ontario
clocked a wind gust in excess of 90 mph. A wind farm site near here
clocked a peak gust of 56mph. The newspaper article explained that the
high winds were caused by the remnants of Ike combining with a strong
cold front moving through the area.

We've had a generator since shortly after the Labor Day storm I
described in another thread. It was enough to keep refrigerators and
freezers cold, but not really enough extra for anything else. However,
we could get water from a spring about four miles away, and I hooked up
an old seven-inch Sony TV to the sealed lead-acid battery I use for my
portable fish finder. (Note to self: Start looking for a digital TV
converter that runs on a 12V wall wart!) Our propane stoves don't need
electricity to run, and while it was cold enough at night to want some
heat, our furnace doesn't rely on electricity, either. It was really
nothing more than an inconvenience, but it was damned annoying.

But the most annoying part came when I got power back, and with it
Internet service. When I checked in here, I found the Unspeakable One
had changed his handle, and I see another flood of crap showing up from
him. Worse mess than the tipped outhouses made. Now I have to update my
killfile - again. Sigh.

TJ