July

[Ladyelaine]

A cooling thought - the days are now getting shorter and that means winter is on the way.  Wheeee!!!

[sunshine]

LOL...I wish! We have a long way to go.

[Ladyelaine]

Long ways, yes. We must survive hurricane season first.

[sunshine]

I thought of you...hope you are well prepared.

[takncarabizniz]

Be safe, stay cool!

[emilyB]

Cooler weather couldn't come quicker for me having survived an unheard of heatwave here getting up to 115 degrees.  Happy Fourth everyone.

[Ladyelaine]

Thank you for your thoughts Sunshine. The spaghetti models have the storm coming inland & directly through here. As the crow flies, I'm about 38 miles inland from the Gulf in the big bend area.
My largest concerns - I could lose about $200 worth of food in my freezer (that has happened before & was a real mess to clean up and disinfect)  and there are 2 oak trees that could uproot and totally obliterate my house. As for preparations, I know I will lose power due to downed trees & power lines and hoping outages wont last long but know it could last 2 weeks or so.  Without electricity my water pump, AC, cordless phone, TV, microwave, and refrigerator are useless.   I have a small generator but am not strong enough to pull the rope to start it. As for preparations, today I'm filtering water & funneling it into small bottles I've saved for drinking water and putting up unfiltered water in milk & bleach jugs to use for hand washing and toilet flushing. I have a hand operated can opener & canned goods to eat and have stocked up on flashlight batteries. Not much else I can do other than hope & pray the storm dissipates and eliminates the misery potential for people in Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina.

[emilyB]

Certainly worrying for you Ladyelaine.  Do hope you will be ok.  As if this past year hasn't been enough to bear.  We are now having the fire warnings again.  Praying everyone stays safe.

[Ladyelaine]

Thank you for the prayers Emily; am keeping those in fire danger in mine; have several family members in  California fire areas.  I'm now under a state of emergency storm warning to expect wind gusts of 40 mph this afternoon and to prepare for long lasting time period of 58 to 73 mph sustained winds beginning about 2 AM. Some forecast models indicate this long lasting storm may re-intensify and travel all the way up the eastern seaboard to Nova Scotia.

[emilyB]

Stay safe Ladyelaine!  I really don't know anywhere in the USA where you can avoid all these elements of nature that are so nerve wracking.  We went through two major earthquakes in California and sustained a lot of damage and loss both times.  I thought when we moved to Oregon that I wouldn't have to worry about that anymore.  Wrong!  All they are talking about now is the 600 mile Cascadia Subduction Zone that runs all up the west coast and is long overdue for a major quake.  Nobody can predict where it will actually rupture.  That's the trouble with earthquakes - there are no prior warnings - they just hit! 

https://www.oregon.gov/oem/hazardsprep/Pages/Cascadia-Subduction-Zone.aspx

[Ladyelaine]

I wasn't aware of the timeline for that fault. It sure makes my seasonal hurricanes and occasional sinkholes less fearsome.

[sunshine]

How did it go down there, Lady? It's missing us big time after initially reporting we would get up to 3-4 inches of rain. Lucky to get a trace of rain now.