regarding storm surge … I worked the area south of New Orleans after Katrina down to Venice, around Boothville or Empire hung in tree about twenty feet off the ground was the body of a horse, it stayed there all the months I was up and down that road … and that area was not the worst for storm surge
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@pAin’t_Misbehavin’, I really struggled last night when I was at the barn, thinking about whether my pony should go in or stay out. I am sticking with my decision to have him in the barn. He has never been in a hurricane as far as I know, and I’m afraid he would panic and hurt himself badly, or get hit by debris. Also, though the pasture there isn’t likely to flood too deep, still, he’s short. I would never forgive myself if he drowned in his pasture. He might still panic in a stall, but would have less opportunity of hurting himself. The barn is block halfway up, and I think the chance of it being damaged enough to endanger him is less than the chance of him being injured outside. I must confess, I cried on him a little last night. I hope he will be OK, and all the humans and animals there as well.
I’m not too worried for us, at least if the track stays north of us. We are 4-5 miles inland and we are 35 feet above sea level. We are not in an evacuation zone. We are about as prepared as we can be. I did underestimate how quickly gas lines would form (I’ll know better next time), but actually was able to pull right up to the pump at a gas station coming back from the barn last night, and my husband went out early this morning to the same place I used last night, and had the same experience. We knew we had quite a bit of gas in the boat tanks that we could have used if we hadn’t been able to get gas, but now both cars and the boat tanks are full. Propane canisters are topped up.
Best of luck to everyone in the path of the storm!
Rebecca
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Jim Cantore, the Weather Channels prophet of doom, landed in Wilmington, NC today. Forecast is now Cat 3 Friday afternoon at Wilmington, and the model is now tracking the inland track is much more west, and expected to stall out on the coastline from Friday to Saturday, and the main hurricane is expected to wreck it’s way down to SC by Sunday. They are also now predicting up to 30" in the Wilmington area.
Rebecca, I’m praying for you and your DH and pony - please do the same for us!
I had a word with my beasties as well and made them promise not to spazz any more than they could help.
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I’m praying for all you guys and your critters. Please stay safe and give yourselves time to evacuate if you think you should!
I’m northwest of Tryon and the forecast keeps changing on out rain amounts. One place says 8+, the other 2 to 3. I know we’ve had quite a bit of rain lately and it’s not going to take much for flooding and wind to bring trees down.
Polk county, Tryon, and that area had serious mudslides earlier this spring and surely don’t need that much rain again.
Wren-People think because the forecasts are sometimes less of a storm than predicted, or nothing bad happened before, that nothing will happen now. I think they just get used to hurricane and other bad weather warnings, and figure things will be fine.
That was a part of the issue with Katrina. Something like 90% of the people at the Superdome drove there. The parking garage was full of cars. People could have left, but they didn’t thinking things will be OK, and some thought it was all exaggerated. People get so used to over the top forecasts, and they start to ignore them.
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Yes, yes I do!!! I was thinking about that when I left my F today. I’m debating leaving him out (3-board fencing, solid run-in he shares, he’s marked, he’d rather be out than in) and bringing him in (extremely solid barn, but I worry about the tiles in the wind that I know have fallen IN HIS STALL in the past (since fixed, not sure I want to test it), he can get stressed in a stall, even though he was raised in a stall).
I remember going through another hurricane in Houston with A. They converted the three grooming stalls to standing stalls and A was in one. I remember going out in the middle of the night, with horizonal wind to check on the horses. They must be freaking out! All were quietly munching hay or snoozing.
It’s only Tuesday and most service stations are out of gas. Meeeeeeemoriiiiieeeeessss…:winkgrin::winkgrin:
@RMJacobs, I will be thinking of you and your pony. STAY SAFE! And I wish you both the best of luck. My guy hates being inside, too, (I’ll likely leave him out) but everything is better if he has alfalfa in front of him. Does your pony have similar “crack” that will help make being inside better?
Pasture space and beds in Buffalo NY for anyone willing to come up this far. We got hot tape and stakes if we need them. This sounds terrible for those involved.
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Out of curiosity, looked at google maps for stables in the Wilmington, NC, area. Quite a few out there. Hope the horses were able to be moved out. Does Wilmington have a mandatory evacuation? I know Wrightsville Beach does.
I’d be putting shavings in a bdm, bathroom, laundry rm, etc, and bringing him in to the house…
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I left home in Wilmington yesterday to stay with family in Virginia. Many/most people I know are staying. I live about seven miles from the ocean.
No horses, but I have a dog and a ferret. I was at my exotic animal vet yesterday morning, and there was a lot of discussion among the people there and people were calling in. None of the shelters and no hotels accept exotic pets, so many people with ferrets, birds, reptiles, etc. who do not have family or friends who can accommodate them are staying and won’t be able to go to the shelters if she hits Wilmington.
Wilmington is not a very horsey area (still need to update my location from the move four years ago…) but there were lots of empty trailers heading east along I-40 yesterday. My guess was that these were people heading in to bring horses out.
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I just posted that the Virginia Horse Center is an evacuation site
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@pAin’t_Misbehavin’, I’ll be thinking of you, too! Best of luck.
@jetsmom, pony is boarded another 15+ miles further inland than where I live, and the barn is safer than my house or the BO’s house. I deliberately chose an inland location for him.
Hating the changes in the storm track this morning, but they started improving some from my personal perspective as the day went on. It sucks that no matter what, it looks like somebody is going to be slammed with this thing. I wish it would just stay out to sea, but that doesn’t look at all likely.
Rebecca
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Oh, my goodness–my neighbor just came to the door and asked if we wanted to use a generator for the duration. Heck, yes! I’ve been trying to persuade my husband that we need one for years, and I was afraid we would really pay the price for not having one this time. My neighbor decided to leave at the last minute, and generously offered the generator for us to use since they wouldn’t need it. They had already offered to keep us supplied with coffee during any power outage, but this is even better.
People are amazingly nice sometimes.
Rebecca
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Buy yourselves a generator. You will never regret it!
Signed,
The Woman with Two Generators and No Regrets
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@cutter99, I’m hoping having a generator to use will persuade my husband. If that doesn’t work, would you call him? 
Rebecca
I can Rebecca! We learned after getting slammed by both Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee. We were without power 8 days after the first storm and 10 plus days after the second. We were on a well at the time, so watering our horses and about 75-100 pigs was a major effort. Flushing the toilet became a rare privilege!
We bought the first generator to power the well pump and the house, and the second for our LQ horse trailer. I can tell you that we have not experienced any time of long term power outages since buying the generators 5 years ago!
I was without power for 55 hours after Hurricane Ivan in 2004, and I would have killed to have a generator power the AC, and water heater. Since I was in town, I still had phone (a regular landline, internet phone would have been out). You don’t know how cold the water out of the tap is even in lower Alabama in early September.
I was without power for a month after Katrina. Got a generator a few days after, but could only run some lights and my well. And my well water was cold! I learned to take showers in the late afternoon, because by then, the water in the hot water heater in the attic got warm just from the temperature of the attic! Turned on just the hot water tap, and it was a pretty nice temp. Once, it got hot enough that I had to turn on the cold to cool it down!
Now I have a whole-house generator, and it’s the best thing ever! Got one big enough to run everything, including AC or heat (which came in handy two weeks after installation, when we had actual snow that knocked out the power)
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On the hot water topic there was one storm that knocked out power but I was dying for a bath so I boiled water and carried it up to the bathroom. I got a few inches or reasonably hot water in total, washed off and got out. Then I turned the water on to rinse the tub out and out come hot water! I had forgotten we had a gas hot water heater
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