I wanted to know what kind of damage had the hurricane done to the Sylvan Beach Pavilion??
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Hurricane preparedness and kits are a necessity for people who live in areas that are prone to hurricanes, especially now that category four and five hurricanes are becoming more prevalent due to global warming. In fact, households in areas where hurricane rarely pass should also prepare somehow because of the erratic behavior of hurricanes in recent years. According to government officials, hurricane emergency kits and the people’s preparedness are the keys to surviving the hurricane season.
The huge loss of properties and lives from hurricanes Katrina and Rita have made a lot of people realize that planning is as important as having hurricane preparedness and kits. Even before the hurricane season starts, everyone who lives in places that are usually hit by storms should already do house repairs if necessary. Roofs, windows, ceilings, basements or cellars should be checked for leaks, cracks and anything that could make your home more vulnerable to strong winds and rain brought by hurricanes. It is also necessary that every home should have some kind of action plan for when the hurricane hits. Special plans should also be in place for members of your family who are old, very young, or disabled.
Hurricane preparedness and kits should contain basic necessities, such as several gallons of clean drinking water and non-perishable food. However, you must regularly check the food and change the water in your hurricane emergency kits every six months. Your kits would not be of any help if they contain food and water supply that is stale or expired. Since there will definitely be power outage or unavailability of gas, you should also include candles, flashlights, transistor radio and waterproof matches in your kits. It would be better if the flashlight and the transistor radio that you use are hand-cranked so you do not have to think about buying batteries.
There is a big chance that your home will not survive the hurricane, so you should not forget to include important documents as part of your emergency kits. Just make sure that you put important papers inside waterproof document storage bags. You should also add into your hurricane emergency kits tools like shovels, axes and machetes to help you gather wood for cooking or help your family get out in case you are trapped inside your home. Also, pack some clothes, blankets, personal hygiene and sanitation implements, medicine and other basic items that your family needs and if you have pets, small children or elderly folks living with you, include items that they will need as well.
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What would be the best and cost effective hurricane shutters to buy for a second floor condo sliding glass doors that i could shut from the inside( no outside access, only enclosed screen porch) Thank you.
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For those who have been watching the devastation and destruction caused by Hurricane Ike in Texas, it should come as no surprise that homeowners, renters, investors and even small business owners will continue to be dramatically impacted for months…if not years…to come.
Hurricane damage isn’t limited to strong winds; flood damage creates as much – if not more – damage especially to coastal areas like Galveston or New Orleans. Hurricane Ike is a dramatic reminder of how flood damage can wreck havoc on homes, apartments and small business. In fact, almost every aspect of normal life comes to a half in the aftermath of hurricane – Texas sized at that. Even seemingly insignificant issues can become potentially threatening problems such as:
Water damage to drywall, floors, furniture that quickly leads to the growth of mold and mildew. Since mold and mildew are spread by spores, they enter the air vents of homes and can spread throughout the entire household; re-infecting every area of the home.
Contamination due to mud, debris, pollution and even dead fish or other animals. The waters contain a host of bacteria, chemicals and other health hazards that create serious threats to the safety and welfare of the general population if not properly handled and disposed of. Unfortunately, disposal itself becomes problematic with limited resources and inadequate transportation routes to areas most in need of assistance.
Improper repairs. One of the worst and most costly long term consequences of hurricane damage is the need for fast response and professional repairs. Unfortunately, many of the local carpet cleaning, air vent cleaners, drywall, upholstery cleaning and other professionals in the immediate area were also impacted. Water damage restoration professional can be very hard to find after a disaster like the magnitude of hurricane Ike. As home owners attempt to do the work on their own it can lead to a long term loss in value or fail to meet proper permits or other building standards. The need for immediate response must be balanced for the need for proper adherence to building codes and insurance underwriting standards in order to avoid a loss of property value, dismissal of insurance claims and long term health problems.
In the aftermath of destruction, it is natural to turn to the Red Cross and FEMA for help with basics like bottled water, blankets and temporary housing but let’s not forget others throughout the nations that never make the news. Companies like Kiwi Services that specialize in water damage and restoration repair, proper disposal of contaminated furniture and removal of debris and mold remediation are equally important to the “healing process” of the community. Despite traveling to the hardest hit areas of Texas from throughout the nation, these workers rarely make the spot-light on the evening news for their diligent work nonetheless they represent a critical link in the chain of services required to restore the area back to a functional community.
Galveston Water Damage & Repair
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Copyright (c) 2007 Karen Talavera
December 1, 2007 marks the end of another hurricane season in south Florida, and for the second year in a row we are blessed with a clean getaway. For now, we can exhale.
Yet more than two years after hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, it’s anything but easy in the Big Easy.
In August this year I took a vacation to Canc?Mexico. The Yucatan peninsula is a locale I adore and have visited extensively before. But having lived in Florida for the past three years and having been through three hurricanes during that time, I had more than a fleeting sense of trepidation over the state in which I’d find my beloved Mexican Caribbean jewel. Recalling the damage an unexpectedly fierce hurricane Wilma did to south Florida in just a few hours on a late October 2005 day after ravaging Canc?or four times as long, I was prepared to see evidence of recovery still in progress. Prepared, at least, to spot more than a few blemishes on the face of the normally pristine hotel zone, and certainly prepared to see the aftereffects of the storm in the outlying, natural environment.
My expectations couldn’t have been more off. Judging by the looks of things in Canc?you’d never know there was a Hurricane Wilma which came on shore less than two years ago as a category four storm with winds exceeding 150 miles an hour. Between October 20 and 24, 2005 Wilma dumped over five feet of rain on Canc?double or triple the amount that Hurricane Katrina unleashed on New Orleans only seven weeks earlier. While both storms peaked as category five hurricanes while over water, Wilma came ashore with greater force, and stayed much longer, than Katrina when it made landfall. Where Katrina hit New Orleans, it was a weak category three, if not a category two. Yet we’ve all seen the images of what happened in New Orleans and environs.
How then, do you account for the drastic differences in both the level of devastation and recovery between the two cities, each hit by major hurricanes within the same sixty days? In digging for the answers to this question, there is much to be gleaned about the economic and political agendas of two North American neighbors, Mexico and the United States, and a critical lesson for Americans to learn as well.
As cities New Orleans and Canc?ave little in common. The former is a historically-quaint, centuries-old settlement that has grown large in a sinking land bowl flanked by the mighty Mississippi river to the south and Lake Pontchartrain to the north; the latter, a merely forty-year, newly developed world-class vacation destination built primarily on a narrow eight mile strip of land bordered by a natural lagoon to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east. What they share other than their sea-level elevation is that they’re both hemmed in by water. Furthermore, both cities have a history of hurricanes, know they are situated in hurricane zones, and know the risks. But of the two only only Canc?as chosen to consciously act on that knowledge, both preventatively and retroactively.
One could argue Canc?as had a decided advantage over a place like New Orleans all along. Its development is recent enough to have benefitted from hurricane-resistant technology and forethought, and clearly it has done so. Yet since before Canc?as officially established as a city in 1972, the pummeling New Orleans received by Hurricane Betsy in 1965 served as an alarming wake-up call. Arguably, New Orleans had forty years to fortify itself against a repeat performance, and countless government mandates and funds with which to work, yet the system of dikes and levees surrounding the city - its primary defense against flooding during a major storm - failed miserably.
With two years of Hurricane Katrina post-mortem under our belts, most Americans now understand the resulting devastation of New Orleans was a man-made rather than natural disaster. After 1965, the US Congress assigned the Army Corps of Engineers to protect the city from a “100-year storm”. The resulting planning and work done by the Corps was riddled with engineering errors and utterly sub-standard for protection from anything more than a moderate-strength hurricane. The Corps’ estimation of a 100-year event fell short of a category four hurricane, even though Betsy had been exactly that and was originally predicted to arrive even stronger.
Moreover, protecting the city from a major storm was never anyone’s top priority. Tales of local government corruption, funds misappropriation, and even failed local ballot propositions are legendary. And with every passing decade, as the city was spared further hurricanes, the people became more complacent and their sense of denial grew. Denial, as they now know, will no more fortify levees or prevent flooding than wishful thinking. Hurricane survival requires preparation, and preparation means intentional efforts are made in building construction, land use, water management, and population education.
More telling than the difference in the collective mindsets of Canc?nd New Orleans is their respective recovery efforts. While most major hotel/resort structures in Canc?ere already designed to withstand major hurricane damage (and those in New Orleans were not) the greater area of concern to Canc?as not loss or damage to structures, but to the beach, the primary tourist draw on which its economy depends. After Hurricane Wilma washed away eight miles of Canc? beautiful beach, the Mexican government paid $24 million to a Belgian firm to vacuum up offshore sand roughly 20 miles off the coast and pump it back to resort-front beaches. The result? Canc? beach front is now roughly twice as wide as it was before the storm. Imagine, then, if New Orleans had received the type of immediate, hands-on, no-holds-barred infusion of support that the Mexican government showered upon just Canc? beaches alone.
Roughly $2.3 billion in insurance claims in Cancun were filed in the aftermath of Wilma, but many hotel and resort owners took the opportunity to go upgrade the quality of their rebuilt properties by adding condos, thereby expanding their mix of accommodations while planning for future growth. Many single family homes in Mexico are also built quite differently than in the US - with metal-reinforced concrete rather than wood frames - and survived Wilma with minimal or no damage.
By contrast, stories of under-or inadequately insured homes and properties in New Orleans are legendary. Many homeowners did not carry flood insurance, necessary when water damage occurs from rising rather than falling water. (Hurricane insurance only covers wind damage). Adding insult to injury, many of the most seriously damaged neighborhoods in New Orleans were occupied by either the poorest or oldest of the city’s population. Both groups are notorious for having not been insured at all, and as a result have nothing to go back to. At last count, only about 52% of New Orleans’ pre-Katrina population of 450,000 has returned. Neighborhoods such as the Lower Ninth Ward and parts of New Orleans East are still nearly vacant.
So, what insights does this comparison yield? A few become obvious:
1. Money first, people second. Governments are most concerned with protecting their economic interests,and the US is no exception. Whether disaster is natural or man-made, when government protects its cash cows or wealthiest citizens, it does so in the name of protecting its own economic health. The poor, uneducated, uninformed, or underprivileged often find themselves on their own.
2. Do not expect your government to save you when disaster strikes. It may provide aid but its resources are limited and it simply cannot save everyone. If you live in a disaster-susceptible area, don’t expect a bail-out. Even if you don’t live in a high-risk area, self-reliance is a virtue you CAN afford and won’t regret having when you need it.
3. Our government is what we make it. The citizens of New Orleans elected their state and local officials. They had numerous opportunities to vote on how to spend funds and sadly, the majority chose not to spend resources on hurricane prevention and flood protection. “We reap what we sow” may sound trite, but it’s true.
All too often it seems dire circumstances are required for behavioral change. As I have learned firsthand from living in Florida, there are two sides to every coin. Paradise? Certainly, but at a price, one I and millions of south Floridians are now painfully aware of and willing to pay, as I suspect are the nearly one million full-time inhabitants of Cancun. Yet we’re lucky, Florida and Cancun reap enough tourism riches to qualify for government rescue. If only the citizens of New Orleans had been so fortunate, and so enlightened.
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We plans for a vacation to Orlando starting Aug 23 till Sep 6. What’s the weather there? People says it is the hurricane season with lots of rain. So, I want to know and get better prepared. Please advise. Thanks.
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Everyone keeps telling me that a Hurricane isn’t a funnel cloud and I always thought that the only difference between a Hurricane and a Tornadowas that a Hurricane is tropical and forms over water and that a Tornado fromed over land, could someone please fill me in?
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If disappointment had to be summarized best, you could find it at Tulsa, Oklahoma. The setting ? A championship match up against East Carolina!
Tulsa, obviously were overwhelming favorites. Man-man, they had a better team. And they also had the charismatic quarterback David Johnson, who could run any opponent ragged. On the other hand, the ECU was somewhat of an unknown quantity. It really seemed to boil down to who winked first?
So what was the turning point of the match? In an action-packed and an exciting match, expect to find many such exciting moments. One amongst them was Ben Hartman?s steal resulting in a 36-yard field goal. Not sure what the Tulsa defensive line was doing. But people who saw the goal say that Ben caught them napping!
In terms of consistency throughout the match, it must be said that the defensive line of the ECU broke the back of Tulsa attackers. With their gritty and hard working approach to defending, injured ECU players playing in the defensive line gave it all, as if they were playing for their life.
The final nail in the coffin for Tulsa came through 63 seconds before close of play. A David Johnson move was intercepted, for the umpteenth time in the afternoon, and the ECU scored. It seemed that the strategy of Tulsa Golden Hurricanes revolved almost David, and once the opposition found a way to shut him out of the game, they could not do anything about it.
When the final hooter came through, the score line read 27-24 in favor of the ECU. What followed next were wild celebrations! ECU was obviously delighted with their first clinch of the coveted trophy. Coach Skip Holtz received the traditional Gatorade shower. Amongst other scenes, the most poignant one was that of running back Norman Whitely hopping on to a table and leading the ECU band.
So what does the road ahead have in store for ECU? First things, in light of this victory, ECU gets an opportunity to play against Kentucky in Auto Zone Liberty Bowl in Memphis on January 2nd, 2009. Look back mid-season ? The ECU were struggling with their form, and quite a few of their players had niggles and injuries. This was when Holtz took over. With him at the helm of affairs, there seemed to be a positive change in the air. Holtz spoke a lot on how they could win championships. Clearly, Holtz attitude seemed to have rubbed off on his players. And the proof is there for everyone to see?
Holtz for one seems to be pretty uncertain about his future with ECU. For some strange reasons, he feels that he could be fired by the management. ECU should also think of a way by improving their bench strength to ensure they give good rest to players so they could recover from injuries.
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Scorpions playing in the biggest rock festival on this world! Rock in Rio 85, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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Well it has finally been made official. Hurricane Gustav was a category three and was making a bee line straight for New Orleans and surrounding areas. This will be the second time in less than five years that New Orleans was expecting a direct hit from a hurricane that was category three, but there will definitely be differences in this storm and the last one.
When hurricane Katrina hit three years ago so many of the Gulf Coast residents chose to remain at their homes and try to ride the storm out. This time many of those same people did not even have to be asked to leave even though they were required to this time. Over two million people have evacuated New Orleans alone. The eye of the storm is thought to be going to come straight over a town called Morgan City, Louisiana. Traffic was very slow moving as those that were evacuating tried to make it further inland to safer ground.
This time around precautions were taken much earlier than they were with hurricane Katrina. Buses and trains were made ready to evacuate those that had no way to get out on their own. People were asked to make sure they had cash on hand if any was available to them because the ATM machines along the Gulf coast area expected to be affected would probably not work because of power outages. People did as they were asked to and bought their supplies and left the towns in the storms path.
At this moment, New Orleans and other towns in this area are like ghost towns with no one, not even the police and fire departments moving about. Even though the eye of the storm will not go right over New Orleans, is still expected to cause some damage. The expected damage will come in the form of power outages, high tides, and inland flooding. The flash flooding is more likely to be because of very heavy rainfall and not from high tide. There is also the threat of tornadoes causing damage as well.
It is though that this storm will not be as bad as Katrina was, but it has been serious enough so far to make people have to leave their homes. This time is it hoped that when those evacuated people return home they will actually have a home to return. It is always best to remain prepared for the worst in these situations.
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