'Tis the season (again) ...

[Laredo]

Ira and the rest of y'all in Florida -- looks like time to batten down or bug out.
Be careful, y'all.

[Jiminsav]

Man, that storm is heading to mexico..don't sweat it.

[Ira]

I went to bed without a care in the world based on last night's tracking--and I woke up this morning to see that it doesn't look good at all.

Man, I hope I'm wrong, but I think this is going to be a MESS for Dade and Broward counties. The path has it headed right for the center of South Florida.

[mikeschn]

IRA,

Don't sweat it. Load up the Teardrop with food (especially all the meat you have in the freezer), Load up the tow vehicle with Budweiser...

Head north and west... find a nice cozy campground, hang out the budweiser sign, plug in your portable TV, and enjoy a mini vacation, courtsey of mother nature.

I'm not trying to make light of the situation, but you are prepared for this, right? Isn't that one of the reasons you built a teardrop? \

Mike...

[Mary K]

Sorry Ira

I went to bed Sat night all stressed cause they had Ernesto pointed at me...

Woke up in better mood Sunday. Hopefully Cuba will bust it up.
Mk

PS Come to P'cola, Ill give ya an outlet and water spigot to hook up too.

[Ira]

Gotta keep reminding myself:

Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer. Buy beer.

[mikeschn]

That's right IRA... don't forget last years lessons learned. We hate to hear that you had to lick your budweiser sign again!

I've highlighted the most important lessons below in red...

Mike...

Whew. I see that I missed a lot--but I collapsed from exhastion yesterday afternoon, was up for just a few hours, then collapsed again.

First, I want to thank Mike TONS for the fantastic Budweiser metal sign that arrived here on WEDNESDAY! That was great of you, Mike--and I really needed that smile! Yes, miraculously, mail and the bills did indeed start arriving on Wednesday, and there was a liquor sales ban put into effect on TUESDAY and I had drank my last can !!!

It was sheer torture, so I started licking the sign.

Anyway, food-wise and supply-wise, we were all set to go. Problem was, I didn't yet have one of those extreme coolers, but I had a few decent ones. So ice that was in place on Sunday was just about gone by Tuesday, with no stores open by mid-day, and only 6 of the 12 Broward County FEMA ice and water distribution sites operational.

These sites are kind of a waste of time to the majority of the population, with hours-long waits, short supplies, and no way for most people to get there.

Granted, I found it pretty ridiculous how a lot of people complained about the lack of food and water just a day after the storm. For God's sake, if your roof didn't blow off and your stuff was still intact, how much stuff did you have there in the FIRST place?

A damn hurricane was coming, you idiot!

Ice--all I needed was a good daily supply of ice. And if it wasn't for "privilege," I would have been screwed:

We never lost phone service, but my wife's Wal-Mart did, where she works overnights. So I drive her there Tuesday afternoon to see if she's supposed to work that night, and lo and behold, they're open, with a line around the block. A lot of people were there who JUST remembered to buy a barbecue, to buy water, to buy food. She walks right in with her ID to get the info, buys two bags of ice, and we're cool. She works the next few nights, arriving each morning with fresh ice, so we're living large.

By the way--the store was only open from like 10AM to 6PM, because of the curfew. She worked nights to help stock supplies coming in from Wal-Mart trucks.

So lesson one:

The heck with FEMA trying to distribute this stuff. The government should contract with omni-present Wal-Mart to handle this task from now on. They have thousands of trucks, hundreds of distribution centers, and warehouses and warehouses of food and other stuffs throughout the country.

In other words, leave this to the PROFESSIONALS. Reach some kind of an agreement with them, pay the price, and be done with it. To have only 12 distribution centers in a county the size of mine is absurd, and there must be at least 20 Wal-Marts here. they could also have set up 50 ice trucks in parks to distribute it.

Next, do not ever, EVER suspend liquor sales!!! Who the hell do you think you ARE!? (Tony, I'm now yelling at the liberal Democrats in charge here.) I'm stuck in this house for 5 days without power, with the wife and kids, and you expect me to do this SOBER, without killing anyone!?

Furthermore, and I say this loudly to all of the authorities:

When someone loses power and has to rely on generators, generators need GASOLINE. But if the gas stations can only pump when THEY have power, and they DON'T have the generators or kind of systems that allow generator use, no one can get the gas to use their generators!!!

Duh.

A federal law should be passed requiring every gas station in the country to have back-up power. This country needs its juice, and any interruption to that current, be it by natural disaster or terrorism, leaves us incredibly vulnerable. Mind you, there was plenty of gas here--there was just no way to get it from the pump!

I don't have a generator, but if I DID, I would have used it a few hours a day, with an icemaker, just to make ice to keep those food stuffs in the cooler fresh. (No need to run it 24/7 for the entire fridge.) As it was, every night at about 8PM, I would hook up my DC-AC inverter to my truck, plug in the TV and DVD player, and we would watch a few movies.

This helped retain our sanity more than anything else. (I wanted to make the kids popcorn with the microwave, but I didn't think my 700W peak inverter would handle it with our large microwave.)

So there were some good lessons learned here. As far as cooking, no problem--camp stove, plenty of propane, and in conjunction with the barbecue, I didn't even go through ONE of those little cans.

And another instance about "privilege":

One of my neighbors is a manager at the Whole Foods Market, and on Tuesday night he brought over filet mignon, prime rib RIBS (had never even heard of that as a special cut before), shrimp and lobster tails. So as you can see, we didn't starve at all, and we didn't even touch our canned goods the entire week.

We were VERY lucky, but 99.99999% of people weren't. We also consider ourselves lucky that we got our power back already, but two blocks over and blocks and blocks nearby are still out. (My office in Boca may be out until mid-NOVEMBER, and although I was frustrated, I knew Florida Power and Light was doing their best.)

In concusion, I'll say that I waited 4 hours for gas yesterday. They ran out after 3 hours, we were told another truck was coming so I kept waiting, then we were told it WASN'T coming.

And the manager called the police to chase me and a few other die-hards away who simply didn't want to give up. Today, I try again. My mom's power is still out in Delray Beach, her supply situation is awful, and I want to get some fresh stuff up to her, so I need the gas.

And she's not alone--there are still a lot of people hurting here, physically and emotionally.

Catch you all later!

[Nitetimes]

That's right IRA... don't forget last years lessons learned. We hate to hear that you had to lick your budweiser sign again!

I've highlighted the most important lessons below in red...

Mike...

Whew. I see that I missed a lot--but I collapsed from exhastion yesterday afternoon, was up for just a few hours, then collapsed again.

First, I want to thank Mike TONS for the fantastic Budweiser metal sign that arrived here on WEDNESDAY! That was great of you, Mike--and I really needed that smile! Yes, miraculously, mail and the bills did indeed start arriving on Wednesday, and there was a liquor sales ban put into effect on TUESDAY and I had drank my last can !!!

It was sheer torture, so I started licking the sign.

And the saga begins again?.....maybe?...

[mikeschn]

This may be the wrong county, but I think someone is listening to IRA!!!

GAS STATIONS WITH GENERATORS

Gas Stations

Here is a list of the Exxon-Mobil Gas Stations in Palm Beach County which will have generator back-up capabilities:

3035 N Military Trail, West Palm Beach
4128 W Blue Heron Blvd, Riviera Beach
4201 Northlake Blvd, Palm Beach Gardens
1554 Palm Beach Lakes Blvd, WPB
3950 Indiantown Rd, Jupiter
721 Congress Ave, West Palm Beach
1100 Royal Palm Beach Blvd, Royal Plm Bch
795 Lake Worth, Lake Worth
3890 State Rd 7, Lake Worth
6065 Jog Rd, Lake Worth
11975 Southern Blvd, West Palm Beach
1459 Yamato Rd, Boca Raton
1990 N Dixie Hwy, Boca Raton
8971 Okeechobee Blvd, West Palm Beach
6482 Forest Hill Blvd, Green Acres
20385 State Rd 7, Boca Raton
198 NW 51st St, Boca Raton
20570 Lyons Rd, Boca Raton
9250 Wiles Rd, Coral Springs
6600 N State Rd 7, Coconut Creek
5740 Wiles Rd, Coral Springs
6661 Indiantown Rd, Jupiter
7225 W Atlantic Ave, Delray Beach
4798 N Congress, Boynton Beach
290 N Congress Ave, Boynton Beach
2605 SW 15th Ave, Boynton Beach

Mike...

[kerryd]

Whats the frozen meat for , to keep the beer cold ? For those who ask about the private campgound in the Keys , there's no waiting . Your site may vary during the storm . Please lleave money in the honor box .

[Jiminsav]

As a fully qualified Gasoline pump technician, I can tell you it's not easy running a modern dispenser with a generator..first off, the dispenser itself uses between 5 and 7 amps just to run itself, and the submersable pump in the tanks is 220 volts and about 10 amps...so it takes quite a generater to run just one pump..and if they want to run lights on the canapy..well, forget that poop.

[Micro469]

As a fully qualified Gasoline pump technician, I can tell you it's not easy running a modern dispenser with a generator..first off, the dispenser itself uses between 5 and 7 amps just to run itself, and the submersable pump in the tanks is 220 volts and about 10 amps...so it takes quite a generater to run just one pump..and if they want to run lights on the canapy..well, forget that poop.

If yu're in hurricane country, and you want to do business, you gotta do what you gotta do. If that means putting in big ass generators then thats what you gotta do...

[Woody]

If ya want gas go to the Florida Turnpike. The Fla DOT has generators at each Plaza and pumped gas right after Wilma when no one else had power in the entire area for 2-8 weeks. Even when the power came back online many stations couldn't get fuel anyway. The Turnpike had plenty and pumped around 1.3 million gallons within 30 days after the storm just at the Pompano Beach Service Plaza alone

[Ira]

Mike, Woody and I are in Broward County, but some of those stations you listed are in Broward anyway. (The one on Wiles Road is right by me.)

I bought 3 cases of Bud last night, so I'm cool until at least Thursday.

Unlike last year, everyone is gassing up heavy. Stations are running out, but new deliveries are still coming, so everyone's getting their gas. People really learned the lesson after Wilma, and they don't want to be stuck without gas after the storm.

Also, thousands and thousands of people have generators THIS year that didn't have them last year, so the gas is really flying out of the stations for those gas cans as well as the cars.

Thanks to all for the good wishes.

[asianflava]

I think it was particularly bad in 2004. I was there during Frances and there was no gas to be had. Back then the tankers couldn't make into port because of the Charley which forced the reserves to get low, then Frances came which made the reserves run out. The gas trucks couldn't deliver gas because there was no gas to deliver.

Luckily my parents have a diesel car, there was lots of diesel available. Later, when my parents got a generator for the house, my mom specified a diesel one. It cost more, but what good is having a generator when you have no fuel for it.