Hurricane Irma

[Mollysdad]

Originally Posted by nsbcpa

Anyone have a guess how long a single battery will operate the refrig while on propane?

Quite a while. The battery is only running the controls. Will you have the tow vehicle to recharge the battery? (assuming you lose power). There's always the option of a cooler and ice to keep your valuable frozen stuff frozen.
I just filled all my ice cube trays and put an extra two liter bottle of water in the freezer at home. Maybe the power won't be off that long. I'll do the ice cubes in a baggie trick.

[SCOTTinNJ]

Originally Posted by nsbcpa

We've got the 19 Bambi packed and leaving our waterfront home to go inland ~10 miles to assemble several elderly family members in a single location.

I've filled the Airstream refrig with the contents of our household refrig. Problem is, I currently only have one deep cycle battery as a house battery. Anyone have a guess how long a single battery will operate the refrig while on propane?

If that's your only draw i would think quite a while. If you need an exact amp draw figure I might be able to get you one later tonight. At least for my fridge.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

For the fridge, keep the trailer on shore power for as long as you can. That will keep the propane for later and the battery as topped up as possible. How long things keep running depends a *lot* on how good a shape your battery is in. The answer could be a day it could be a month. Now is probably *not* the time to go get the battery tested. If you feel comfortable doing it, you *might* be able to find a replacement to swap out "just in case". If you happen by my garage, I have a couple of batteries sitting on the floor - bought for the last blizzard on that basis. They are still unused ....

Bob

[nsbcpa]

It's a relatively new deep cycle. My hope is just to rely on the propone for 24-36hrs max then I'll be back home and can connect to my household generator.

Thanks

[KJRitchie]

My uncle lives in The Villages near Orlando. He said they are expecting 100mph winds and he's staying. My aunt's brother was ordered to evacuate from the Tampa area and is with them. Florida is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't what to live there.

[SCOTTinNJ]

Originally Posted by nsbcpa

It's a relatively new deep cycle. My hope is just to rely on the propone for 24-36hrs max then I'll be back home and can connect to my household generator.

Thanks

I just checked. Looks like about 0.5 amps for my fridge in a 2014 30'.

Figure 12 amps per day? What's the rating of your battery?

[uncle_bob]

Hi

If it's a single flooded cell it should be about 80AH, so 40AH usable. 12AH a day would get you to three days. Even a small generator or solar setup would extend things dramatically.

Bob

[nsbcpa]

It's an interstate 550cca. Not sure what the rating is.

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by nsbcpa

It's an interstate 550cca. Not sure what the rating is.

An Interstate SRM-24 deep cycle marine battery rated at 550 cold cranking amps is a Group 24 battery, typically rated for 80 amp-hours. Meaning that you'll get at most 40 amp-hours of use before you need to recharge.

[uncle_bob]

Originally Posted by nsbcpa

It's an interstate 550cca. Not sure what the rating is.

Hi

Best guess is that it's a group 24 flooded cell. That's what the stock battery was. Something around 80AH is a good guess when it was new.

Bob

[Glenritas]

Like I said before , Branson is looking good this time of year ... time to GO !

[SCOTTinNJ]

Originally Posted by kendrick.l.j

Makes plans to bug out today, reservations and such. I will be watching closely but planned to head north no later than Thursday.

Did you make it to Top of georgia?

[SCOTTinNJ]

Originally Posted by KJRitchie

My uncle lives in The Villages near Orlando. He said they are expecting 100mph winds and he's staying. My aunt's brother was ordered to evacuate from the Tampa area and is with them. Florida is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't what to live there.

And orlando is inland. Wonder what wind speed will be on the coast that irma hits?

[uncle_bob]

Originally Posted by SCOTTinNJ

And orlando is inland. Wonder what wind speed will be on the coast that irma hits?

Hi

Last plot I say showed > 70 mph. Not clear if that was gusts or sustained. The obvious "gotcha" is the same one as up here. When was the last time they saw those winds from that direction? Tree does fine in storm after storm with winds from "over there". In comes same thing from "that a way" and down it comes. I have data on this ....

Bob

[FCStreamer]

Originally Posted by KJRitchie

My uncle lives in The Villages near Orlando. He said they are expecting 100mph winds and he's staying. My aunt's brother was ordered to evacuate from the Tampa area and is with them. Florida is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't what to live there.

It's not so bad. It could be tornadoes or wild fires or earthquakes. I'd rather have hurricanes with days of advance notice. And I've lived in Florida for 30 years. It's worth it.

[Isuzusweet]

Looking at the devastation wrought on the BVI and Dutch West Indies it still amazes me that homes, condo's and other buildings are built with wood and use construction technics that obviously do not stand up.

So this begs the question.....what structure or construction should these people be using? Ideas....

Here's mine suggestion, with some changes of course. Imagine a lot smaller; the back side of the home is just an armoured garage door....Could do the same on the window side.

[OTRA15]

Originally Posted by Isuzusweet

Looking at the devastation wrought on the BVI and Dutch West Indies . . .
. . .

The detailed photos from all the Virgin Islands are just starting to be available, and "devastation" pretty much covers it. Further east, Barbuda is basically gone . . . and rendered unfit for human habitation.

Folks, in case you haven't been taking Irma seriously, or have been thinking you can figure out where she is going to track, or how intense she might be further north, well . . .

We may be in a "New Normal" of human-caused climate change.

Harvey -- Irma - Jose -- line 'em up and let 'em rip . . . until everyone "gets it" . . .

It's not nice to mess with Mother Nature -- CO2 emissions and all that.

Denial is a wide river to cross!

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by FCStreamer

It could be tornadoes or wild fires or earthquakes. I'd rather have hurricanes with days of advance notice.

Hurricanes have been known to spawn tornadoes inside of them. Adding insult to injury, as it were…

But it's true for me in the New Orleans metro area, too. There is nowhere in the United States that is completely immune to natural disasters. Wildfires. Droughts. Flash floods. Blizzards. Earthquakes. Volcanoes. Tornadoes. Dust storms. Hailstorms. Hurricanes. If I had to pick a part of the country to live in based solely on the disasters that impact the area, I'd pick an area affected by hurricanes. Especially today when the National Hurricane Center has so many excellent tools available for tracking and predicting the storms and information on a given storm is almost instantly available by going online.

Besides, now that I own an Airstream and I'm retired, a hurricane is just an excuse to go camping far, far away. And having been through Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, I no longer have any possessions at all that predate that storm and I'm not a homeowner, so I have no sentimental attachment to anything I own except my Airstream Interstate, my Honda toad, and my cat (the only things I own that have names: Kaiser, Mikado, and Sylvia). So I can evacuate and leave everything else behind if I have to, and I wouldn't mourn any of it if it's destroyed. I'd mourn paying the replacement costs for those things I replace (most of it isn't even worth insuring and some of it isn't worth replacing), but not the loss of the items themselves.

[Lily&Me]

Downgraded to a category 4, at this point.

Stay safe, everyone.

Maggie

[kendrick.l.j]

Scott in NJ, spent the nite at AMS and will arrive at TOG later today, probably around 3. Gotta stop by a grocery store and pick up some real food instead of just emergency food.
Even though it's Saturday, traffic in metro Atl is still unusually heavy so I will take the back roads and although it will take longer to drive it will be much less stressful than using 75,285,85. Also, I have two little dogs and my mom with me and they all seem to need potty break way to often so it is easier to pull into a church parking lot using the back roads.
Thanks to all my friends here on the forum for your support and for checking on how things are going. I gotta say buying the Airstream and having new friends who really do care is awesome. Without a doubt this is the best group of people I have ever had the pleasure to be a part of. Best life decision I have ever made. Thank you.