I'm back!

[Muley Gil]

Not that anybody missed me, I'm sure!

Hurricane Helene came through Southwest Virginia and made a direct hit on my county. Power went out on Friday September 27th at 0840 and didn't come back on until 1430 on the 2nd of October.

I have a 14 year old 5K Champion generator that up until last fall had been very reliable. I used it off and on this year, but this time, it wasn't putting out all of the wattage that it used to. I was starting to feel like Oliver Douglas from Green Acres-don't run water (well pump) as the same time as the coffee maker or microwave, etc., etc., etc.

While we had limited power, so didn't sweat, we had no hot water for the shower, the phone was out until Thursday and worse of all-no Internet! Couldn't get on the Forum; was having withdrawals.

The Net came back at 1430 today, so I have a lot of catch-up reading to do!

 

[Babysitr]

May God bless all the people in your area, the best of luck to you all. We are praying for you!

 

[Rustyt1953]

I am glad you weathered the storm.

You are always a good read.

 

[pharmer]

Glad you're OK, I had no idea the storm did damage that far North. Then again, only 20 of the rising death count were in Florida. Joe

 

[Muley Gil]

May God bless all the people in your area, the best of luck to you all. We are praying for you!

Thank you. I was fortunate in that I had very little property damage-a small tree that fell in the driveway that took about 30 minutes work with a chainsaw to clear and a morning's labor repairing fence that crosses my normally small creek in the bottom.

Many others in my area suffered greatly, losing homes and vacation places. The folks down around Ashville NC seem to have had the worst of it, here in the Southern Appalachians. NC had the greatest loss of life, according to the news.

 

[Rudi]

Good you are back up and OK.

 

[JRB416]

I'm glad you are OK. Not sure what county you live in, but most of my family still live in Russell County. Everyone is fine but some were without power for a while.

 

[Old 44 Guy]

We put in a 16 KW Comcast propane fired generator about 4 years ago. Sure aved our bacon because we are on a well & a freezer full.

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

Glad you weathered the disaster.

 

[robvious]

welcome back... glad only power and interweb was all that was lost..

 

[STCM(SW)]

As far as I am concern, better late then never!
Glad everything went well....

 

[StrawHat]

Welcome back, I wondered, since you were not posting.

Kevin

 

[Muley Gil]

We received over 10" of rain and my neighbor a mile down the road got 12" plus. The creek on my land varies from 4' to 8' wide normally. At the height of the storm, it was over 50' wide and my wooden bridge was under at least 2' of water. The creek is normally 5' BELOW the bridge.

BTW, we are no longer in a drought situation.

 

[LEO918]

Welcome back home Sir.

 

[Bald1]

SW Va? What would the closest big town to you be? Close to WVa line or below WVa?

 

[mike4sigs]

Glad you are safe .

 

[Muley Gil]

SW Va? What would the closest big town to you be? Close to WVa line or below WVa?

Big town? Roanoke is 85 miles away, to the northeast. Bristol VA/TN is 82 miles away, to the southwest.

I'm about 20 miles south of Wytheville VA, as the turkey buzzard flies. Bluefield VA/WV is about 60 north.

 

[woodsltc]

Big town? Roanoke is 85 miles away, to the northeast. Bristol VA/TN is 82 miles away, to the southwest.

I'm about 20 miles south of Wytheville VA, as the turkey buzzard flies. Bluefield VA/WV is about 60 north.

Glad you are OK Muley........I have a daughter about 50 miles north of you in Radford. No real problems there but the New River was really rolling and raging out of it's banks.

Don

 

[WR Moore]

Glad you made it through OK, get the generator serviced. Worn brushes/commutator?

Need to run my generator a bit under slight load to make sure it stays healthy.

 

[Golddollar]

Good to see you on board.

 

[lawandorder]

Glad you came through it ok.

 

[oink]

Not that anybody missed me, I'm sure!

Hurricane Helene came through Southwest Virginia and made a direct hit on my county. Power went out on Friday September 27th at 0840 and didn't come back on until 1430 on the 2nd of October.

Glad to hear you made out ok. Unbelievable damage from that storm.

With this new one I should do ok too, by comparrison to what others are and will be suffering. I'm on the East side of FL but not on the coast. Flooding has never threatened my house but it sure has flooded the roads in my neighborhood. My house will be on a little island in flooded woods. The roads are already just one notch away from being flooded from all the rain we've already had. And in past storms I've been without power for as much as 3 weeks with just cat 1s or 2s. I better see to the generators.

I'll be praying for those on the West coast.

 

[Muley Gil]

Glad you are OK Muley........I have a daughter about 50 miles north of you in Radford. No real problems there but the New River was really rolling and raging out of it's banks.

Don

I'm about 8 miles from the New. It took out part of the low water bridge in the little town of Fries. The dam there was questionable, as were two Appalachian Power dams, Byllesby and Buck. All three survived.

 

[Muley Gil]

I received this info from Appalachian Power today:

"Hurricane Helene caused catastrophic damage, leaving nearly 6 million customers in 10 states without power. For Appalachian Power, the powerful wind gusts and torrential rain caused unprecedented damage to our facilities, leaving many of our neighbors without power for days as we worked to rebuild our energy delivery infrastructure in challenging conditions.

More than 7,300 employees came together over the last week to assess, repair and rebuild the power grid following significant damage at a mind-boggling 3,100 unique locations. Material repaired or replaced included:
214 miles of wire
1,455 poles
438 transformers"

 

[Kinman]

Glad you pulled through, looks like you'll miss this next one.

 

[bovw]

I work in Telcom, we have some guys from central VA in the Norton area right now. My brother in law is in Asheville on the job as well. Glad you came through relatively easy.

 

[Faulkner]

Actually, I was worried about you. I figured it hit close to home. Glad you came out the other side.