Katrina

Dan Luke wrote:

Hope you're ok over there, Darrel.

Winds topped out at 30, no measurable rainfall... 4R7 - 126.7 nautical
miles west of New Orleans Lakefront. Picked up a few branches and
skimmed the leaves out of the pool a couple of times...

Just got my DSL service back at 13:30 local. Power is still off and
generators are humming all over the place.

Mine was running as soon as the power failed after Lili. Couple of days
later you could here several. After 4 days you could hear lots of them.
I replaced my 5.5kw gasoline, with a 30kw NG/LPG one. It got me and 2
neighbors through Lili though (burned nearly 100 gallons of gas). I
swore I'd have air conditioning through the next one though...

Cable was out for a week, DSL was only out for a few hours through the
whole thing...

My neighborhood is a much worse mess than it was after Ivan last year.
Many large trees are down and some houses are heavily damaged. Utility
lines and poles are down everywhere; stores are closed; gas is
scarce--and this is 90 miles from the path of the storm.

Lots of refugees here in Eunice. The ones from Thibodeaux returned home
yesterday...

Pictures of the damage are trickling in from Mississippi and Louisiana.
This might be the worst Gulf storm all time in terms of property damage.

Just got the ones of the Pemex rig bumping the Cochrane-Africatown USA
bridge there in Alabama...

I hate hurricanes.

As do most of us...

Darrel Toepfer wrote:

I replaced my 5.5kw gasoline, with a 30kw NG/LPG one.

What did that set you back to install? Around here, it costs more for the
permits and installation than for the generator.

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.

George Patterson wrote:
Darrel Toepfer wrote:

I replaced my 5.5kw gasoline, with a 30kw NG/LPG one.

What did that set you back to install? Around here, it costs more for
the permits and installation than for the generator.

$300 to truck it from California, $3k for a '60's exrailroad 3 phase
with Ford inline 6 powering it. I'd been squabbling over the price with
the guy for 3 months over a 40kw. It got sold 3 days before I called to
make whatever deal I could...

The city gas department got in a tizzy for a bit saying it would stress
the meter, I told them we'd cross that bridge when it came to it. Never
got there yet, instantaneous consumption hardly registers...

I black plastic'd the ground, dug holes for the concrete pads and
backfilled with sand to level everything (leftover sand bags I didn't
really need as it turned out) and then poured a couple loads of
limestone over everything. Local crane company owed the family a favor,
they lifted it off the trailer and set it into place. Install cost was
just over nothing (in aviation dollars), and yet its priceless when the
need arises...

http://www.whodat.net/lili

I've run on it over 1/2 dozen times since it was installed in late 2002.
The price of NG/LPG sucks, but you don't have to worry about it going
bad like diesel and gasoline...

The city raised more cane about my steel roof, than the generator. When
I pointed to a 25 year old house down the street that was built with
one, they backed down and issued my permit. Nobody had ever noticed it
before... 'cept me of course...

The airport has no backup power (there is an abandoned tailered power
unit behind one hanger), the city hall is replacing theirs now that
they've discovered that its inadequate on multiple occasions...

I've got a friend that is getting self contained 15kw Chinese diesels
for just over $3k shipped. I helped him put it in place Saturday. 2 more
are sitting in New Orleans now, hopefully high and dry to the shippers
insurance company...

I bought that 5.5kw new back in '85 for under $400. Its paid for itself
tens of times over...