Isaac-1
Well-known member
Glad to hear you are ok
Tornadoes and Luck
- Thread starter Bill N
- Start date
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
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Yes, you are very lucky. On my way home to Indiana from Kansas, I went through Joplin shortly after the tornado. What absolutely floored me was the street names were painted on the pavement at each corner because --- well obviously --- street signs were gone, houses were gone, trees were gone. No visual markers that you'd use to find your way. The utter devastation.
S
sightseers
Guest
I always say a Prayer when I see a News story about tornadoes. I'm glad you and your wife are safe.
OP
OP
Bill N
Well-known member
Short update: Yesterday the roofers arrived. I was very nervous because heavy rain, hail and even a possibility of tornadoes was in the forecast for yesterday afternoon. The contractor taking care of our home repairs was taking no chances. He sent 3 roofing crews that started the tear-off at 7:30 am. I counted 13 people on the roof at one time. In one hour the roof was stripped and new underlayment was going down. At 3 hours the job was done! But they did have to do the ground cleanup which took the better part of another hour. I have had roofs done on 3 other houses in the past usually taking a day and a half with 3 or 4 man crews but this was a world record for me. BTW, it did rain very heavy with high winds in the afternoon and the tornado shelter was open and ready for business. We got no closer than a tornado watch rather than a warning (meaning one was spotted). The cats were caged for two hours as the bad weather neared (easier to get them into the shelter) and were quiet as little mouses - not hinky as usual when bad weather is in the area.
Thanks to all of you for your comments and good wishes. It is depressing to open the front door everyday and see 3 destroyed homes across the street and next to us. The big guy above was definitely looking out for us.
Thanks to all of you for your comments and good wishes. It is depressing to open the front door everyday and see 3 destroyed homes across the street and next to us. The big guy above was definitely looking out for us.
RVMommaTo6
Well-known member
Oh my goodness!!! So scary! I'm glad you're ok and hopefully your neighbors weren't hurt too badly.
OP
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Bill N
Well-known member
Thanks Amanda and Jackie. Last night was another one of 'those nights'. Slew of tornadoes moved out of Oklahoma into Missouri but we were on the very southern edge of that train and only got more heavy rain and a lot of thunder but we had the shelter open and the cats in the cages for a couple of hours until we got word that our area was out of danger. Starting to think that when you perfect a system of going into your tornado shelter it may be time to move to a safer area.........LOL
What a spring and hard to believe that the motorhome has still not been dewinterized because the street in front of the house is always full of contractor trucks and trailers servicing all the other damaged houses. This may become a lost season for travel and camping but for medical reasons it may be that anyway. Still hoping.
Bill
What a spring and hard to believe that the motorhome has still not been dewinterized because the street in front of the house is always full of contractor trucks and trailers servicing all the other damaged houses. This may become a lost season for travel and camping but for medical reasons it may be that anyway. Still hoping.
Bill
I was thinking of you yesterday when I saw the storm warnings pop up on my Facebook feed, i have it as a priority when in the US just in case. There is definitely freaky weather this year. It is pretty chilly here in Las Vegas and we had hailstones in the thunderstorm yesterday. With any luck there won't be any more of those terrible events.
I hope you are both able to get out on the road and the medical stuff goes well.
I hope you are both able to get out on the road and the medical stuff goes well.
OP
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Bill N
Well-known member
Thanks Jackie. May is usually tornado month on the plains. They seem to spawn in Oklahoma and Kansas and move either north or east. Originally I heard that there was a fish hook theory meaning they usually formed earliest in the south around Alabama or Mississippi and then moved in a curve westward into Texas and up into Oklahoma and Kansas and then further up into Nebraska. But it now seems the can spawn almost anywhere with the right weather conditions but don't seem to be prevalent out in the far west. Anyway we lived in North and South Dakota for 35 years and had dozens of blizzards. We actually enjoyed them as we just hunkered down and if we lost power we fired up the fireplace and candles and had the whole family in the home for a period of time instead of having to be run to basketball games or baseball games or dance classes, etc. Worst part of a blizzard is shoveling out afterward but gas snowblowers soon solved that problem.....lol
Didn't know you were in Vegas now. Don't you normally home base in Scotland?
Didn't know you were in Vegas now. Don't you normally home base in Scotland?
Arch Hoagland
Well-known member
Wow that must have been very very terrifying. Glad to see you made it through in one piece.
How have your neighbors made out with their insurance companies?
How have your neighbors made out with their insurance companies?
OP
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Bill N
Well-known member
Arch Hoagland said:
The neighbors experience with insurance companies has been varied. I have USAA and went with their offer to let one contractor do all the repairs and subcontract what they could not do. So far it has worked out pretty good with little worries on our part. Roof emergency repairs were made the day after the tornado. Drying out of the wet ceiling spots (from the leaks where shingles were blown off) took about 5 days of high speed fans (12 fans and two humidifiers) that were highly aggravating but, luckily, the master bedroom had no leaks so we could close the door on the fans at night. Only regret in letting one contractor do it all is that they added a 20 percent fee onto the fence repairs but subcontracted the job to a fence company on day one. Their only effort was to pick up the phone and call their fence company buddy. But that is what happens when you select one contractor as USAA recommended. We are about the luckiest house in our block as far as damage but even that was a bit over $30,000. They finished a new roof on Saturday and still have to add new gutters, fix interior drywall that was removed, blow new insulation into attic, install a new window that was blown in and repair damage to kitchen cabinets from the flying glass and shingles when the window blew in.
Some neighbors are trying to handle the insurance by getting individual bids but it is time consuming. A lot of companies are depreciating the wooden fences by 75 percent. USAA tried that and I asked for a review and they came back and said it would only be 10 percent depreciation on the fence. Being a 58 year member helped get that changed I am sure.
Sorry for the long post. I tend to get too wordy.
Arch Hoagland
Well-known member
I'm impressed with how fast everything got done by all the contractors, you're pretty lucky on that.
We had 8 big dehumidifiers/heaters in our house for five days after a broken pipe incident. In California the electric companies are required to inspect any building that shows a very steep increase in electric usage.
PG&E guy came to our house and we told him about the entire house being flooded....didn't matter, he still had to inspect the interior. Power bill that month was $900. CSAA (AAA) covered it all plus the repairs at $34,000.
We had 8 big dehumidifiers/heaters in our house for five days after a broken pipe incident. In California the electric companies are required to inspect any building that shows a very steep increase in electric usage.
PG&E guy came to our house and we told him about the entire house being flooded....didn't matter, he still had to inspect the interior. Power bill that month was $900. CSAA (AAA) covered it all plus the repairs at $34,000.
Old_Crow
Well-known member
jackiemac said:
Well, your timing certainly could have been better. We had a nice day yesterday here in the Inyo, but I just saw we have a winter weather advisory for tomorrow into Monday. All the mountains surrounding Bishop still have their coverings of snow and there's plenty of empty campsites up here.
