I have a feeling we are not going to luck out this time with Irene! If the computer models dont change much we he see a landing much like Gloria did in the 80s giving up to 100mph winds sustained.What precautions should i take with my dishes??
How should i prepare for a cat 1 or 2 hurricane for my dishes??
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You could remove some or all of the reflector and/or panels for all of your C-band dishes leaving the polar mount in place. This would take out most of the wind load off the dish and you should be able to easily reinstall it after without having to realign it.
I will remove the entire reflector of my 6 foot panel dish if anything stronger than a minimal tropical storm is forecast to hit near New Orleans. A dish this large (expecially a solid dish) would fly like a sail.
As for my Ku-Band dishes, if anything stronger than a weak Cat 1 is forecast, I will remove all reflectors, leaving the mounts and motors in place. I did this for Katrina (near 140 mph winds in Metairie), and all mounts stayed firmly in place. I didn't even have to re-aim once I reinstalled the reflectors. Then again, satellite dishes and television reception were the least of my problems during the aftermath of that storm.
As for my Ku-Band dishes, if anything stronger than a weak Cat 1 is forecast, I will remove all reflectors, leaving the mounts and motors in place. I did this for Katrina (near 140 mph winds in Metairie), and all mounts stayed firmly in place. I didn't even have to re-aim once I reinstalled the reflectors. Then again, satellite dishes and television reception were the least of my problems during the aftermath of that storm.
2 major factors play a big role in supporting that undesirable prediction. First Irene eye still is staying above water therefore like any storm it gathers strength as time goes by from the warm waters (although luckily at the same time water is getting colder as it goes north) but beleive it or not it would have been "better" if it it would have moved with its eye inland not in the sea. Any storm that already reached Hurricane classification has to be treated seriously to minimize problems. Dont fooled yourself by the Cat 1 or 2 numbers , it could be classified as Category 2 but its sustained winds could be very well so close to Cat 3 and also the wind burst is even stronger although for just a few seconds at a time. Coastal areas also are heavily affected by the sea surge or flooding and in many cases flooding its their biggest problem rather than the wind strength.
Second factor that seems not important but usually plays a big role on natural disasters is readiness, disasters history or if you will how accustomed people and emergency services in the area are used to this fenomena. People in Texas , Florida , Caribbean, Mexico and surroundings beleive it or not "are used to" or at least has learnt from past experiences therefore they tend to make better decisions , like evacuating, or not going out (lots of people get killied by flying objects) , not touching fallen cables or other common sense meassures. I do noth think areas as far North as New York are that well prepared. Even building codes are problably not enforced for Cat 4 hurricanes like in other areas.
I had been through several hurricanes back in Havana and beleive me you do not want to be in their path even for only a Cat 1 Hurricane (well technically , beleive it or not, the best place to be is the Eye of the hurricane ,is unbeleivable how calm the beach was after the hurricane and we used to jump into water for just a few minutes or maybe an hour, but the problem is you would have to be in its eye when it formed and follow its path for over a thousand miles and then only leave after it vanished completely). No matter how well prepared , how solid the building codes a hurricane with its slow motion , wide area, strong winds , heavy rain, sea surge or flooding, will keep you awake all night with its hauling even if you had not slept for days!.
Good luck is not the best advice, Secure your stuff and Leave and Stay out of way is the only advice at all.
Second factor that seems not important but usually plays a big role on natural disasters is readiness, disasters history or if you will how accustomed people and emergency services in the area are used to this fenomena. People in Texas , Florida , Caribbean, Mexico and surroundings beleive it or not "are used to" or at least has learnt from past experiences therefore they tend to make better decisions , like evacuating, or not going out (lots of people get killied by flying objects) , not touching fallen cables or other common sense meassures. I do noth think areas as far North as New York are that well prepared. Even building codes are problably not enforced for Cat 4 hurricanes like in other areas.
I had been through several hurricanes back in Havana and beleive me you do not want to be in their path even for only a Cat 1 Hurricane (well technically , beleive it or not, the best place to be is the Eye of the hurricane ,is unbeleivable how calm the beach was after the hurricane and we used to jump into water for just a few minutes or maybe an hour, but the problem is you would have to be in its eye when it formed and follow its path for over a thousand miles and then only leave after it vanished completely). No matter how well prepared , how solid the building codes a hurricane with its slow motion , wide area, strong winds , heavy rain, sea surge or flooding, will keep you awake all night with its hauling even if you had not slept for days!.
Good luck is not the best advice, Secure your stuff and Leave and Stay out of way is the only advice at all.
BTW Who said that a Cat 1 Hurricane is weak?. I rather have a stronger Cat 2 that only lasts 20 min because its moving soo fast than a "weak" Cat 1 blasting me all night for over 10 hours because it is almost stationary. Anything classified as Hurricane is a serious storm and should be treated accordingly.
Looks like the entire Eastern seaboard is going to be swiped by this thing. Now is the time to remove reflectors and stash them somewhere safe. While wind is the main enemy for the dishes to contend with, don't underestimate water damage. Katrina would have had a far less severe impact had it not been for the storm surge.
Take pictures of your dish installations before the storm for documentation in case it is needed for insurance. Fortunately, homeowners will cover wind damage. It will not, however, cover water damage.
Be sure to remove any frozen food from your freezer. If the power is out for an extended period of time, you will not want the food to spoil and ruin your freezer. I learned this the hard way after Katrina... Believe me, the smell is enough to make a person physically ill.
Take care and be safe, we are all hoping and praying for the best.
Take pictures of your dish installations before the storm for documentation in case it is needed for insurance. Fortunately, homeowners will cover wind damage. It will not, however, cover water damage.
Be sure to remove any frozen food from your freezer. If the power is out for an extended period of time, you will not want the food to spoil and ruin your freezer. I learned this the hard way after Katrina... Believe me, the smell is enough to make a person physically ill.
Take care and be safe, we are all hoping and praying for the best.
Thanks all! looks like landfall here in Ct will be just west or ontop of me!im located 15miles inland and live on top of the highest elevation in the area (680ft) so flooding wont be a factor!just the winds.Im going out shortly to remove the saucer part of my 3 ft dish on my garage leaving the motor part intact on the tripod mast.My 6 fter which is on my deck is sheltered from the nw to the e/se i will secure with heavy rope and cables to my deck.I went threw hur gloria in 85 which was abit larger in wind but wasnt around long due to its fast speed and irene is much biger and moving much slower than gloria did so even if it arives as a tropical storm it will be blowing winds for a much longer time than gloria did.Better to be safe than sorry.I guess scott has decided not to tamper with his dish and have it weather out the storm as is!i he can be my test to see how well a bud will do in this storm.
Gag a maggot,J, is the term we used. I cleaned out about ten of them after Katrina. We finally decided to screw them shut with wood screws and let the pickup service handle them that way.
My Paraclipse survived Katrina, had two blown out mesh panels though. When I got it the previous owner told me the story. So I know its tough. Anything else, put it at TS and hope for the best, if I can't take it down and bring it in.
stanleyjohn said:
My 2 cents.....
Having experienced these storms in Florida, Mexico and the Caribbean, I learned that they pack incredible destruction and would suggest that this design of panel dish is not constructed to withstand extreme winds and is not mounted securely. I would remove the dish from the pole and put it in the garage. If you get sustained CAT1 or 2 wind, your deck will be torn up and that design of dish is frail enough without wind and will crumple....
Mark the mount and the post for an easy reinstall. Better to be safe than picking up the pieces!
Good luck everyone!
Smart man!. I was going to say when I saw the 6 footer still on , keep in mind in a Hurricane the wind always blows in both opossite directions , what ever they are. I still remember seeing the roof tiles from neighbours (in Cuba they are made of clay) flying off like bullets in one direction and mainly from one side of the roof then after the calm (the Eye) they started flying off from the other side that was almost intact but now in the opposite direction.
After all, east coasters have been lucky this time around, because despite this storm staying above water (therefore picking up organization and strentgh) it has not gained sufficient power to become Cat 3 or 4. The reason being those waters up the east coast farther north are not as warm like the ones in the gulf of Mexico or the Florida straight where luckily there is lots af land nearby that weakes and deorganizes any storm (they do pick op strength but not for so long like when travelling like now up the coast) but in any case if this storm would have stayed that long on warm water only in the caribbean by the time it gets to south USA it would have been cat 4 easily.
It is still a massive large slow moving hurricane , therefore potentially dangerous. It is good to see that this time around everyone involved at any level seems to be cooperating. None of this happened back with Katrina , I guess lessons have been learnt. Not being prepared and lack of common sense is almost as dangerous as the storm itself.
Good luck and always stay safe.
After all, east coasters have been lucky this time around, because despite this storm staying above water (therefore picking up organization and strentgh) it has not gained sufficient power to become Cat 3 or 4. The reason being those waters up the east coast farther north are not as warm like the ones in the gulf of Mexico or the Florida straight where luckily there is lots af land nearby that weakes and deorganizes any storm (they do pick op strength but not for so long like when travelling like now up the coast) but in any case if this storm would have stayed that long on warm water only in the caribbean by the time it gets to south USA it would have been cat 4 easily.
It is still a massive large slow moving hurricane , therefore potentially dangerous. It is good to see that this time around everyone involved at any level seems to be cooperating. None of this happened back with Katrina , I guess lessons have been learnt. Not being prepared and lack of common sense is almost as dangerous as the storm itself.
Good luck and always stay safe.
Re the frozen food. Double wrap it in plastic garbage bags while still frozen. Then if it survives, no problem, if not it should not ruin the freezer, Just pull out the bags and toss them.. Of course, if you are like me -- just run one generator more! Stay safe.
We Just got our power back!
:clap250k out of 700k still out! Storm went farther west then thought and wasnt really too bad!just alot of trees down with 4" rain here.Dishes might of been ok to stay up but wanted to be on the safe side. 3 foot dish back in operation and this weekend the 6 footer should be also! it wasnt really much of a proplem to remove them.
:clap250k out of 700k still out! Storm went farther west then thought and wasnt really too bad!just alot of trees down with 4" rain here.Dishes might of been ok to stay up but wanted to be on the safe side. 3 foot dish back in operation and this weekend the 6 footer should be also! it wasnt really much of a proplem to remove them.
Both dishes are now back in service!I just removed the dish reflector so no alignment was needed.
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