RV Fuel Issues & Prices - Post 'Em Here!

LindsayRichards wrote:
High winds and turbines

You obviously don't leave wind turbines running during a hurricane. :S

High winds and turbines

I am talking about solar plants not rooftop which is just a fad and won't ever be a big factor.

LindsayRichards wrote:
Solar or wind plants would have been devastated by the storm.

Unless a Category 5 hurricane moves directly over a turbine, damage should be minimal.

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-blogs

I would think anyone with an intact roof could have at least limited solar power even as the utility rebuilds the distribution.

Hurricane Sandy is now rated as the most energetic hurricane of all time. This is due to its large wind field of tropical storm wind speed out to 1000 miles diameter.

Hurricane energy is rated by Integrated Kinetic Energy. Other hurricanes may have higher speed winds but since they are of a smaller diameter their energy and therefore their destructive effects are concentrated in a smaller area.

Sandy had a higher IKE than hurricanes Katrina, Andrew, Hugo, and Ike. Sandy had an IKE of 222 terajoules (222 trillion joules). For comparisons sake, a tennis ball traveling at 14 mph has an energy of 1 joule. Sandy's energy was equivalent to 4.5 Hiroshima size atomic bombs.

Back to gas issues, disasters like this are a reason I keep the motorhome and classic cars topped off with gas w/stabil. We might need to siphon it off in a disaster.

LindsayRichards wrote:
16 Fisker Electric cars burn up during Hurricane Sandy. They caught fire when in contact with water. mmmmmmm

ROFL! How perfect - Typical Government pricetag - 50k = 100k!
Got to admit, it is beautiful! Too bad those right wingers at Consumer Reports dissed it. :D

Be careful looking at used cars after a storm: many cars are seriously damaged by flood and then cosmetically improved and shipped to non-flood areas to be sold to unsuspecting buyers.

Joe Bastarti PhD in meteorology the founder of Accuweather and in my opinion the leading hurricane expert in America has stated that due to the warming of the Atlantic and cooling of the Pacific, we are returning to the hurricane cycles of the late 1950's and 1960's where there were 10 high category hurricanes striking North of North Carolina. These things are cyclical in nature. Lots of "news guys" believe in global warming (now called climate change as the global is cooler now than 15 years ago). We are coming out of an Ice Age 14,000 years ago and warming slowly. I might note that what the residents are calling for more than anything in NJ is gasoline. The NY refineries are running at a reduced rate. Solar or wind plants would have been devastated by the storm.

I believe I heard more than one news-guy saying that it really doesn't matter if you believe in global warming or that these storms are unprecedented........... the insurance companys do! Anyone rebuilding will be faced with houses on stilts and a whole new foundation plan, like it or don't get insured.

The cleanup is massive but one thing FEMA is doing the job and there aren't many photo ops by the administration , just help. I would think the corp of army engineers (asked for by Christie) are already moving heavy equipment and helping with the grid and the fuel problem.
I think my trip in that area will go on hold for a while maybe after a year. When Katrina did its thing so many years ago the first things that were fixed were the casinos and big hotels the people weren't even in the picture for any type of restoration for a long time. Heck I'd bet there still isn't a library in Gulf port yet, last time I looked it was still a FEMA trailer. I think things will be better with Sandy.

You can not really build to withstand the direct hit of a Category 4 or 5 hurricane. On the barrier islands, even the inlets are made and filled in. The building standards were toughened up after Hurricane Andrew, but that helps on the peripheries only. Right now, federal flood insurance will pay for this flood damage and people will rebuild. Chances are, it will be decades before another one hits. With a forest fire, this prevent another one by burning off the feed stock, but with a hurricane, it is by chance. When I was a kid, they were a lot more often than today. With warming of the Atlantic and the cooling of the Pacific, good weather experts say the cycle will be back like the 50's and 60's where the NE took 10 hurricanes above NC.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes to restore electric service vs. restore the gasoline supply to the hurricane damaged area. Although both are pretty much hand in hand as the power outages also affect the gasoline supply.