Hurricanes + RVs = Bad Juju (Cut n Paste) From Texas

[MEXICOWANDERER]

[starlord]

Went to Mustang Island every year up until a few years back. Taking a look at the moving video of the road through there and Port A, I see Pioneer R.V. resort where we stayed is toast (RVs sideways and flipped everywhere) and the town itself is pretty much devastated. So sorry for them.

[Charlie_D_]

17" at my house since Saturday morning. 4" in 2 hours this morning but none since so water in this area is slowly receding. Looks like it will be reentering the gulf and come over us Wednesday.

Vietnam buddy winters in Rockport/Fulton. Has a park model, boat and golf cart. Lost everything.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Parking nose or tail to wind can save your life. But I've learned a bitter lesson. Any chance of a storm coming ashore within 5 days I flee inland. To a raised section of land. Avoiding water courses.

At home in Feb 2006, my NWS rain gauge registered seventeen inches of rain in 5 hours. Porch was filled with drowned birds. Impossible to walk. Rain spattered so hard it bounced up to knee level. Could have laid a spare tire in front of my feet and I wouldn't have seen it. When rain lessened, water was pouring off the bluff into the Pacific. Looked like Niagara Falls (sort of).

There is no recreational vehicle I know of that can stay rain tight in a hurricane. Lay tarps over top mattresses, bag bedding and clothes in garbage bags, physically disconnect from shore power. Cover generator with garbage bags, Shut off battery disconnect switch, close propane tank valves and tough it out for several hours. The only thing worse than a hurricane is to have a battery or LPG fire inside a rig. It's not the flames, it's the smoke and fumes.

I have a friend, who has a stick & brick in Lake Jackson, TX. Also a motorhome, and a 5th wheel and an inboard boat. I visited last in 2005. The short drive to Freeport, alarmed me. Utterly flat. The shoreline is lined with chemical plants. I lost contact with him on the 17th. I can only offer pathetically little for Tech Tips against these monsters.

[pianotuna]

Hi Mex,

Respecting Mother Nature is a good plan. I went through a winter storm on March 9, 2017 which was so strong it peeled plastic signs off my RV. They were held down by the fancy 3M 150 lbs per square inch tape. The nose of the RV was pointing into the wind and I was in the lea of a mound of cleared snow in a parking lot. When I saw the signs go I knew I had made the right decision to stop.

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Nevertheless, I still fear hurricanes and tornadoes.

[rockhillmanor]

lizzie wrote:
I don't even remember how many hurricanes I have been through as I was born in Florida in 1939. With or without an RV, the issue is deciding if or when to go and then what direction to take.
The

darn things will follow you for 100's of miles and sometimes go out to sea and double back

. ....

X10 !
A few years back a friend of mine who lives in Ft Lauderdale, FL
had to evacuate for a hurricane. (Can't remember the name of the hurricane.}

He loaded up the kids, wife and dogs and the inlaws
and headed to Punta Gorda where he parked the MH at
a friends house to be safe and out of harms way.


Well....At the last minute the darn hurricane changed
it's path and hit Punta Gorda straight on.
Can't begin to tell you how ticked off he was!
Still talks/complains about to this day.

[Charlie_D_]

pianotuna wrote:
I hope not too many folks got hurt.

Yet there were many pictures of RV's moved sideways and many that appeared to not have moved or been damaged in the Rockport/Fulton area. Vietnam buddy from Kansas winters in Fulton. Has a park model in a local campground and I suspect it is toast.

Anyone who may be going to the Fulton/Rockport area? I would appreciate a PM.

[joebedford]

I hope nobody gets hurt.

I'm glad we only visit the US when the weather has calmed down. Unfortunately pretty soon we'll have winter hurricanes and tornadoes.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Quicksilver is anchored with six concrete filled 10x20 junk tires buried three feet deep*. Chains to the surface. Bus sits on eight 5 ton jackstands on a concrete pad. Big Rig ratchet straps bind the bus frame to the jack stands via pulling the buried tires upward. This is the family's hurricane hole if push comes to blow. Dual sandwich 16 gauge steel and federal rollover specs make School Buses heavy but durable.

A backhoe was hired. The same guy who moved the batteries and genset.

Nevertheless, I still fear hurricanes and tornadoes.

[lizzie]

I don't even remember how many hurricanes I have been through as I was born in Florida in 1939. With or without an RV, the issue is deciding if or when to go and then what direction to take. The darn things will follow you for 100's of miles and sometimes go out to sea and double back. Several years ago we left one in Florida, flew from Atlanta to Newark where we were delayed because it was coming up the east coast. We finally flew to Scotland and less than a week later it slammed us there! We have lost trees and roofs, had the power out for weeks, been flooded up to the front porch, but never suffered any injuries or lasting damage. My heart breaks for the folks in TX I wish I could help. lizzie

[Edd505]

I assume the red X is emergency services has checked it for occupants.

[TakingThe5th]

Bad news for sure! If you try to leave you may blow away, yet if you stay put you may float away. Tough situation.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

I've been through seven major hurricanes, including hurricanes Camille, Gilbert & Andrew (while visiting Big Al Renard the rectifier manufacturer in 1993). Scary does not describe the experience.

[turbojimmy]

That hokey TV wall mount bracket held up.

[pianotuna]

I hope not too many folks got hurt.