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Lucky
30 October 2012 | by Last night was a rather sleepless night. As Larry W2LJ mentioned, the rain wasn’t so bad, but the wind was downright scary. Up until about midnight I periodically went outside and walked around the house looking for damage, keeping my back and weight to the wind in order to not get pelted in the face or get blown over. The wind sounded like a freight train coming over the ridge. I was so glad I put temporary guy lines on the tower. Other than some siding on corners popping out, there was no permanent damage occurring, however I noticed my HF tribander and 6 meter beam misaligned on the tower. Under the force of the wind the tribander was beginning to turn and go off azimuth. I rotated the antennas in an attempt to use the wind to true up the tribander.
About 3 AM I awoke to metal banging against the house. I got dressed, went outside and found a 10 foot piece of aluminum flashing or trim dangling from the roof eave which shortly fell to the ground. Other than that, no more damage. Amazingly we still had electricity.
This morning when I awoke it was still quite windy and blowing the rain sideways, though not as violent as last night. There was no further damage to the house, but the antennas were more misaligned than before. So we were lucky here in Pennsylvania, and are thankful for having power and a home. A lot of people in New York, New Jersey, and to the south and west of us in PA did not fare so well.
5 Responses to “Lucky”
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Thanks for the update. Looks like you came through without too many problems. Randy
Good morning Anthony, great to hear you and your family are doing good. As for the house just a bit of flashing is not a big deal and something that can be repaired no problem. Up this way we did not have the winds you spoke of. There was a howling wind and some rain but not really any damage occurred.Thanks for the update and I have not seen Larry’s blog up and running yet and hope all is well with him.
Mike
VE3WDM
Great news, Goody! Thanks be that you came through without any major damage. Same here for the most part. Lost a major limb on the maple in the back yard; but it didn’t hit anything on the way down and it was below the wire level of my EDZ, so that survived.
The wind WAS something wasn’t it? The noise was unlike any other hurricane that I have been through – and I have a few under my belt. We’re very lucky in that I got a text from my wife (I’m at work) that power came back on this morning, almost exactly 36 hours after losing it Monday night. It’s strange how your mind works. As I was taking my shower this morning, I was thinking to myself, “How do I go about keeping my house warm and my refrigerator and freezer cold?” 🙂
Our town literally looks like the proverbial cyclone went through it. I will do a major post on my blog tonight with pictures – between myself and my wife, we took quite a few.
On the lighter side, we adpoted a kitten this past July and haven’t come up with a satifactory name for her. After a few fits and starts and trial names, in honor of the way she energetically tears through the house, we have decided that her name is now officially – “Sandy”.
Larry W2LJ
Sounds like you’ve had a worrying time. I’m glad we don’t get those winds here.
Glad to read ya survide the damage. Up visiting my daughter in boston l am from san antonio tx