Florida hurricane...

bladegrinder said:
As far as using the brake on a chainsaw, I've never used it and don't plan on starting now. I've had them trip lots of times from kick back like their designed to do but I don't use it in normal use of the saw.
Like you said Ken. I've certainly had quite a few close calls with getting killed in different ways but fortunately I'm still kicking.

Back to my messed up woods from hurricane Michael, I've had the forestry dept. do prescribed burns on my place numerous times and a couple weeks after the hurricane they offered to come clear and refresh my firebreaks for free, they were going all around because of all the fuel laying on the ground everywhere. about ten guys showed up with saws, and two skid steers.
one of their guys got injured and had to go to be taken to the hospital. I talked with the timber company I used in the past and he said four of his guys were out from injuries. I'm telling you these woods were a tangled mess.

After I got injured I did buy some chaps, and tourniquets, I keep one in the shop, one in my truck, one in an old atv and one in my Polaris ranger.
while cutting trees I had some jump up after cutting, a lot were under tension from others laying on top and there was no getting a tractor thru to move any of them. this one went sideways and hit my leg, throwing me about ten feet. the saw was still running about ten feet in the other direction. I quick dropped my pants and made sure I wasn't bleeding out.
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This was my back yard, it use to look like a state park. most of my 30 acres looked like this. that's why I'm still cutting. those trees are a lot bigger up close!
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This is the dirt road going thru my place where the power lines ran. they were smashed to the ground.
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So, I had a lot more safety issues to deal with besides a brake on my chain saw.

Back to hurricane Ian, I feel for all the folks going thru this devastation. I hope all my friends down there get thru this ok without to much damage to their property.
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Good call on carrying those tourniquets!

Be sure to practice deploying them. Not something you want to try figuring out while you're in trouble.

Speaking of chainsaws, I need to replace all the fuel lines on mine. I probably have 8 saws and I doubt I could get a single one running right now. Didn't need them last year, so everything sat. I went to go start up one and noticed a cracked line. Weird because I'm running non-ethanol fuel. Guess it's just old.

Makes those battery chainsaws look pretty attractive for light use.

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I have my "twin" cousin on Pine Island and his 95 year old mother living on Pine Island and Fort Myers respectively. They went inland before the storm. Haven't heard anything about them, but his house is up on stilts and he built it to take this crap, so we'll see.
 
Tampa got lucky again. The storm came in to our south, which put us on the good side of the eye. Sucked almost all of the water out of Tampa Bay and pushed that water up into Port Charlotte and Ft. Myers. A friend of mine in Port Charlotte had water above the windows and he and his wife spend the night in the attic. Thankfully, Florida doesn't have any way to hold water and the water receded in the morning when the wind stopped holding it ashore.

I spent the entire day yesterday clearing limbs and debris and repairing screens. But that's a blessing.

Steve, you weren't kidding. Something big went through that property. You expect to see oaks uprooted when the ground's been saturated and heavy winds come, but when you've got big pines like down all over the place it brings tornadoes and hurricanes to mind.

As to chainsaws, you guys will laugh at me but I've become a big fan of portable electric chainsaws. No, you're not going to do any huge amount of work with one. Buckin' Billy Ray isn't going to trade in his Stihls for my 40V fischer price saw. But I'm telling you- for around the yard and having one in the truck for random incidental work you can't beat them. No gas, no smell, and quiet. Hit the trigger and she's on, let go and she's off.
 
Glad to hear ya'll came thru ok. Lots of rain and saturated ground is what allowed Sally to down so many trees around here in 2020. Most of my stuff is now cleaned up, but do still have one "lazy" tree. Sally blew it over but caught in limb of another tree prevented it from falling all the way over. A few months back it fell rest of way to ground. Now laying flat, but enough rootball is still in ground it's growing nicely and full green this past summer.
 
You dodged a bullet there John for sure. everything their showing on tv that happened would have happened in St. Pete, Clearwater and Tampa for sure.
 
John Wilson said:
Tampa got lucky again. The storm came in to our south, which put us on the good side of the eye. Sucked almost all of the water out of Tampa Bay and pushed that water up into Port Charlotte and Ft. Myers. A friend of mine in Port Charlotte had water above the windows and he and his wife spend the night in the attic. Thankfully, Florida doesn't have any way to hold water and the water receded in the morning when the wind stopped holding it ashore.

I spent the entire day yesterday clearing limbs and debris and repairing screens. But that's a blessing.

Steve, you weren't kidding. Something big went through that property. You expect to see oaks uprooted when the ground's been saturated and heavy winds come, but when you've got big pines like down all over the place it brings tornadoes and hurricanes to mind.

As to chainsaws, you guys will laugh at me but I've become a big fan of portable electric chainsaws. No, you're not going to do any huge amount of work with one. Buckin' Billy Ray isn't going to trade in his Stihls for my 40V fischer price saw. But I'm telling you- for around the yard and having one in the truck for random incidental work you can't beat them. No gas, no smell, and quiet. Hit the trigger and she's on, let go and she's off.
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Heck, I was looking at cordless saws last night. The 60V and 80V saws look pretty comparable to a 40CC to 50CC saw in performance.

I'm looking at the Kobalt cordless saws pretty seriously. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Kobalt-80-...rdless-Electric-Chainsaw-1-Battery/1001772692 pretty sure that's cheaper than the DeWalt 60V saw as a bare tool.

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fitzo said:
I have my "twin" cousin on Pine Island and his 95 year old mother living on Pine Island and Fort Myers respectively. They went inland before the storm. Haven't heard anything about them, but his house is up on stilts and he built it to take this crap, so we'll see.
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Cousin's wife spoke with my sister last night. They're all fine and found a place with appropriate medical equipment to support my aunt.

I was correct, he designed and built the house. The base construction element was shipping containers on a stilt house. The house seems pretty intact via sat images, but who knows what that means after that water exposure? He has a lap pool to try and stay limber (same crippling arthritis as me) that was covered by a greenhouse thingy popular down there. Gone.
He had the foresight to pull his boat out of the dock lift and drag it up on land. Big, powerful ski boat, right where he put it, still covered. It'll be fine most likely.
The big question is his garage/shop. He rebuilds/restores antique teak ChrisCraft and had one in the ground-level big garage his house sat on.

That said, a boat is the least of his worries, and he'll get back there to devastation all around, so hard to imagine what joy that could all bring.

What a mess. Our hearts go out to all those affected across all Ian's mighty swath.
 
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Yea, a lot of folks have nothing to go back to or a giant mess, it sucks. Hopefully his property isn’t too messed up. Kind of makes you think, you could be here one minute and gone the next. Like they say material things can be replaced, but when it’s everything you own it’s got to be tough on your mind.
 
MAJOR bullet dodged. As bad as the destruction is south of us, it would have been considerably worse or at least more widespread if that storm had come up into Tampa bay.
 
fitzo said:
I have my "twin" cousin on Pine Island and his 95 year old mother living on Pine Island and Fort Myers respectively. They went inland before the storm. Haven't heard anything about them, but his house is up on stilts and he built it to take this crap, so we'll see.
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My in-laws live on Pine Island. My father-in-law was home during the hurricane. My mother-in-law happened to extend her visit to my house an extra week, so she was here with us in Indiana.
Unfortunately, it looks like they have lost nearly everything. Communication has been spotty to say the least. We went a full day not knowing if my FIL was alive or dead. Last we had initially heard was that water was coming into the house and there was still 2 to 3 hours to high tide. He hunkered down in the upper level of his 2 story garage before a utility pole came crashing through the roof, forcing him to move to the neighbors 2 story house.
My brother-in-law lives near Ft. Lauderdale, so he drove as far as he could towards the island before having to take a john boat the rest of the way. He found my FIL and they were able to start assessing the damage and helping some others who couldn't leave.
Water ended up flooding into the house and garages about waist deep. His vehicles and his enclosed work trailer washed down the street and were basically totaled, along with a UTV he has set up for medical response.
My brother-in-law and some friends have been able to put together some supply runs, but it's looking like the Island's infrastructure (water, electric, etc...) is gonna be wiped out indefinitely. Sounds like the only access is going to be by air or by boat for quite some time, and they've pretty much told anyone who chooses to stay that they're completely on their own. Looks like there's already been some looting and theft taking place.
Fortunately my father-in-law has extensive training in disaster medicine, so he's able to take care of himself as well as others to the extent his supplies haven't been decimated, but it's gonna be a long road to recovery, if they're able to rebuild at all.
 
@Drew Riley Glad to hear your FiL is okay. It must have been harrowing. Thank you for the clearest info yet on the devastation on Pine Island. Hope your in-laws have as few stumbling blocks on their path to recovery as possible.
 
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It looks like a lot of us were waiting to hear from relatives in Florida. My sister and her husband live on the east coast and they had to evacuate to a motel. Just heard from her that they made it to the eldest son's house. They don't know anything about their house except that the development is flooded and without power. They hope to be able to try to go have a look at what's there in the next couple of days. I do too but I've read that there are some places where the water is still rising. They've tried to talk me into moving down to Florida but no was. I've had enough of hurricanes from when I lived in Tidewater, Virginia.

Doug
 
If I were you Drew I'd do my best to talk him into gathering as much important stuff he can and leave. or if he wants to stay if he doesn't have a shotgun, I'd bring him one because the looters are going to start showing up.
 
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