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Projections put Hurricane Laura making landfall just a few miles east of my location It was suppose to go up the Sabine River between Texas and Louisiana, but at the minute shifted to the east. This caused the majority of damage to be in Southwest Louisiana. Southeast Texas got some damage, such as downed trees, trees through houses, and power outages, but not as bad as Lake Charles and Southwest Louisiana.
My trusty generator that always cranked refused to run - this is a Coleman Powermate 7200. Even after cleaning the carburetor, replacing the fuel line, replacing the fuel line switch, cleaning the spark plug, and replacing the fuel filter before the hurricane made landfall, nothing resolved the issue.
My son brought over a rebuilt generator, but something was wrong with the voltage. As a result, the fan in my fridge burned out. Fan was replaced yesterday - I ordered a replacement from Ebay.
To keep the food cold after I got a new generator, then took the back access panel off the fridge, the panel you take off to get to the compressor, and put a box fan blowing on the compressor, which also blew across the coils. The box fan kept the fridge coils and compressor cool and working.
My brother brought his cows, horse and goats to my house and put them in the chicken yard. When I built the chicken yard I built it using field fence, t-post, and telephone poles for corner post. The yard is around 1/2 acre and was large enough to keep the cows, horse and goats.
I use a utility pump to pump water from a creek to the chicken yard water system. Chickens have a 35 gallon drum, and a 5 gallon pan that catches rain water. Once a month or so, depending on heat and how much rain we get, I run a water hose from the utility pump to the chicken yard to fill up the 35 gallon tank, The livestock was drinking so much water, I put the water hose in the 5 gallon pan and left the utility pump on. The pump gave out being under the load. Of course the replacement pump was not in the store room. I think my exwife took it when she left in 2015. That is my fault for not making sure there was a replacement pump. Thankfully Lowes in Jasper, Texas had utility pumps in stock, so I bought two of them.
A buddy of mine I went to high school with, he was renting a house in Orange, Texas, evacuated to around College Station, and when he came home, a large tree had gone through his roof.
FEMA said there had not been enough damage to the area to provide housing.
Points of Distribution (PODS) were only up and running for a few days. My area did not get ice, water or food. Around the Orange and Bridge City area, supplies were handed out for only a few days.
Coleman stove worked perfectly. This is an old Coleman liquid fuel stove from the 1990s that I bought a propane adapter for.
LED lanterns worked great. No kerosene was used during the power outage.
Radios worked great. A cheap $16 am/fm radio I bought off Amazon picked up a radio station 100 miles away with no problem. Loaned my aunt a small Sony am/fm radio and several AA batteries, she did not have a radio. The cheap radio I bought off amazon is recharged via USB.
Battery packs kept running out of juice. I had to charge them almost daily with the generator. These are 20000 mAh packs.
Canopy with a tarp over it worked great for protecting the generators from rain after the hurricane passed. I have a 10 foot x 10 foot Coleman canopy, and put a 14 x 16 foot tarp over it. Tarp was held in place with bungee cords.
Before the storm hit, I filled up three 5 gallon buckets of water. We used those to flush the toilets. Once the water pump was wired into the new generator we had running water and was able to flush the toilets.
Main power transmission lines going to the Jasper, Texas region had been destroyed by the hurricane. The dam at Lake Sam Rayburn was able to provide power to the area. I thought it was wonderful a dam put in back in the 1960s was able to generate enough power over 50 years later.
Local radio station KJAS kept people updated.
I was able to get two cases of Sopakco MREs from someone further south.
Things I Want To Change
A day or two after the hurricane passed we got rain, so my solar setup would not have worked.
Bought a new generator, so that issue is fixed. Was able to run the water pump for the house, and shift between the fridge and freezer.
Get some larger USB battery packs, maybe something in the 30000 mAh range.
I have a window AC unit in the bedroom. This kept the room cool so my wife and I could sleep at night. The rest of the house was warm due to no central AC. Maybe get a window unit for the kitchen?
Overall, besides the generator not running, I was happy with how things went.
My trusty generator that always cranked refused to run - this is a Coleman Powermate 7200. Even after cleaning the carburetor, replacing the fuel line, replacing the fuel line switch, cleaning the spark plug, and replacing the fuel filter before the hurricane made landfall, nothing resolved the issue.
My son brought over a rebuilt generator, but something was wrong with the voltage. As a result, the fan in my fridge burned out. Fan was replaced yesterday - I ordered a replacement from Ebay.
To keep the food cold after I got a new generator, then took the back access panel off the fridge, the panel you take off to get to the compressor, and put a box fan blowing on the compressor, which also blew across the coils. The box fan kept the fridge coils and compressor cool and working.
My brother brought his cows, horse and goats to my house and put them in the chicken yard. When I built the chicken yard I built it using field fence, t-post, and telephone poles for corner post. The yard is around 1/2 acre and was large enough to keep the cows, horse and goats.
I use a utility pump to pump water from a creek to the chicken yard water system. Chickens have a 35 gallon drum, and a 5 gallon pan that catches rain water. Once a month or so, depending on heat and how much rain we get, I run a water hose from the utility pump to the chicken yard to fill up the 35 gallon tank, The livestock was drinking so much water, I put the water hose in the 5 gallon pan and left the utility pump on. The pump gave out being under the load. Of course the replacement pump was not in the store room. I think my exwife took it when she left in 2015. That is my fault for not making sure there was a replacement pump. Thankfully Lowes in Jasper, Texas had utility pumps in stock, so I bought two of them.
A buddy of mine I went to high school with, he was renting a house in Orange, Texas, evacuated to around College Station, and when he came home, a large tree had gone through his roof.
FEMA said there had not been enough damage to the area to provide housing.
Points of Distribution (PODS) were only up and running for a few days. My area did not get ice, water or food. Around the Orange and Bridge City area, supplies were handed out for only a few days.
Coleman stove worked perfectly. This is an old Coleman liquid fuel stove from the 1990s that I bought a propane adapter for.
LED lanterns worked great. No kerosene was used during the power outage.
Radios worked great. A cheap $16 am/fm radio I bought off Amazon picked up a radio station 100 miles away with no problem. Loaned my aunt a small Sony am/fm radio and several AA batteries, she did not have a radio. The cheap radio I bought off amazon is recharged via USB.
Battery packs kept running out of juice. I had to charge them almost daily with the generator. These are 20000 mAh packs.
Canopy with a tarp over it worked great for protecting the generators from rain after the hurricane passed. I have a 10 foot x 10 foot Coleman canopy, and put a 14 x 16 foot tarp over it. Tarp was held in place with bungee cords.
Before the storm hit, I filled up three 5 gallon buckets of water. We used those to flush the toilets. Once the water pump was wired into the new generator we had running water and was able to flush the toilets.
Main power transmission lines going to the Jasper, Texas region had been destroyed by the hurricane. The dam at Lake Sam Rayburn was able to provide power to the area. I thought it was wonderful a dam put in back in the 1960s was able to generate enough power over 50 years later.
Local radio station KJAS kept people updated.
I was able to get two cases of Sopakco MREs from someone further south.
Things I Want To Change
A day or two after the hurricane passed we got rain, so my solar setup would not have worked.
Bought a new generator, so that issue is fixed. Was able to run the water pump for the house, and shift between the fridge and freezer.
Get some larger USB battery packs, maybe something in the 30000 mAh range.
I have a window AC unit in the bedroom. This kept the room cool so my wife and I could sleep at night. The rest of the house was warm due to no central AC. Maybe get a window unit for the kitchen?
Overall, besides the generator not running, I was happy with how things went.
