Posts Tagged → storm
Another Ice Storm
On January 28, 2010 we started off the morning dry and cold. Before long the rain moved in and the temperature dropped. By 10:00 AM the boss had decided to send everyone home because the roads were getting icy. It took us a whole hour to get from our parking lot to the gate to get off base. As the day went on we had more and more rain and later changed to sleet. It appeared that we had dodged the worst of the storm because the sleet does not stick to tree limbs and power lines. From the weather reports it sounds as if the worst of the storm was in Southwestern Oklahoma. Both my sister at Ft. Sill and my sister in-law at Altus AFB lost their power and are still sitting in the dark as of the time I post this. These ice storms are becoming a regular thing. You may remember the ice storm in December 2007 where the Oklahoma City area was hit the hardest. We were without power for a week so I can certainly sympathize with them losing their power.
This morning I woke up to find that we are off work again. This is nice to have a day and a half off work without having to take vacation time. My wife and I have decided that now we are off work so it can stop now. The snow can go away so we can have a nice week end. It is not listening to us. I need to call out Cox Cable to fix my line to the house. My Internet has some serious issues and needs to be redone. I know for a fact the problem is not my network. Well better get this posted before the Internet goes off again.
Towers Fixed
You may remember last week I posted about a storm that came through and caused some damage around my dad’s house along with mine. This storm caused a lot of hail damage to my car, bent the repeater antenna on my tower and also on my dad’s tower. I just did not have the time, nor the desire to climb the tower and try to fix the damage. As I get older, I do not feel comfortable climbing the tower to work on antennas when I do not have a safety harness. Well my dad is very resourceful and managed to find a tower climber and fixed both antennas yesterday. It is nice having a dad that use to be in the radio industry for many years. That is one crisis that is not a problem anymore. Thankfully the repeaters were not affected in the first place. both the two meter and the 70 cm repeaters still work fine and it was just the repeaters themselves that were affected. Disaster is averted! 
Conflicted on Storm
I have made it clear over time of my love for storms. Maybe I am weird but I just find the storms enjoyable. On Thursday July 16, 2009 we had a surprise storm that I found to be a dream come true. This storm was sudden and small in size thought it caused some damage in the area it covered. The storm covered most of the Eastern half of the Oklahoma City metro area while the Western half of the city remained sunny and hot. Although this storm was very exciting and wild, I too was a victim of the damage from this storm. Most of my damage was an after effect of the storm. In the photo above you can see the main entrance to Heritage Park Mall in Midwest City, Oklahoma. As you can see the roof was blown off onto the front wall. This was just one example of the many buildings that lost roofs as a result of the + or – 80 MPH wind that resulted from this storm. In the photo below you can see some of the 2 inch hail that we received at our home.
In this picture below you can see one of our repeaters (145.25) antennas bent over from the high winds. This antenna is a very expensive $900 antenna that is 20 feet long and the pole is more than two inches in diameter. This antenna still works but is very unattractive to look at.
Just as the antenna above is bent, you can see our other repeater (443.3) antenna that is on our WIN System repeater. This antenna is just as expensive as the one above. The wind was very powerful to be able to do this on both towers more than a half mile apart.
There were other damages that were not pictured here such as our car. One of our cars took many dents because of the hail. In addition to these there were after the fact damages done because of the power surges after the storm. This storm knocked down many power poles in my area leaving thousands of people without electricity. We were one of the fortunate ones that did not lose power long term but rather lost power intermittently over a two day period. At least I thought we were fortunate. As the local power company repaired many of the power lines that were destroyed, it resulted in a drain of the rest of the electrical system. With each pole that was restored, we received a one or two second blink of our lights. This went on for two days resulting in damage to several of our household appliances. In the picture below you can see my $200.00 Internet radio that was ruined. This radio will not even light up now. In addition to this we lost a computer, a Nintendo Wii that was less than one week old.
The brand new computer that replaced the bad one has now developed an intermittent outage that I cannot duplicate. The appliance damage is exacerbated by the fact that I live in an old home where there is not an adequate grounding system in the electrical wiring. The typical surge protector that most people use to protect their appliances are rendered useless in these cases. They cannot protect from surges because they need an adequate ground to shunt the excessive voltages to. Without giving the surge protector a good ground to send the excessive voltage to, it leaves those appliances vulnerable. In fact I have every one of these appliances plugged into these surge protectors. There may be other problems that I have not found yet. There were many trees that were split in half all over my neighborhood leaving the streets filled with leaves and tree branches.
This damage leaves me a little conflicted on the storm that was so enjoyable at the time. This was a wakeup call that shows that we can be a victim during and after the storm. Although the storm was over two days ago, I continue to get blinking lights due to the power company reinserting those downed lines back into the system. If you live in an older home that does not have adequate grounding, you will be vulnerable to power surges even if you have surge protectors installed. It looks as though I have a lot of work to do to get this place up to standards. Surprisingly it was not the lightning that caused these damages. It was after the storm when all these surges happened that has resulted in the damages to my appliances. This makes it even worse because even if you were responsible and unplugged your appliances when you saw the storm coming, you would have plugged them back in after the storm. There would ordinarily be no reason to unplug my appliances with the current sunny skies yet these ongoing power surges allow continue to damage my equipment on this sunny day.
If you are like me and have a lot of electronic equipment, you may want to do some research and find out what constitutes true surge protection. You may find out that you have no protection at all like myself. I hope this post helps to alert you to the risks that are inherent with electronic equipment. If you have this equipment, you may want to take some action to protect yourself.
Boy Was I Wrong?
It is not that often that a person can get it so wrong that it brings fear to them. Just 30 minutes ago I was complaining about the rain always missing us. This evening was shaping up to be another one of those evenings where there is a line of thunderstorms that goes completely across the state and then forms a hole just as it passes the metro area. As much as I love storms I find myself getting mad when this happens. Well I guess I insulted God, or angered him in some way because shortly after that, we had a downpour. I would estimate that the wind was blowing nearly 80 MPH in the above photo. You can even see a leaf blowing by in this shot.
In this picture you can see how the street was flooded near my home. This is the rain that we never get. I would say the water was about four inches deep in the center of the road here.
In the picture above you can see the tree branch laying in the road with the hail splashing in the flooded street. The storm was almost over at this point and you can see the elementary school in the background is showing signs of the sun coming out.
This is the beautiful sky as the storm is moving away. The large bird circles over head asking himself “What was that?” I really enjoyed this storm and wanted to share it with the rest of you. That wind did get a little scary at one point. I missed some great shots because I was trying to keep the camera dry. At one point the wind was blowing so hard and the rain was coming down so hard that I could barely see across the street. I do not want to be known as the one that always complains when things are going bad and never give God credit when things are going well. We really needed this rain and it was a real blessing. I am very thankful to be able to get rain especially when two hours earlier it was 97 degrees. If you want to see the rest of the pictures, just click on any one of them and it will take you to Flickr to see the whole set. Thanks for stopping by.
Rainbow
Tonight a storm went by here and barely brushed by us to the East. We did manage to get enough light rain while the sun shine over head. The one good thing that did come from this was this pretty rainbow to the East. I will take whatever rain we can get but we really need some more. The rainbow was a real blessing to look at it. Also it cooled the temperature from 97 degrees to about 85 in just a half hour. I just wanted to share this image.
A Busy Week Complete
The last week started off with the dreaded call when I was at work on April 10th that my grandmother had passed away. She had been in the hospital for 45 days after having a severe stroke on March 1st. The previouse week my sister and her family was here from Illinois to attend my brother in-law’s Army graduation. She got back home just to have to turn around and come right back. We went to the funeral on Monday and got to see many relatives that we had not seen in a while. As sad as it was to lose my grandmother, it was comforting to know that she knew Jesus and was much better off afterwards. Also it was nice seeing relatives that I had not seen in a while.
The past several weekends I had planned on working on my final thesis for school but something had come up over and over again. Since my due date was this past Friday, April 17th I was running out of time. I decided to take off work the rest of the week and work on it. I worked all day Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday as I finished it on Friday. I turned it in and still have a little bit of natural anxiety as I await the grade. I really hope that he does not turn it back to me to correct a second time. I turned in my first draft on March 20th without even proof reading it once and my advisor had a ton of suggestions on what I need to do to improve it. I basically re-wrote the paper. Now I wait, hoping he will give me a passing grade since this is the last lesson that I do as an OU student.
This passed weekend the local meteorologists promised 100% chance of rain with severe storms likely. Friday night while we were sleeping we did receive a light rain that did not last very long. We waited all weekend and finally got a very small storm last night. The storm only lasted maybe ten minutes though it looked like it strengthened after i passed us. I took a few pictures as it passed us.
The photo above was looking to the Northwest after the storm had passed to the East. The clouds depicted in this photo are called mammatus clouds. Thes type of clouds usually look scary but they are not dangerous at all. They look like this because there is sinking air and these type of storms are almost always at the back of the storm. This storm looks far worse than it was as it only rained moderately for a few minutes. I was disappointed because I really wanted to see some storms. Later in the evening as this storm moved off to the Southeast it built up into a severe storm with lots of lightning. For the life of me I do not understand why I never thought to take any pictures of the lightning until the storm was at a distance.
The above photo was taken straight South as the storm was building over Cleveland county. You may have noticed the low flat clouds in the fore ground that are completely separate from the storm. These low clouds were associated with the cold front that came in after the storms went by. Had I waited any longer to take these pictures, I would not have been able to get this lightning becuase these low clouds would have blocked my view. I missed a grand opportunity last night because I was too busy pouting about what a dud the storm was . Again, it was a much better stom after it passed us. This morning we are on the back side of this low pressure with some hard North wind.
This spring has been cooler than normal as we have had one cold front after another. It seems to get up to 80+ degrees just to be followed by a 30 degree drop the next day. The trees started blooming two months ago and still have not completed. The poor trees cannot finish because every time it gets cold, the trees stop their blooming process. This has resulted in our allergy problems lasting longer than they should. With the powerful winds we have been dealing with wild fires resulting in homes being burned. About a week ago we had a wildfire that burned more than 100 homes on the East side of the metro area.
I took the photo above in Midwest City. This is just one of the homes that was burned as the 40+ MPH wind carried the fire more than five miles. I had a feeling as I got off work on that day when I looked out the front door of my work and saw smoke near Carl Albert high school. I had no idea that it was that big of a fire at the time. Hopefully the rain we received this weekend will help prevent any more fires.
Again, I have not been very active on my blog for a while because my school was approaching the end and it was my priority. Whenever I am paying thousands of dollars for college, it only makes sense that I take it seriously . Like I said before, if he says my paper is satisfactory then I am officially done. I will graduate in less than a month. Let’s just pray that it meets the requirements of my advisor. I realize this post is more of a rambling news report but since I have not been on in a while, I thought I needed to keep you up to date. Hopefully I will be able to keep the blog up to date now that I will have more time.
The Morning After
DISCLAIMER: This post contains photos that may be inappropriate for young viewers. Parental Guidance (PG) is advised.
(Cue the piano music)
Yesterday, March 28, 2009 will go down in history as the day that mankind almost went extinct. The Blizzard of 2009 was so horrific that it will be talked about for generations as the Oklahoma City metro area was brought to its knees with a record TWO MILLIMETERS of snowfall. You are right, your ears did not fool you as this city received two millimeters as in twice as much as one millimeter. As the storm clouds passed over night the horror of this event is just now being measured. As mothers clung to their children their very homes were being destroyed by the weight of two millimeters of snowfall. The chaos that has ensued has been nothing less than horrific. This morning after shows a city, and nation that can no longer survive on its own. The panic and wailing of those left behind gives the impression that time is running short. Looting has become out of control as well as violent. Below you can see what is left of a mother dandelion as she was mauled by a black bird. This graphic image is just an illustration of the pandemonium that has ensued.
There are far worse images than these but I felt that to show them would be taking advantage of the poor victims. I guess that is just the humanitarian in me rearing its head. Below you can see the young child of this dandelion clinging to life on a nearby chain link fence as the violence continues just out of the picture. I think I speak for all of humanity when I say this poor child needs our prayers.
As much as this pains me to see this violence and the raging storms go on I feel that we need to recognize that it is our own fault. If we had only listened to the doomsday predictions of global warming. If we had only taken their advice and rode a bicycle in a suit and tie to work ten miles, this could have been avoided. This horror is your fault and mine for not heeding the advice of the climate change crowd. Is it too late to correct this terrible situation? We will find out the next snow storm we have.
I have received countless emails praising my heroics of my reporting but I just want to say that I am no hero. I am just doing what anyone would do in this situation. I put myself in danger to protect you. It is just who I am as a humanitarian. I will continue to brave the elements and cover these terrible events to keep my viewers educated. I will not bow to the pressures of those that speak logic. I will not bow to those that have common sense. I do it for you because you the viewer mean so much to me.
(Piano music off)
Storm Moving this Way
I just looked at the satellite image and there are already some high clouds moving into central Oklahoma from the hurricane. They are talking like we should get a lot of rain the next few days as it moves across. I will take as you know I love rain. The down side is the incredible humidity after it moves away. We just finished mowing the lawn and were really hot and sweaty when we came back in.
KFOR is saying that South East Oklahoma will get 6-20 inches of rain and that Oklahoma City should get as little as 1/2 inch on the western suburbs to 4 inches near Shawnee. That 20 inch estimate sounds like a stretch to me but we will see. A couple nights ago we had an incredible lightning storm that sure lit things up. I have been watching a lot of the hurricane coverage all morning and it looks as though New Orleans missed the worst and it should begin improving from here. I even heard they are going to let everyone go back tomorrow. Looks like the prayers were heard and for the most part, they have avoided too much damage. I see the news reporters standing in New Orleans and the lights are still on so they have not even lost electricity at least where the reporter is standing. I would imagine that tomorrow we will see some of the damage and it likely will not be as bad as the storm in 2005, or at least we hope so.
Update June 14, 2008
This week I have been in school half days at work. They have me taking a class on how to use a program that my office will never use. My job series uses this program but in my particular office, it will never be used. I am always open for training at work whether it is relevant or not because it always helps to make me more rounded and better qualified for future opportunities. I just want to thank God for helping me to stay healthy this year allowing me to build my leave (vacation) back up. In 2007, I had a bad year where I was sick all the time and missed a lot of work. I missed more days last year than I have missed during the last three years combined. This year I moved to a new position that I am thrilled to be in. Now I can actually look forward to going to work. My wife works down stairs and down the hall from me so I have been pretty blessed on that. With gas getting out of control, it is comforting to know that I can ride to work with my wife. I was browsing around on Friendfeed and stumbled on a streaming audio of an HF radio being streamed on Ustream. I have been listening to a net in Tennessee for a while and it is pretty interesting. You can find it here.
My son had some friends over last night until midnight and that was pretty fun and relaxing. Around 10:00 pm we had a line of thunderstorms that came through and the line progressed across the same place for a couple hours and I loved that. I am always open for a thunderstorm. I love to keep the rain coming as late in the year as possible because once the ground gets dried out, we start heating up above 100 degrees and I am not looking forward to that. Last year and this year we have managed to keep the ground wet enough to keep the temperatures relatively low. I was listening to our local NBC affiliate KFOR this morning and they just told of someone here in Del City entering a funeral home and stole the belongings of the mourners at a funeral. It is hard to comprehend someone lacking morals to that degree. If you will steal from someone mourning the loss of a loved one, then you are a sorry human being.
I know I am usually hard on the media and rightfully so because of their political slant in their reporting. Yesterday Tim Russert had a heart attack and died and I would like to pass my condolences to his family. He seemed to be willing to listen to both sides of the conversation when others would not. I heard he collapsed while at work at NBC. I wish his family the best and feel for their loss.
I have a lot of school work this weekend to catch up on as the unit ends tomorrow. I normally do not wait this late to finish up my work but last weekend we had some welcome family and we had a very good time. My wife’s sister and her daughter came to see us after their home was hit with a tornado and we really enjoyed their stay. I hope they are able to get the damage repaired without too much trouble.
This year we managed to get a lot of growth cleared out of the fence line.
As you can see from this picture, you cannot see through the fence and see the houses behind the house. In this picture you can see how one of our neighbor’s tree fell across the fence taking the power lines down. This was a couple years ago. We have lost power so many times because of all this growth out of control. Little by little, we have cleaned out this brush to where there is none left. After the ice storm last December we decided that it all needs to go because it has been growing into the power lines and you could not work on anything. I am pleased to say today there is no vegetation left along the fence line all the way around the property. Hopefully we can keep our electricity the next storm that passes over us. Well I have covered just about everything I can think of so I better get this posted. Blogged with the Flock Browser
Tags: Friendfeed, ham radio, trees, brush, clearing, Tim Russert, storm, Del City, Ustream