Georgia Flooding -Larry

[blearning]

Since I hijacked the other thread, I thought I would change over to the porch ...

Larry is not the only one in GA that got flooded out.  but most of are OK.  Feel free to post your GA 2009 flooding experience.

Just got off the phone with Larry, a lot of his lights and stuff have floated away, but some of the neighbors are bringing them back ... That he laughed about ...  and so far has decided not to do a display this year ...

He is still pretty much in shock mode not knowing what to do yet and trying to get his wife up to the hospital for the surgery.   His is moving into a rental place for the time being and I am looking for a throw away washer and dryer ...  that we can put out in the yard to clean what we can.

I will be headed over there soon to help him get his head wrapped around what has just happened, with my trusty pump in hand ..

Since all his stuff has been under water it likely wont work all that well until it gets dried out ...

we wont know until Friday / Saturday what all we will need to be replaced.

I am collecting cash donations through paypal for some of the expenses he is going to  have.  PM me for a address.

[blearning]

Roxy and Larry eventually got to the hospital, all roads to their area are closed and guarded.   He had to go way North then east then back south to get to the hospital, but Roxy is just going in for surgery now.

Not much will happen tonight as the roads will be closed until tomorrow some time.  A lot of the water has drained off.  Only people who are allowed in are first responders and emergency staff.

With the wet ground a lot of trees have also fallen down, blocking roads as well as falling on houses.

All I can hear around here when I go outside is wood chippers, chain saws and pumps.   

[REM]

We got spared down here on the south side of town - it wasn't too bad. Although my dry creek bed wasn't designed for rain like this to say the least.

Here's a good source for "free" stuff: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login. It's basically stuff that people are willing to give away if you just pick it up.  There's usually some good items in there.  Craigslist also has some good free stuff.  It's definitely worth a look.

--Ron

[blearning]

I just got home and got cleaned up.  

I was over to Larry's for the first time as they had opened the roads.  

WHAT A MESS .... imagine just below the top of the door you walk threw.... water ...  dirty mucky water...  SO that is the basement, the step up and several feet up on the main floor.  

Everything below the top of the door was under water ...  tools, controllers, tables bookshelves, books, chairs, couches, beds, dressers.  

We worked several hours today and besides some clean up ... got some of the day clothes out, everything needs to be cleaned as it has a fine silt over everything.

We hauled the fridges and some other equipment outdoors to see if we could get the house cleaned out to get it drying. I did get some pictures that show how high the water got and will post them.

If you are in the area, and are just bored to tears ... we will be working most everyday until we get it cleaned out and starting to remove some gyproc   Into the weekend.  SO come on down and let's play in the muck ...

There is stuff spread over the entire property and up and down the street.  I can only imagine the little shed full of 30 to 40 tubs of lights ..... exploding under the rising pressure and shooting little blue light filled pods up into the air and out into the water.

Larry has some happy pills to get him through this, he is surprisingly mellow actually *SMILE*  

ROXY is in recovery doing OK.  They are keeping her in the hospital where it is cleaner and safer for her.  

I have 2 cans of the CorrosionX that RJ recommended which I think will get a good testing.

For the time being if you have any items you would like to donate please PM me for an address to send to.  I will be storing the stuff here until we can get it to their place.  AS soon as I get his new address I will share that with who needs it.

  

[blearning]

you will see the water Level on the walls

The white is silt, not snow ...

The brick wall is still wet so the water had been about a foot higher then what shows here on the wall.

on the garage just below the top of door ... another water line

[blearning]

today.....  more wet soggy garbage was taken out, I emptied the freezers and fridge and we loaded the dump trailer I don't how many times.

but slowly we are getting rooms cleaned out.  Not much is salvageable so far ...  we have 2 rooms of carpet lifted and a lot more water out of the house.

We checked the walls tonight and they have to be gutted.  It is very disheartning to say the least. 

What do we need not sure yet, more Garbage bags.  The furniture is now splitting as it swells and dries. 

We are hoping to have Larry in his temporary house this weekend, where he can relax for a minute or 2. 

I have been trying to figure out what the stench is out there and if you have ever brewed beer, when you first start the wort ... That is what the smell is .. just the first part not while the wort is working its magic. 

and today Larry's place was officially declared a disaster site ....  it is not waht you really want to happen but it is good news.

[blearning]

back from the swamp .... and we are seeing a little drying on the floors now ...

We got a how to book from fema which is quite good if the information is correct.  A thorough book on how to drain a house and rebuild. Apparently came out of the Katrina fiasco.

Anyhow lots of bodies showed up today, but we were waiting on the trailer to go to the dump.

if we can get the trailers moving, we could have the place gutted by the weekend and ready for rebuilding.   We have several dehumidifiers running and lots of fans and you can feel the moisture being sucked out of everything.

Not much talking as would normally happen on getting things cleaned up. or getting ready to build again. .. it is just so sad ... unexplainable sad to be throwing a mans life long dreams and hard work in the garbage one piece after another.

as we pick up things and place them into bags ready to be thrown out.  You almost feel ... I am not sure ... you try to recall what went into getting this nick nack or that thing into a home and what it meant to Larry and Roxy at the time.   All I can say is it is a very silent personal task.

These are real people who have lost most everything ...

Just so sad .... I pray that nobody has to experience it ... ever.

[blearning]

BTW ... work bee over at Larry's this weekend ... call me for an address .. good shoes and gloves are required ...

[blearning]

A great crowd showed up, the dumpster showed up and we got the walls pulled ... and dehumidifiers and fans are going strong.

I am sore all over but we got into the garage a little as well.  I am not sure if we can recover the controllers or not.  Opening them up and I guess they are not submersible.   just for the record ... do not submerse your controllers in water ... 

I suspect if we do a good dry on them before plugging them in ...they should be OK ... but a bunch of DIY GA guys showed up as well, so we going split up the chores of going through the lighting stuff and see what we can get running.

Hey this is another test for the LYNX boards ... I will document it for us *LAUGHING*

Now if a Pallet of Gyproc showed up and some lumber .... we would be great.

Larry's son had a house, happen to be waiting for a renter.... a ways away so Larry will be setting up residence there for a while. 

Then another flash flood warning comes early this evening, it has passed and everything is well.  It had both Larry and I on the edge of our seats .for almost 3 hours ..

Larry should be getting on line soon and maybe checking in with us.   

signing off for now tired and wore out AKA BL 

[WWNF911]

Hey Bill,
Sounds like a real mess. I hope Larry and his family are ok. Sounds like from your posts that they are. Before you let the controllers dry and test them, Circuits will surprizingly bouce back from being submerged rather well. It's all the muck in the water that causes problems. In fact they might be ok for a while and then have problems. I'd remove all the IC's possible and give em a bath (scrub em with a small brush) actually in distilled water. Make sure it says distilled by steam NOT CHEMICALS.
Good luck
Leon

[blearning]

On the controllers and the electronics and electrical gear ... yes the muck is the enemy here.

What we really need now is petty cash. Until FEMA kicks in it is all out of pocket   

$15 a day to keep the fans going for generators

$450 to dump the dumpster,

Electrician to hook up the temporary power, 

Bleach, Brooms, Drinking water on site, Garbage bags, Totes for storing stuff.  Snacks to feed the people working.   

The light display  is the least of issues, in fact the GA DIY guys are going to help out when the time comes .... if that time comes this year.   

Larry is a Janitor for a local school in the area and works basically for the Health insurance.

So if we as a group could come up with some cash for him for these expenses going on right now that would be great ..

For instance the dumpster is in my name right now, when it gets to 3/4 full I feel a little uneasy ...

we are going to need Lumber and Insulation and Gyproc soon ..  But maybe FEMA will have kicked in then.

[blearning]

I had a few questions asked about Larry ... I know ... I know ... (rolls eyes) ...all us LIGHT guys look alike ... LOL

If you were at THE GA mini Larry is the big guy who was doing the Arch making / winder demo.

If somebody knows where the Pictures are I can point out Larry ... you really can't miss him LOL

A Scout leader for a number of years, great with Kids, hmmmm he would take the shirt off his back for ya if you needed it or even if you asked for it. Generous to a fault.

if you needed a hand he would be the first in line to help ya ..

[blearning]

thinking about this ...

Larry is not going to have time or the resources to get a display up. He has other worries but I think we can pull this off with some help. 

All the GA guys I need a day from you sometime before Thanksgiving. PM the day you would be available.  I'll combine the days available and we will make one day out of it ... it looks like Nov 7 or 14th would be a good pick.

Here is the plan, I will get his layout in what Chris I am doing, set in a third Universe  so we can easily take it out without reworking the sequences... and we can then just take what we have so far and modify it so that he can have a sequenced show as well. 

The Local DLA guys will make sure the controllers are working and the lights and other gear are functional ... and I talked with DAN the MAN  already as well he will cover the LOR boards.  we have the LYNX stuff pretty much covered locally

That leaves the set up of the elements... so I thought we could have a MINI to set him up ... I think if a dozen or so of us showed up one Saturday (with our tools) we should be able to pull it off without any assistance from Larry.

That way Larry could concentrate on what he needs to be doing of getting his house (literally) back together

There are a number of Large items in his display the 25 foot CITY tree, and a bunch of arches across the front of the yard .. it will be more then us 3 Local guys can do, but with a little help from the further out guys I think there would be an excellent chance we could make it happen.     

PM me if one of those dates works for you, and if it does I will knock out a schedule for us. 

[blearning]

rethinking that ... it is a good idea but impractical ...

Got back from the swamp at about 9:00 PM, work for 6 hours at my regular JOB in the morning, then put in 8 hours at the swamp ... 

we made a dent in the garage not so much for the Christmas display but to decontaminate and recover the contents.  The Dent is about 6 foot square of a 24 by 24 garage.  We have a long way to go yet.

Good news is we are 2 for 2 on gas engine equipment, A pressure washer and a blower.  and 2 for 2 on electrical gear, A couple of Skil saws.  If anyone wants to know the process it is pretty slick.  I will likely try one of the controllers tonight.

Anyhow we have to go through that garage and recover the equipment.   In that the Lights and gear will be ready for a display but that isn't the goal here. 

On the house front all the exterior walls are stripped and the place is drying as well as could be expected in GA. 

With the pressure washer working now we can do a lot more man like cleanup of the property.

Larry wanted me to thank everyone who chipped in to get us this far ... and yes got all teary eyed.

he is moved into the new place and is setting up residence there.  I have the new address if anyone needs it .. 

[blearning]

back from the swamp ... and things are progressing. 

We have been cleaning with a bleach and water mixture to decontaminate things as recommended in the FEMA guide. 

I came home the last few days with a headache and some nausea.  I looked up on the internet of Bleach over exposure.  YUP that was it.  I am cleaning the larger items like appliances and buildings.  So I would expect I would have a little more exposure.

So further research on the net shows that Vinegar is as or is better then bleach in mold and germ control.  Yup plain old house vinegar. 

I tried it on a stubborn mold spot in the bathroom and sure as lights blink it did remove it faster then anything I had used.  I have tried a thousand things over the years on this moldy area and never really have dented it all that much but Vinegar is the item to use .. I didn't even have to scrub it all that much, Spray it on and wipe it off.  GONE.  Vinegar is a lot safer then Bleach both environmentally and to me . 

ANYHOW 

So that brings us to the Controllers, some how we have to clean them up as well.  Bleach will  react with some of the metals on the board Oxidizing them.  That wouldn't be good.  So I am wondering about Vinegar 's reaction.  It removes the oxidization on copper and nickel.    Anybody know about the other pieces of controllers and the board materials. 

I know I should have paid more attention in class. 

Any thoughts?