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Archive for October, 2016

Hurricane Matthew – The Postlude

by Bingle on Oct.08, 2016, under Richard Bingle Family

While our house in Orlando survived the winds, the house in Viera did not fare nearly as well. Most of the shingles were ripped off of the back of the house that faces north. The house will need a new roof.

My brother-in-law and I went out to the house this morning to take down the shutters and do something about the roof. We had arranged to meet with a roofer today so once we got the shutters off we decided to take a break (it was hot work) and wait for the roofer’s advice before we tried to cover the roof ourselves. Thankfully, the roofer was able to cover the roof with a tarp and tar paper (properly) for us so that we didn’t have to get up on the roof ourselves. Unfortunately, it wasn’t free, although the roofer said that it could just be added to our insurance claim. Yes, we have hurricane insurance on that house, but the deductible is substantial. Oh well, at least now when we re-list the house for sale we can say “brand new roof!”

– Rich

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Hurricane Matthew

by Bingle on Oct.07, 2016, under Richard Bingle Family

Didn’t get much sleep.

At about 1:00 a.m. (right before it was to hit the Melbourne area) the forecast track and strength of the storm was updated to about a bit farther offshore and from a category 4 to a category 3. This means that the winds out in Viera likely didn’t exceed 80-90 mph. Winds here in Orlando eventually ramped up to probably 40-50 mph.

No apparent damage here at the house in Orlando (but it is still gusting). Word from my buddy out in Viera is that he had no apparent damage either and would let me know probably later today if there was any damage to the folks’ house, but technically there is a curfew in place until Saturday morning.

– Rich

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Hurricane Matthew – The Prelude

by Bingle on Oct.06, 2016, under Richard Bingle Family

The local news has been doing hurricane coverage pretty much non-stop today as Hurricane Matthew is projected to skirt the coast of Florida as a category 4 storm overnight tonight.

I spent Tuesday afternoon and evening and all day Wednesday trying to get the hurricane shutters up at the folks’ house in Viera. Apparently during the estate sale, the cleanup, or the house being on the market, all of the specialty bolts and wingnuts for the shutters disappeared. After a ton of running around out on the coast I managed to get 75 wingnuts and 100 substitute bolts. Unfortunately, I ended up needing closer to 100 wingnuts, so ran out with two windows left. I managed to buy the last 1/4-20 nuts in Brevard County to get one of those two windows covered, but was still not able to get the garage window shutters put up. That window faces east and breakage would mean that the wind would get into the garage and cause potential roof damage. Hopefully the house insurance includes hurricane coverage! Guess I should be happy that I was able to scrounge the parts I did to get the majority of the shutters on.

Here in Orlando we’ve got our two Mazda’s, most of the patio furniture, the garbage/recycle cans from next to the house, and our grill in the garage. The rest of the patio furniture is in the kitchen and pool bath. The van and Intrepid are on the driveway. The Mazda6 and the van are gassed up. Got some cash. We have basically a boulder resting against the double door at the front of the house (Charley blew hard enough to cause that door to almost open despite being locked) and the door is taped up to prevent any water from blowing in. Being this far inland we never invested in shutters or plywood for our house (even after being hit with Charley, Frances, and Jeanne in 2004).

Now we wait…

– Rich

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