OT: Presidential Visit to my Home Town
On Tuesday, President Biden will visit Manville, NJ, the town where I grew
up. It has been hit the hardest of any locality in the Northeast by
hurricane Ida.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9M5mz5wQZo&t=36s
There was a lot more rain here this week than we had during Superstorm
Sandy, and the Delaware, Raritan, Passaic, and Millstone Rivers crested a
couple of feet higher than in Sandy or any previous tropical storm. The
flooding inland was much worse, although the lack of high winds meant there
were lower and fewer storm tides, largely sparing the Jersey Shore areas.
Sandy was worse for us because we lost power for 8 days, whereas the lack
of high winds with Ida spared us that (although other areas did lose
power). There were 3 explosions of homes and a restaurant in our area, and
the resulting fires were uncontrolled because the flood waters denied
access to emergency vehicles. There are a number of homeless families in
the three towns surrounding us.
Our home was unscathed, but our next door neighbors had three feet of water
in their basement and suffered thousands of dollars in damages which
insurance will not cover. They are now in a hotel because of the mold and
odor from the basement that permeates the entire building.
Earlier in the week, I was drafting a contract for the sale of a commercial
building in Manville owned by my cousins. Thursday there was three feet of
water in the building, and it was isolated by flood waters for 36 hours.
Yesterday, I helped my cousin and his grandkids tear up the wet carpeting
before it could get moldy, and we turned off the gas and electric to the
HVAC. There is a lot of drywall that is no longer dry and must be
replaced. The transaction is up in the air at this point, in part because
the buyer had a retail store up the street and also suffered substantial
damage.
Our family was extremely lucky, but there is devastation all around us.
Dan Matyola
https://tinyurl.com/DJM-P entax-Gallery
https://tinyurl.com/DJM-Pentax-Gallery
Looking at that devestation on the news right now... of Manville before
and after --
beyond awful... and like you I've been very lucky this time around..and
not very severely
troubled under Sandy though only 3 blocks away the cars were floating.
ann
On 9/5/2021 11:47 AM, Daniel J. Matyola wrote:
On Tuesday, President Biden will visit Manville, NJ, the town where I grew
up. It has been hit the hardest of any locality in the Northeast by
hurricane Ida.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9M5mz5wQZo&t=36s
There was a lot more rain here this week than we had during Superstorm
Sandy, and the Delaware, Raritan, Passaic, and Millstone Rivers crested a
couple of feet higher than in Sandy or any previous tropical storm. The
flooding inland was much worse, although the lack of high winds meant there
were lower and fewer storm tides, largely sparing the Jersey Shore areas.
Sandy was worse for us because we lost power for 8 days, whereas the lack
of high winds with Ida spared us that (although other areas did lose
power). There were 3 explosions of homes and a restaurant in our area, and
the resulting fires were uncontrolled because the flood waters denied
access to emergency vehicles. There are a number of homeless families in
the three towns surrounding us.
Our home was unscathed, but our next door neighbors had three feet of water
in their basement and suffered thousands of dollars in damages which
insurance will not cover. They are now in a hotel because of the mold and
odor from the basement that permeates the entire building.
Earlier in the week, I was drafting a contract for the sale of a commercial
building in Manville owned by my cousins. Thursday there was three feet of
water in the building, and it was isolated by flood waters for 36 hours.
Yesterday, I helped my cousin and his grandkids tear up the wet carpeting
before it could get moldy, and we turned off the gas and electric to the
HVAC. There is a lot of drywall that is no longer dry and must be
replaced. The transaction is up in the air at this point, in part because
the buyer had a retail store up the street and also suffered substantial
damage.
Our family was extremely lucky, but there is devastation all around us.
Dan Matyola
https://tinyurl.com/DJM-P entax-Gallery
https://tinyurl.com/DJM-Pentax-Gallery
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I like Biden, but I make it a policy to stay as far away from Presidential
visits as I can.
Clinton visited us after Hurricane Fran, while we (National Guard) were on State
Duty for the clean-up, trying to get the schools ready to re-open. [1]
Cost us half a day because the security perimeter closed off the only road we
could use to get out of the motor pool area, so we couldn't leave to go to work.
Before Clinton, George HW Bush visited Raleigh ... I don't know what for, but
the route his motorcade took blocked off the cul-de-sac where my "office" was
located, and I was stuck for a couple of hours before I could get out to run
service calls.
This was while I worked for the Burglar Alarm company and I only needed to go to
the office to pick up materials. If I'd known about the visit and the schedule
for the motorcade I could have planned my trip to the office accordingly and got
some work done somewhere else so he'd been & gone before I went over to the office.
By the time Obama & Trump visited Raleigh I was retired and could just stay home.
On 9/5/2021 11:47:53, Daniel J. Matyola wrote:
On Tuesday, President Biden will visit Manville, NJ, the town where I grew
up. It has been hit the hardest of any locality in the Northeast by
hurricane Ida.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9M5mz5wQZo&t=36s
There was a lot more rain here this week than we had during Superstorm
Sandy, and the Delaware, Raritan, Passaic, and Millstone Rivers crested a
couple of feet higher than in Sandy or any previous tropical storm. The
flooding inland was much worse, although the lack of high winds meant there
were lower and fewer storm tides, largely sparing the Jersey Shore areas.
Sandy was worse for us because we lost power for 8 days, whereas the lack
of high winds with Ida spared us that (although other areas did lose
power). There were 3 explosions of homes and a restaurant in our area, and
the resulting fires were uncontrolled because the flood waters denied
access to emergency vehicles. There are a number of homeless families in
the three towns surrounding us.
Our home was unscathed, but our next door neighbors had three feet of water
in their basement and suffered thousands of dollars in damages which
insurance will not cover. They are now in a hotel because of the mold and
odor from the basement that permeates the entire building.
Earlier in the week, I was drafting a contract for the sale of a commercial
building in Manville owned by my cousins. Thursday there was three feet of
water in the building, and it was isolated by flood waters for 36 hours.
Yesterday, I helped my cousin and his grandkids tear up the wet carpeting
before it could get moldy, and we turned off the gas and electric to the
HVAC. There is a lot of drywall that is no longer dry and must be
replaced. The transaction is up in the air at this point, in part because
the buyer had a retail store up the street and also suffered substantial
damage.
Our family was extremely lucky, but there is devastation all around us.
Dan Matyola
https://tinyurl.com/DJM-P entax-Gallery
https://tinyurl.com/DJM-Pentax-Gallery
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[1] The chain-saw massacre. The State of North Carolina bought two tractor
trailer loads of Stihl chain-saws with 24" cutting bars. Passed them out like
parting gifts from the Oprah show ...
"You get a chain-saw, you get a chain-saw too ... and YOU get a chain-saw ...
EVERYBODY gets a chain-saw!"
Those of us with prior experience USING a chain-saw got to "train" the rest of
the soldiers in basic chain-saw SAFETY.
In my battalion, that was the Colonel and me. Fortunately there were no serious
injuries.
That was 25 years ago and I STILL (or maybe Stihl) have nightmares.
The state did NOT get all of those chain-saws back. I ran across two of them
investigating a shipping container fire while I was in Iraq in 2004.
--
Science - Questions we may never find answers for.
Religion - Answers we must never question.
Dan, and anyone else affected by recent weather disasters, my deepest sympathy.
At the risk of coming across as Captain Obvious, I want to share some the lessons I learned from our own flood experience 15 months ago.
-
Physical structure.
a. Move out the salvageable books/pictures/dishware/furniture etc.
b. Rip out the drywall. Even if it was only wet up to 2-3 feet, take it down. This makes it easier to do a neat job putting in new, it helps the drying and mold mitigation process, and it gives access to electrical wires and outlets that will need to be replaced.
c. Spray everything inside with special mold mitigation mixtures. Or pay big bucks and have a competent outfit like ServPro do the job. A 50/50 mix of Clorox and water works well on concrete & cinder block walls. -
Personal items.
a. U-haul and others have portable storage pods, 4x8x8 feet or so. We had 4 of those in our driveway to store salvaged items so they were out of the way of the initial cleaning and then the rebuild. And much more convenient than storage lockers 1-5 miles down the street or across town.
b. Dry and clean and dry. Try not to store wet items that will mold.
c. Inventory! Itemize what you have, what you lost. -
Financial considerations.
a. FEMA will help, assuming one is in a Federally Declared Disaster Area.. They will cover some/all of the expense of replacement lodging while you are out of your home. They will cover other expenses. But they will need to know you need help. There should be a local process for information sharing which should be putting out when/how to go online and register with FEMA. Some of the key questions in the FEMA sign-up process: “Are you able to live in your home?” “If not, where are you? How long do you anticipate being in this temporary location?”
b. Keep receipts!
c. See 2-c above. Itemize, inventory.
d. Insurance may cover some losses. If you can prove the loss.
e. Loss that isn’t covered by insurance or FEMA (or donations from United Way, church groups, etc) may be taken as a deduction on next year’s Federal Income tax. If you can document. Inventory, itemize, recreate purchase records!
In my case we did have flood insurance on the house (but nothing on the contents). The insurance adjuster said that we had suffered $125,000 damage to the house, our policy was capped at $85,000. Our deductible loss for tax purposes was therefore $40,000. Which helped. And the adjuster's itemization of the structural damage apparently sufficed for IRS.
Oh, back on the notion of “salvageable” - in the rush and chaos of getting stuff out of our house, too many of our things went into the trash pile at the curb which we could well have salvaged. Including not just personal items, but things like the wooden baseboards which were ripped out to get the drywall out. With a little care, those baseboards could have been removed intact and cleaned up. Laminates, plywoods, need to go, but solid wood can be cleaned.
All the best to your and your neighbor and cousin and everyone else!
Stan
On Sep 5, 2021, at 11:47 AM, Daniel J. Matyola danmatyola@gmail.com wrote:
On Tuesday, President Biden will visit Manville, NJ, the town where I grew
up. It has been hit the hardest of any locality in the Northeast by
hurricane Ida.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9M5mz5wQZo&t=36s
There was a lot more rain here this week than we had during Superstorm
Sandy, and the Delaware, Raritan, Passaic, and Millstone Rivers crested a
couple of feet higher than in Sandy or any previous tropical storm. The
flooding inland was much worse, although the lack of high winds meant there
were lower and fewer storm tides, largely sparing the Jersey Shore areas.
Sandy was worse for us because we lost power for 8 days, whereas the lack
of high winds with Ida spared us that (although other areas did lose
power). There were 3 explosions of homes and a restaurant in our area, and
the resulting fires were uncontrolled because the flood waters denied
access to emergency vehicles. There are a number of homeless families in
the three towns surrounding us.
Our home was unscathed, but our next door neighbors had three feet of water
in their basement and suffered thousands of dollars in damages which
insurance will not cover. They are now in a hotel because of the mold and
odor from the basement that permeates the entire building.
Earlier in the week, I was drafting a contract for the sale of a commercial
building in Manville owned by my cousins. Thursday there was three feet of
water in the building, and it was isolated by flood waters for 36 hours.
Yesterday, I helped my cousin and his grandkids tear up the wet carpeting
before it could get moldy, and we turned off the gas and electric to the
HVAC. There is a lot of drywall that is no longer dry and must be
replaced. The transaction is up in the air at this point, in part because
the buyer had a retail store up the street and also suffered substantial
damage.
Our family was extremely lucky, but there is devastation all around us.
Dan Matyola
https://tinyurl.com/DJM-P entax-Gallery
https://tinyurl.com/DJM-Pentax-Gallery
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On Tue, Sep 07, 2021 at 02:32:05PM -0400, John wrote:
I like Biden, but I make it a policy to stay as far away from Presidential
visits as I can.
Good plan.
When my wife was working at the Computer History Museum (in the early
days while it was still located in outbuildings at Moffet Field) there
was a complication for one of their evening events. Bill Clinton had
decided to pop over to the Bay Area to visit Chelsea at Stanford, and
then to attend a fundraiser in the evening.
It wasn't an official presidential visit, so it was still possible to
get onto the airfield, but it was made very clear that access was only
to be allowed on the direct route from the gate to the museum. Stray
off the allowed path and the security detail would have something to
say to you. It was possible to see Air Force One parked on the runway
only a few hundred yards from the museum, and there were all sorts of
extra people posted on street corners, rooftops, etc.
I decided that taking the 250-600 along and pointing it at the plane
would probably not be a good idea ...
On 8 Sep 2021, at 02:21, John Francis johnf@panix.com wrote:
On Tue, Sep 07, 2021 at 02:32:05PM -0400, John wrote:
I like Biden, but I make it a policy to stay as far away from Presidential
visits as I can.
Good plan.
[…]
I decided that taking the 250-600 along and pointing it at the plane
would probably not be a good idea ...
--
I think one of these would be useful for that type of photo - I don’t know why they don’t make them any more.
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-P9gNDLKagh0/VFDBT1idOAI/AAAAAAAASkc/e8UmH6lxwhI/s1600/CameraGun1.jpg
If you position yourself somewhere discreet, maybe behind a wall, in some bushes, or the window of say a school book depository, I’m sure you’d get a clean shot.
On Sep 8, 2021, at 1:07 AM, Bob Pdml PDMLBW@hotmail.com wrote:
On 8 Sep 2021, at 02:21, John Francis johnf@panix.com wrote:
On Tue, Sep 07, 2021 at 02:32:05PM -0400, John wrote:
I like Biden, but I make it a policy to stay as far away from Presidential
visits as I can.
Good plan.
[…]
I decided that taking the 250-600 along and pointing it at the plane
would probably not be a good idea ...
--
I think one of these would be useful for that type of photo - I don’t know why they don’t make them any more.
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-P9gNDLKagh0/VFDBT1idOAI/AAAAAAAASkc/e8UmH6lxwhI/s1600/CameraGun1.jpg
If you position yourself somewhere discreet, maybe behind a wall, in some bushes, or the window of say a school book depository, I’m sure you’d get a clean shot.
Some years back, I was killing time after work, at a new job, and used one of those stocks to get some photos of planes flying over head on the approach to San Jose airport. When I got back to work the following Monday morning, four of Santa Clara’s finest greeted me with guns drawn.
--
Larry Colen
lrc@red4est.com
One used to be able to go to a location under the departure or landing
pattern of a major civilian airport or even a military airbase, watch the
planes, and even take images. Now, that will get one on the no fly list,
and possible indicted.
Dan Matyola
https://tinyurl.com/DJM-Pentax-Gallery
https://tinyurl.com/DJM-Pentax-Gallery
Am 08.09.21 um 10:07 schrieb Bob Pdml:
I think one of these would be useful for that type of photo - I don’t know why they don’t make them any more.
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-P9gNDLKagh0/VFDBT1idOAI/AAAAAAAASkc/e8UmH6lxwhI/s1600/CameraGun1.jpg
Here's some more info:
https://camerapedia.fandom.com/wiki/Zenit_Photosniper
Ralf
--
Ralf R. Radermacher - Köln/Cologne, Germany
Blog : http://the-real-fotoralf.blogspot.com
Audio : http://aporee.org/maps/projects/fotoralf
Web : http://www.fotoralf.de
There was another type integral with the zoom lens. The pistol grip
controlled the zoom & the trigger the shutter. I nearly bought one in
the 1970's but it worked out too expensive. Can't for the life of me
remember the make.
Alan C
On 08-Sep-21 07:50 PM, Ralf R Radermacher wrote:
Am 08.09.21 um 10:07 schrieb Bob Pdml:
I think one of these would be useful for that type of photo - I don’t
know why they don’t make them any more.
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-P9gNDLKagh0/VFDBT1idOAI/AAAAAAAASkc/e8UmH6lxwhI/s1600/CameraGun1.jpg
Here's some more info:
https://camerapedia.fandom.com/wiki/Zenit_Photosniper
Ralf
--
Ralf R. Radermacher - Köln/Cologne, Germany
Blog : http://the-real-fotoralf.blogspot.com
Audio : http://aporee.org/maps/projects/fotoralf
Web : http://www.fotoralf.de
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