Monday, October 24, 2005

Live blogging Wilma until the lights go out

From Palm Beach County FL

~7:00pm Sunday: Finished helping another fellow board up his place. This is the 3rd house I've helped board up. Am I the only one in south FL with proper tools to do this sort of thing? Seriously, jerking around without a good hammer drill takes forever. Some people are just pounding in masonry nails...makes a real mess of the stucco and concrete coming out. Might as well just shoot it with a Hilti gun if you're gonna do that and save a lot of time.

I've donated all the extra Tapcon's and washers I had to help other people. Home Depot is out of Tapcon's and fender washers. I was reduced to drilling holes in pennies and a bunch of electrical box knock outs I had been saving. FYI: drilling pennies is cheaper than buying real washers. With a drill press it goes pretty quick.

~1:30am Monday: Plywood was up on my crib yesterday. I still hear the sound of saws and hammers in the middle of the night though. Why do people wait like this? Working in the middle of the night sucketh greatly.

Still some houses in this neighborhood that haven't bothered to do anything at all. Too late now.

~2:30am Monday: Winds seem about 30mph. No rain yet. Leading edge of the rain looks about 2hr away on local radar. Streets are quiet now. People are either done or have given up.

~3:30am Monday: Winds seem about 35mph, guts to ~45. No rain yet. Trees getting whipped around a bit. Key West is getting hurricane force winds.

~4:45am Monday: Winds seem about 35 sustained, gusting to 50ish, light rain.

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