No work today, Hurricane Bertha paying a visit...

[Bermie]

How's your day?

We're sitting out Hurricane Bertha today, tropical storm force winds up to 65 knots not too bad, seen much worse, but still a nasty rainy windy day...she's tracking 42 miles to the east of Bermuda, down my end of the Island!

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Gonna be chippin a lot of palm fronds later in the week?

My hometown 2 day forecast http://forecast.weather.gov/wtf/met...=0&pcmd=1110111111110000000010000000000&lg=en

Hmm, it would not come across as an IMG, must be because it is generated, not an IMG file. Anyone know how to embed something like that in vB?

And the 7 day
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClic...40417&smap=1&marine=1&mp=1&map.x=81&map.y=190

US tax payer money at work!

 

[tomtrees58]

hey bermie tom from L I here wear are you i no the island well good luck tom trees

 

[memetic]

I called it a day when I got soaked at about 7am. Looking at the radar, looks like a rain clouds/storm goes from N Carolina all the way to Maine.

I want to see a hurricane. When I was in Jamaica they told me hurricanes were great to watch. Of course, they said part of the excitement was having ANY change of weather - everyday is the same.

 

[tree MDS]

Rain out this way, all the equipment is poised and waiting on the customers lawn. I'm doing interviews today trying to find a non loser, hired a guy with a CDL class A hope it works out, looks normal we'll see, lol. Hey Bermie, I got exp. with all those tropical trees, I worked in Fort Lauderdale for 13 months. Do you do alot of crown reduction pruning like we did due to weather/sandy soil? That was tough stuff right there, thats for sure.

 

[Brush Hog]

I rode some waves yesterday in RI from Bertha. It was a pretty angry surf and I too got rained out today. I ordered some stuff from Sherrill and bought some gear at local shop. Tomorrow is another day.

 

[memetic]

"I rode some waves yesterday in RI from Bertha."

Must be nice having a real ocean. All we have is a salty pond the locals refer to as the "Sound".

 

[Brush Hog]

Yeah, I have to drive about 1.5 hours to get to open ocean(RI) but I'm only 35 min. from LI Sound. My girls like playing in the waves in the sound. A lot smaller than RI.

Bermie, How's the wave action there ??

 

[Bermie]

Plenty of crown reductions, especially on casuarinas.
I did two crown thinnings last week in anticipation of the storm, two large callophyllums, hand saw stuff, fun!...happy clients today!

The surf got up pretty good, we don't have a lot of places with big rollers, too much reef. Lots of swell and undertow/ripcurrents = dangerous.

The eye has just gone past, we skirted the edge of it, the backside eyewall is just hitting us now. The storm has intensified, getting quite blowy! 55-60knots in the first half, we'll get more in the second.

Memetic - if you never see a hurricane in person, don't feel too bad. When they are only small like this one its ok, but over 100knots it gets :censored: scary, nothing you can do but pray the roof is going to hold on. My whole house was vibrating in the last bad one we had in '03...and my house is made of stone and half of it is buried in a hillside!
Tomtrees - I live in St. George's

Oh yeah, its starting to kick now...ta ta for now!

 

[tree MDS]

Callophyllum, thats the one with the little oranges...am I right?? Royal Poincianna (spelling uncertain), all the ficus types (incuding "Indian Rubber", and they called it and "Banyan"), Callophyllum grow slow so trim light when reducing, am I right??

 

[Treeinnovator]

i'm so jealous Bermie. i get goose bumps from excitement everytime a hurricane is headed towards me (South Florida). the whole preparation/emergency panic atmoshphere is intense especially at the grocery stores. then it's completely dead on the road 24 hours before. not a sole driving around. i love it !!!

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I've been in a few small ones, 2 while I was in the WestPac. One on an LPD (naval troop ship) in the East China. I was on the flag bridge on radio watch and we could see the little LST's disappear in the 60 ft troughs. That had to have been 86 or so.

Will your cistern be full after this is over?

 

[memetic]

I don't care what anyone says, I want to see a hurricane in person. I think it would be exciting as all hell.

But, not on a LPD watching LSTs (whatever the hell that is) disappear in 60 foot troughs. #### that. There is no cistern big enough to take me through that. I'll do it on land though, anytime.

 

[Bermie]

Callophyllum, thats the one with the little oranges...am I right?? Royal Poincianna (spelling uncertain), all the ficus types (incuding "Indian Rubber", and they called it and "Banyan"), Callophyllum grow slow so trim light when reducing, am I right??

I don't care what anyone says, I want to see a hurricane in person. I think it would be exciting as all hell

Callophyllum, my nickname for it is 'golfball tree'...covered in golfball sized green fruit right now. Moderate grower, these ones were among the largest I've seen here, about 20-25' probably over 20 years old. They are not large heavy trees, so I just whizzed around with my silky, deadwood and nothing live over 2". I learned this week they have very good timber for cabinetry and turning...never knew, and the fruit are used for their oil in other countries.
The Poincianas (Delonix regia) and ficus (we have F. retusa, benjamina, elastica, elastica var., religiosa that I know of) all grow fairly fast.
Everything will be looking tattered and burnt tomorrow! The Poincianas were all hugely covered in flowers, the best display I've seen in over 10 years...just starting to go over when the hurricane came!

Water tanks are overflowing now, we got 3" today, we so needed it, haven't had more than 1" in the last month.

We had 70knots sustained for a while, its down to 50 or so now...lots of leaves and small branches down. One huge ficus went over in town, crashed through the side of an industrial building. It had next to no roots, tarmac all around right up to the trunk, a chainlink fence through it, and its in the flood prone area of town, so its no mystery to me why it went! Too bad though, nice shade gone.

Mem...when you pick a hurricane to see, make sure you pick one with winds LESS than 100knots!

I'll probably get back on the mainland on Wednesday, got to let the surge die down before we can put our boat back in the water...

 

[Tree Machine]

Hi Bermie. I've been thinking about you a lot the last couple days.

I have a list of hurricane links bookmarked so every morning and every evening I roll through them all. This goes on daily from June through December.


Here's an image for ya, Bermie. This was when the eye was pretty much on top of you.

 

[Bermie]

Yes indeedy!
That would have been about 2 - 2:30ish in the afternoon. We had a definite lull in the wind then the backside kicked us with 70knots.

You'd hardly know though, everything is just fine, not even much leaf burn, small branches broken, lots of leaves on the ground, and just the one big tree that went over in town, severely compromised root system though, it was inevitable!

Move that arrow to the east end and that's where I was!
We track all the systems too, satellite, water vapour, infra red, doppler...fun!

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

This is an IMG search on the USS Austin ( I was on that or the Shreveport at the time) Landing Platform Dock

http://www.dogpile.com/dogpile/ws/r...e/iq=true/zoom=off/_iceUrlFlag=7?_IceUrl=true


Here are the LST's Landing Ship Tank, the causeway on the bow can be extended to land vehicles and troops on 2% of the worlds coastline. Teeny, tiney little ships.
http://www.dogpile.com/dogpile/ws/r...e/iq=true/zoom=off/_iceUrlFlag=7?_IceUrl=true

 

[tree MDS]

Callophyllum, my nickname for it is 'golfball tree'...covered in golfball sized green fruit right now. Moderate grower, these ones were among the largest I've seen here, about 20-25' probably over 20 years old. They are not large heavy trees, so I just whizzed around with my silky, deadwood and nothing live over 2". I learned this week they have very good timber for cabinetry and turning...never knew, and the fruit are used for their oil in other countries.
The Poincianas (Delonix regia) and ficus (we have F. retusa, benjamina, elastica, elastica var., religiosa that I know of) all grow fairly fast.
Everything will be looking tattered and burnt tomorrow! The Poincianas were all hugely covered in flowers, the best display I've seen in over 10 years...just starting to go over when the hurricane came!

Water tanks are overflowing now, we got 3" today, we so needed it, haven't had more than 1" in the last month.

We had 70knots sustained for a while, its down to 50 or so now...lots of leaves and small branches down. One huge ficus went over in town, crashed through the side of an industrial building. It had next to no roots, tarmac all around right up to the trunk, a chainlink fence through it, and its in the flood prone area of town, so its no mystery to me why it went! Too bad though, nice shade gone.

Mem...when you pick a hurricane to see, make sure you pick one with winds LESS than 100knots!

I'll probably get back on the mainland on Wednesday, got to let the surge die down before we can put our boat back in the water...

So when can I come to work for the winter?? CT sucks moose in winter, phone dont ring enough to be worth it, its just the cheep ones that do call. Some regular jobs but not enough to be worth it. Just dreaming but that would be a tree guys dream right, show up back in CT all suntanned up and in shape just when all the competion is all fat and pale-and to have some more totally different expieriences as well! Man that would be sweet-I like the heat too!!

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I think so many people are hitting her up for work that she is starting to charge for the privilege of working on the island in winter.

 

[Bermie]

I hate to burst your bubble boys, but its not very hot here in the winter!
Like 60-65, and a bit more rainy.
We lose our tans over the winter...
Remember BDA is 1000 miles north of the caribbean!

JPS, yes the list is long and spans both sides of the Atlantic!