Is severe weather in your area costing or saving yourself money?

[QuarterMillionMan]

In Los Angeles people are hoarding again in preparation for hurricane Hilary but it's only raining and light winds which was expected since it's not even a catagory 1 and just a storm but the news hyped up the hurricane and got people panicking. For me it's saving money since it forced me to stay home and I don't want to drive on the slick roads.

[kork13]

I grew up in Guam with 6-12 typhoons every year, at least 1-2 of which were major (cat 4-5 equivalent). This kind of response is typical for clueless people. The rest of us simply sit back, strap in, & get ready for whatever's in store. Having extra water & sandbags on hand is useful. Put up storm shutters if the winds are strong enough.

If you have at least a few days worth of food/water on hand, there's no reason to panic & swarm grocery stores like this. Especially for a minor storm like Hilary is, everything will reopen once roads are passable (not flooded). It'll dump alot of rain, but otherwise, nothingburger.

[disneysteve]

I’m on the opposite side of the country. All of the coverage here is saying it’s expected to be the worst storm to hit the area in over 80 years. Some areas may see a year’s worth of rain dumped in a very short time. I can certainly understand people being concerned especially since very few of them have ever experienced a storm of that magnitude.

Preparation is wise. Panic and hoarding is not.

I live in an area that gets a modest amount of bad winter weather. Before each big snow storm people flood the supermarkets. We always laugh about it. I don’t know what those people think will happen. I’ve lived here my whole life and with the very worst blizzards maybe we were stuck at home for 2 or 3 days. There’s nothing we need to rush out for before a storm. We’ve always got more than enough food in the house to last a few days.

We have done hurricane prep on several occasions but that was more about securing the house, not making a wild trip to Lowe’s or Walmart.

[kork13]

To your question .... We haven't been having "severe weather" by way of storms or otherwise. But just normal summer weather is bad enough. Most of northern Japan (or all of Japan) doesn't use air conditioning. As a result, buildings erected 20+ years ago mostly have zero A/C. But when it's 85°-90°F and 85%+ humidity (daily in July-Sep unless it's raining), it's unbearable.

As a result, many, many gas l folks are spending hundreds of dollars on portable A/C units that can really only keep one room (apiece) at a reasonable temperature. Unfortunately, trying to not spend $1k on A/C units (and the house electrical can't handle more than a couple), people try to have those couple units cool the entire house. Thus, houses remain merely on this side of "not a death trap".

I'm lucky, because I'm in one of the few houses with A/C units pre-installed in each room. I also don't directly pay the utility bills. So I can mostly keep it reasonably comfortable. But most folks? Woof. Many folks are spending alot just to keep their families safe during the day. It's insane, and there's alot of anger about it right now.

[disneysteve]

To be somewhat fair, keeping in mind that 60-70% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, most probably don't have much of any reserve at home. They may not have enough on hand to last them 3 or 4 days. Plus if they depend on public transportation, which could be out of commission, they may have no way to get around if a bad storm hits the area. So I kind of understand those folks needing to stock up.

[disneysteve]

To your question .... We haven't been having "severe weather" by way of storms or otherwise. But just normal summer weather is bad enough. Most of northern Japan (or all of Japan) doesn't use air conditioning. As a result, buildings erected 20+ years ago mostly have zero A/C. But when it's 85°-90°F and 85%+ humidity (daily in July-Sep unless it's raining), it's unbearable.

As a result, many, many gas l folks are spending hundreds of dollars on portable A/C units that can really only keep one room (apiece) at a reasonable temperature. Unfortunately, trying to not spend $1k on A/C units (and the house electrical can't handle more than a couple), people try to have those couple units cool the entire house. Thus, houses remain merely on this side of "not a death trap".

I'm lucky, because I'm in one of the few houses with A/C units pre-installed in each room. I also don't directly pay the utility bills. So I can mostly keep it reasonably comfortable. But most folks? Woof. Many folks are spending alot just to keep their families safe during the day. It's insane, and there's alot of anger about it right now.

And it's only going to get worse. Climate change isn't going away. Global warming is only going to continue. Phoenix set a new record this year for consecutive days over 110 degrees at 31 days. The previous record was 18 so that record got destroyed. Off the coast of Florida, the ocean temperature has been exceeding 100 degrees and the coral reefs are dying as a result.

QMM, you asked if severe weather is costing us money. The reality is that the impact of global warming is costing all of us a ton of money. Maybe not directly but absolutely indirectly. Higher prices at the grocery store due to destruction of crops and higher insurance rates are just a couple of examples of how we're all spending more due to severe weather.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Wprk admins notified the Monday crew not to report to the office which doesn't affect myself being the Tuesday & Thursday report to office staff (20 out of 40 staff). The 20 Monday staff must be happy not needing to report and can work from home tomorrow and won't need to drive and fight traffic. 1/2" to 1" of rain thusfar, 10 - 20 mph winds and the heaviest of the storm has already passed.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) said no school on Monday because they don't know if the schools will be safe (ie, downed power lines, trees, buildings, etc).

[disneysteve]

Stay safe out there QMM. Looks like a lot of flooding. And a little earthquake to add to the excitement.

[myrdale]

Religions views aside, I really like the Psalm "In the house of the wise are many choice goods and oil" to paraphrase. Personally I keep the better part of a months food supplies on hand at all times. I still go shopping once or twice a week to restock for what I'm consuming, but if push came to shove, I could go a month (probably longer) with out stepping into a grocery store.

I appreciate this is different for a couple with three kids. But all the same I suggest working towards that goal. I've got a friend who jokes about "what's milk and bread gonna do for a hurricane" and I sort of agree with him.

I still have not made a determination for the fires in Hawaii. I think a drought ontop of hurricane winds is what walloped them so bad. Some landscape maintenance might have helped keep the fires from reaching the town, but even if a random house fire popped up, I can't say it wouldn't have been the same result.

[disneysteve]

Personally I keep the better part of a months food supplies on hand at all times.

And even a week's worth would be more than enough to get through most emergencies. It's pretty rare for there to be a situation where more than a few days goes by where you have no access to anything.

[disneysteve]

I've got a friend who jokes about "what's milk and bread gonna do for a hurricane" and I sort of agree with him.

Yep. I think the biggest things to prep for in a storm zone (which is pretty much anywhere today) is clean water and non-perishable shelf-stable ready-to-eat food. The most likely issue you'll face is loss of power, so you can't use your fridge or freezer and can't cook with your stove, oven, or microwave , unless you have a generator to power something. An outdoor gas grill with it's own propane supply would also work.

If we have power, then our fridge and freezers, along with pantry items, could easily support us for a few weeks.

[bjl584]

There hasn't been any severe weather here. It's been a cooler uneventful summer.
I always have canned food, water, a generator, and various other supplies on hand, so if something does happen I'd be ready.

[disneysteve]

There hasn't been any severe weather here. It's been a cooler uneventful summer.

It's been hot here. We've had a few severe storms, but those were short-lived events. We only lost power once and only for a few hours. There've been tornadoes in the vicinity but nothing that close to us.

I'm more concerned with hurricane season. It's the multi-day heavy rain and wind events that tend to cause more problems around here. Flooding and power outages. The last few winters have been pretty mild but if we get hit with a bad blizzard that's a problem too if it brings down power lines.

[ua_guy]

My folks were just North of LA proper, visiting family, when the storm hit. I talked to my mom who said it was raining and things were a little breezy. I guess the neighbors lost a Magnolia tree last night...not sure if the soil got soft or the winds were strong enough, or both. But that was the talk of the neighborhood. The desert got hit a little harder with flooding. Pictures of Cathedral City just outside of Palm Springs showed mud flows over some of their streets. Arroyos flooded and culverts filled up. Areas of the desert are equipped to handle short-lived torrential rains, but not like that.

Overall, the fluctuations in the seasons are costing us more. It's been exceptionally dry in the Northwest which causes us to have to water our landscaping a lot more. Although summer hasn't been terribly hot, we've had some real cold snaps over the winter, and some incredibly hot periods in recent memory. That racks up the power bill and the propane bill. It's been a while since we had a really bad windstorm, and those end up costing a lot. The weather forecast for this winter is wet and wild...those are when the big fronts move in and dump lots of water and stir up the winds, sometimes one right after the other.