# Harbor Freight...before the Hurricane



## Tom Parkins (Jan 2, 2008)

I live in Delaware and Irene is approaching. I stopped by Harbor Freight because of the big Tent Sale to stock up my lab with cheap tools for my students. OH MY. Is the world going to end????? I have never seen people panic buying like this. Yeah I guess clamps might be useful during or after the hurricane, welders, gasoline engines????? Guys had whole shopping carts full of tarps (9x7 only $5.99 today). Of course the generators and pumps were longl gone. Phone ringing off the hook....."sorry sold out..." But it really looked like people stocking up just in case. What will it be like later today or tomorrow????

Tom


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## armorsmith (Jun 1, 2008)

Tom, 

You have just seen the type of mentality we who live in the south east (Florida) see every time a hurricane approaches. There are some items we have available here that would be helpful there, but you will most likely not see. Trust me when I tell you that the precautions publicized on your local news show are good advice. Yes, it is a bit of panic purchasing, but then again, the average structure in the north ease is not built with hurricanes in mind, nor earth quakes for that matter. Advice from a southern resident, heed the warnings. Make sure if it isn't nailed down in the yard, it is inside. A stray galvanized garbage can at 70 miles an hour in the wind can do substantial damage. 

Been there, done that. 

Bob C.


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## jfrank (Jan 2, 2008)

Same here in Houston. When hurricane Ike was still way out in the Gulf I went to home depot to get some supplies and try and beat the crowd. As I was going through the store one of the clerks said out loud, what's going on, I just sold my last portable generator set. They did not even know that the weather forecast had now predicted that Ike was coming straight for Houston. By the next day it was wholesale panic. You could not even get into a grocery store.


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## Daniel Peck (Mar 31, 2009)

Posted By Tom Parkins on 26 Aug 2011 10:14 AM 
I live in Delaware and Irene is approaching. I stopped by Harbor Freight because of the big Tent Sale to stock up my lab with cheap tools for my students. OH MY. Is the world going to end????? I have never seen people panic buying like this. Yeah I guess clamps might be useful during or after the hurricane, welders, gasoline engines????? Guys had whole shopping carts full of tarps (9x7 only $5.99 today). Of course the generators and pumps were longl gone. Phone ringing off the hook....."sorry sold out..." But it really looked like people stocking up just in case. What will it be like later today or tomorrow????

Tom 



What do you teach in Delaware????
I teach Electical trades program in NC. The one and only for the county.
Daniel Peck


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## Tom Burns (May 11, 2008)

In New Orleans there were 10's of thousands of people stranded for days following Katrina. In Houston, there were 4 million people without power and most were without power for more than a week following Ike. The concept that 26 million people are going to experience hurricane conditions is absolutely mind boggling.

Living in Houston and working in the offshore industry, the way I prepare for a Hurricane is to get out of town the day before anybody talks about evacuations. By the time evacuations are recommended or ordered, the main roads come to a stand still.

I don't want to scare anybody, but I think many people are about to experience a weekend and weeks to follow that they will never forget.

I wish everybody in the path the best of luck

Tom Burns
Sugar Land, TX


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

I was at Target today, just outside of DC, buying some bluejeans, and they announced "Attention Target shoppers: we have no batteries, flashlights, water, coolers, or propane." 

We're on the far western edge of the hurricane. By all accounts we're going to get a lot of rain, and some gusty winds. We might lose power for a while. Some trees might come down--not good, but hardly the end of the world. 

The TV news, the internet, they hype the thing 24 hours a day. If I lived near the coast, I'd be concerned, no doubt, and I'd be boarding up and evacuating.


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## Spule 4 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By lownote on 26 Aug 2011 04:16 PM 

We're on the far western edge of the hurricane. By all accounts we're going to get a lot of rain, and some gusty winds. We might lose power for a while. Some trees might come down--not good, but hardly the end of the world. 

The TV news, the internet, they hype the thing 24 hours a day. If I lived near the coast, I'd be concerned, no doubt, and I'd be boarding up and evacuating. 



IT is amazing how far people will drive. THe last big ice storm in WEst KY....we are 100+ miles away here in NAshvegas, and people were coming here to find that generators, batteries, etc were sold out too.

I would imagine gasoline will be hard to get, if the word even goes on the news blab-a-thon out that gas may be in short supply, watch out!


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## rdamurphy (Jan 3, 2008)

We have the same problem in Colorado every few years when we get the monster snows. I worked for a grocery store chain last one, we had semi-trailers breaking in half because of the snow on top of them... 

Robert


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## cmjdisanto (Jan 6, 2008)

Well.... We had a BBQ scheduled for today but it has been canceled. We shifted gears from party planning to survival planning early enough in the week we missed all the rush. Did have to locate a new battery for the genny and found that yesterday. Good thing there was a new BatteriesPlus that just opened up. I will say those batteries are EXPENSIVE! We have plenty of freshly smoked ribs and brisket in addition to canned goods should we lose power. We've been told that after Isabelle, the power was out for a week here. 

Right now, in Colonial Heights, we're under a Tropical storm warning. The hurricane warning extends just to our due-east about 10-15 miles away. Since 15 miles is not much of a distance with the vast size of this storm, I wouldn't be surprised if we had some rogue winds that strayed our way. The course seems to be a bit further west than originally anticipated by our local news, but it was in the forecast models. Things have been progressively stepping up as the morning wears on. The wind gusts have been getting stronger and coming with more frequency with less time between them. I remember a tropical depression that went though the GA/SC coast back in 2008 and we had more of break between bands. There is a definite difference. We're looking for things to start to get more sustained and deteriorate later this afternoon. It looks like the Western edge of the eye will probably pass right over us or at the least relatively close. That may not be the strongest part of the storm but considering we're not "hurricane" construction here.......it may be damaging enough. They have forecast out locally sustained winds at 40-60mph. From what we've been told, our zero hour is 3pm and it will last until around 9pm. 

We're not near any potential storm surge but we do have tidal creeks and rivers that flow into the Chesapeake in the area. The Appomattox and Swift Creek are the closest, but we are on high-ground at 113ft above see level so power loss and tree's remain the main concern. The trees have been through another stressful summer drought so there are ton's of dead branches and limbs but, we had neither the resources or the scheduling time to get them removed. Good thing is most of the trees around the house have been removed but........ our neighbors' have trees that remain a threat. One in particular can wipe out half of our house because of how it overhangs our property.Unfortunately, that neighbor refused to remove it even after we pleaded with her. I hope she has good insurance. It's good to know that VA law requires the property owner who's tree causes damage to be responsible for the damage it causes.

There is only a small section of the layout that is exposed to winds but it is holding on. We did put all the buildings into the shed for safety. Funny, I ballasted the entire track the day of the quake so it remains covered with new ballast. I didn't brush and settle the ballast because of the weather so we'll see what remains tomorrow. I can also say that........The acorns are "flying" early this year.Hehehe

Now we just sit and wait. We're hunkered down and as ready as we can be. 

Later.

Joe


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

Blame the Boy Scouts and their " Be Prepared " Motto


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By John J on 27 Aug 2011 02:42 PM 
Blame the Boy Scouts and their " Be Prepared " Motto









HA! If people were "prepared" there would not be a run on the stores.

Back in the "Millenium meltdown" scare between 1999 and 2000 I saw many people buying DOZENS of 1 and 5 gallon bottles of water. Then at the end of the 1st week of January, 2000 the horders were all back at the "Returns" counter of the grocery store with 5 carts full of 1 and 5 gallon water jugs, wanting their money back for the unopened bottles.

I wonder how many people will be back at Harbor Freight wanting to return the generators and flashlights they panic purchased a couple of days ago.


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## Tom Lapointe (Jan 2, 2008)

Happened to gas up 2 of our vehicles today before Irene arrives at a gas station that just happened to be near the local Harbor Freight store, so stopped in there briefly. Place *was *hopping, but it seemed more from the sale rather than hurricane "panic







buying". They *were *sold out of flashlights, though for certain (my father had wanted me to pick up one of their LED ones I bought him & he misplaced!







).

As it happened, I had Friday off from work already, so yesterday stripped *all *the structures off the railroad, other than the 2 bridges. Stowed all the lawn furniture & some other stuff. Last night & today, blew the dust







off my ham radio equipment & started getting some of that operational again. Even though I have a small Honda generator, emergency power for the radio equipment has usually been from a deep-cycle battery "float charged" off a large AC power supply, knew the deep cycle I had was long dead







, so ran out to Sears & picked up a replacement. Got the radios up & running (have been involved in emergency communications in the past, in the distant *pre-cell-phone days *







of antiquity







), now just keeping my fingers crossed that the radio antennas & tower *survive Irene's *







* wrath. *
















*Tom*


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