Arizona slammed with worst storm in state history

About half of my place cleared out too... most of the units are still empty tonight which I have to admit is ultra cool, really does feel like The Day After Tomorrow... I'm out down near the Lake, lots of danger of roof collapse and stuff, so I've been helping a bit clearing those off for people and....damn just been shoveling all week.

Believe it or not my favorite most useful and affordable hand cranks...

Got them at Walmart down in Phx...

Lantern, no need for battery, compass, Radio, Light 2 different luminosity settings and Siren for 20.00 each...

And they came with a free order thing where you can plug in and change your cell phone via the crank in a black out... also indispensable

Indispensable I use them for spelunking, walking in the woods at night.... anything, good thick plastic, never break...

The Plant Light I ordered online... forget where but if I can find the order i'll post the link...

I knew i'd need it this year and Philodendrons were not going to die this year...

reply to post by mopusvindictus


Yes, we have those hand crank lanterns too. They work really well. Those along with the wood stove for heating and cooking and we're really comfy inside.

If those solar heat lamps work well enough, we could use them instead of the heat lamp powered by the generator to keep the rabbits warm.

After that we just need to get a solar charger for the computer and a small solar setup to run a small refrigerator.

We don't need much, we have our electric bill under $50 a month for our entire house already.

If you find where you purchased the solar heat lamps I would love to know. I Googled and didn't find any.

Here is a photo of my street during the storm. Now my house is on an incline, so that water is a little over a foot deep.

reply to post by amatrine


That's worrisome. I hope that the water has begun to recede by now.

reply to post by illusions


Heya...talked to my ex illusions...

The panel and lamp were separate didn't come as a single package...

Panel was bought here... solar panel Light was just a light that fit the output...

I leave the panel behind plants during the day and it lasts most of the night...






[edit on 24-1-2010 by mopusvindictus]

Yeah the water is gone now except for the washes and gutters. A lot of mud and trashcans that got washed to the end of the street that people did not bother to bring in knowing the storm was coming,. and can not seem to be bothered to go pick up.

ama

Originally posted by wizardwars
reply to post by MarshMallow_Snake

 

I think the younger people will accept these weather changes as normal they are not.I have seen tornadoes in the winter witch never happened in my life time till now. I have seen hail fall in perfect cubes like ice cubes. I have seen snow fall with thunder and lighting. I have seen cobweb material fall from the sky and the spraying in our skies. This is not normal these are man made events I worry that our young will accept them as normal.

I am from the next generation and i fill its in my destiny to spread the word about these man-made occurences as a few young people have already started listening. I'm a truth seeker and will always help even the ignorant.

Originally posted by Annee

Originally posted by amatrine
The cotton fields here are a mess too. They had just planted seed before that storm.

Yeah - I'm not sure how it will affect the cotton fields.

I live in the middle of a Lemon grove - - I know they lost a whole years lemon crop a while back because of freezing. It was after harvest - - but they lost the new buds.

"Outsiders" just don't know. They make fun and laugh because its desert -- like what's the big deal.

Last year i was working in a medium sized plant nursery and my employer started to invest in his tunnels these vertical thin cotton walls where you just fit the plugs into the slots and the roots grow outwards vertically. Its a lot better for business and you don't risk the chance of flooded crops as they all are hung above 5 feet off the ground and spaced out about 2-4 inches apart. The larger walls of cotton we had vegetables growing roughly 12 inches apart growing vertically. It was the first time i have ever seen an idea be brought to life and the boss managed to grow "5" times the stock. I will try and get some pictures up so you can gather a better idea of what im saying.

reply to post by dgtempe


not really tempe and scottsdale border each other. my address is scottsdale but people who live here consider it tempe. what are you trying to prove?

Originally posted by mopusvindictus
Finally got my car out and on the road today after 7 more hrs shoveling lol

Then on the way downtown it took a slide on a major ice slick and cracked my front bumper DOH!

This whole week has been impossible... big deal new bumper a lot of people had it worse, but damn I am sore, tired and didn't get off cheap either before all is said and done... weeks work lost, plus costs

It's like the Day After Tomorrow up here...

All this Snow...

And do I get to go Snow Board tomorrow?

Noooooooooooo Avalanche issues...

FRACK

You know i really respect what you've had to go through as it would be a dream for someone suchas myself to experience that amount of snow over here in the UK. I didn't approached the telly around the christmas period of 2009 as the news would plaster "how bad the weather is" "we're in for 3" of snow- oooo" and "its going to cause total chaos etc etc etc it drove me potty how much they tryed to make a massive deal about a few centimetres of snow. I mean common, really was there any need for it. Well yes its the media at the end of the day and that's how they make there big bucks! I couldn't believe when they shut over 300 schools across the UK all because we got hit by a lousy 12 inches of snow - oooo big deal! lol i have cousins from Ulkraine and they live with temperatures below -20 C to - 50 C pretty much all the way through the year :p and stupid amounts of snowfall each year. And yet most of the uk citizens should stop there moaning and have a proper look what people suchas yourself have had to go through a whole weeks worth of effort to stop being snowed in. Respect all the way to ya to you chap!

Wow, I didn't realize how many ATSer's lived here in the Phoenix area! Anyway, having just moved here in October from South Florida, and having rode out several hurricanes (first one being Georges, and the last one being Wilma), I can tell you that the weather we experienced here in the Valley of the Sun last week wasn't much to speak about at all. If you only ever have sunny days, I can see where the weather can be scary, but once you've weathered a Cat III hurricane, it's hard to take a few heavy thunderstorms seriously...

Originally posted by DClairvoyant

Last year i was working in a medium sized plant nursery and my employer started to invest in his tunnels these vertical thin cotton walls where you just fit the plugs into the slots and the roots grow outwards vertically. Its a lot better for business and you don't risk the chance of flooded crops as they all are hung above 5 feet off the ground and spaced out about 2-4 inches apart. The larger walls of cotton we had vegetables growing roughly 12 inches apart growing vertically. It was the first time i have ever seen an idea be brought to life and the boss managed to grow "5" times the stock. I will try and get some pictures up so you can gather a better idea of what im saying.

Cool! I don't think it would work in SW AZ - because of the heat. They test new products all the time. The college has land throughout the county where they test grow.

Recently they tried to grow strawberries in plastic covered frames. The heat is so intense - - the plastic deteriorated.

Do you not use cooling generator's? We have a generator each with 4 small fans and blowing chutes about the size of a large box and each fan is directed at different angles. Theres one generator in each tunnel and two large generator's facing opposite eachother in the main greenhouse which is 1 acre big. These generator's blow both cool and hot air. Oh yeah i forgot to mention that the boss has 2 large diesel containers outside his tunnels and a main waterhouse with fittings all inside the tunnels and greenhouse so the water comes on whenever you put the timers on. Not very good for baskets though as it would destroy the plant.

I know where your coming from about the temperatures would gain excessively to high temps. Like here in the UK we will have between 32 C - 43 C in the greenhouse in the middle of April till End of August and in the tunnels between Feb and Sept 20 C - 38 C so i can imagine it must be very difficult discovering solutions to tepemplate with very hot temperature's.

And the other problem with water sprinkle systems is the amount of water that comes out the pipes - too much can damaged the plant and also drown the plant and too little can cause a light mist of water vapour and cause the plant to dry out quicker. I also have seen crops watered at the wrong time intervals causing the plant to be scorched just after it was watered due to high intensity of heat. I can imagine its very difficult growing lemon, melon and lettuce in your deserts.

I'm sure there's a solution and it will soon be found to help prevent further costly loss of production due to storms and general bad weather.

I also forgot to mention that in the greenhouse i put up 100 feet by 8 feet black nets and took me a week to do but we were well prepared for the heat and sun. Its useful as it prevents the plants from being scorched due to the glass working as a magnifying glass. We had eleven tunnels deterioate due to heat and the sun managed to penetrate the rubber that much it melted the rubber lining onto the frame then another few weekends later and the UK was hit with 75mph winds. We got hit with just over 90mph and it ripped the whole tunnel clean off like as easy as ripping the lid off a yoghurt. That year was very bad for business as over 11 tunnels were destroyed. It looked like it were ripped through with a tornado :/

[edit on 30-1-2010 by DClairvoyant]

Originally posted by amatrine
Here is a photo of my street during the storm. Now my house is on an incline, so that water is a little over a foot deep.

Cool, now you have a "water feature" in your neighborhood. That looks like Venice, Italy!