Anyone lose anything with the storm that blew through weekend?

[tlogan]

With all the rain and wind we had here yesterday (Sunday 12/17/23), I guess I can say I'm lucky. We've had constant wind with gusts of 20-40mph. I didn't really lose anything,  I have 10 of those street lamps from the Winfield collection and two blew over and a couple were leaning pretty bad. I added two firesticks (FINALLY!) this year and although they are upright, I had to straighten one of them out. AND the worst of it is that one of my GFCI outlets blew. AND I had family here to see the lights with half of the lights out. It was raining pretty hard so I went out today and moved some things to a different outlet and I should be good for tonight.

Hope no one suffered any catastrophic wind/rain damage. 

Edited December 18, 2023 by tlogan
typos

[hasslerk]

Knock on wood, everything ran just fine last night with no issues.  I think my two new dedicated 15A circuits and use of weather proof 12/3 extension cords to my main power distribution points out in the yard has helped a lot.  That being said, this morning one of my candy cane props was blown over, and I lowered my mega trees due to the forecast for higher winds today.  I am hoping to raise them back up tonight for the show.  Fingers crossed.

[tlogan]

@hasslerk - Glad to hear it! We're hoping to be able to drive by again this year!

[Orville]

Had the hard rains and the wind gusts, but I had staked everything down prior to ths storm using long tent stakes.

Watched a few props shake and sway a little, but the stakes did there job and kept everything secured in place.

Went out to check things, nothing blown over, nothing uprooted, nothing even slightly tilted(except for a couple props that were installed at a slight tilt originally). 

No damage on anything at all.  I did expect some damage from those high wind gusts we had, but thankfully, I got everything secured down (even better than I thought), and got through the storm completely unscathed.

We're still having some wind gusts now and then, but not like it was during, and just after the rains stopped.

Edited December 18, 2023 by Orville

[hasslerk]

@tlogan I spoke too soon.  Came home tonight to find my 25' mega tree mast on the ground.  I had lowered the lights on it this morning, but the ground is so saturated that the width of the mast was still enough for the wind to catch it, pull out the back guide wire, and drop the whole thing to the ground.  My mast was buried in the ground almost 3 feet and it just pulled up all the ground behind it as it fell.  I had to pump out the hole before standing it back up again tonight. 

[rcktpwrd]

We had a ton of rain and some windy conditions yesterday here in Raleigh. I didn't run the display, decent rain usually causes GFCI trips. Found a few branches down in the yard, only knocked one light string plug out of a socket. Nothing of note blown over either. 

 

Show running well today. 

[dgander]

I had one string on my spiral tree break, and of course it was 2/3 the way up so had to repair it on my ladder. The pressure broke all three wires. At least that was the only issue so 30 min later I was back up and running.

[MRLV]

Our first setup, 10 of 32 strings came loose, it is located at the end of the Church's parking lot were it is narrower for the wind to pass through between two tall buildings.  Reattached lose strings and tied them up in pairs half way up (1/2 of 21 feet) with bungee cords.  These approach noticeably reduced the wind effect on the light strings by steading them to almost no effect other than minor swinging, as opposed to wildly beating each other.

[dgrant]

Not this storm but a couple of years ago, had a tornado spin up right here. Trashed my display and my neighbor's yard...it was just getting started. Went over the hill, down the other side and then destroyed several homes. Anyway, I understand and feel for you all.

[roknjohn]

It blew over my 24' mega tree with 180 strands of 100ct.  Had to get man-lift to repair.  Show was dark for 3 days.

(Marion SC)