This storm! Making my way home..

[jdamore]

I got married in Mexico last week and just trying to make it home!

Didn't make this thread for any reason other than I'm bored as hell sitting around the airport!

Our original flight was supposed to depart yesterday morning from cancun (to Philadelphia) around 11am. We got to cancun airport and checked in with success at the digital kiosk! Wooot! Hearing about the storm had us so scared about delays! At this point, we walk over to the counter to check our three huge bags. Destination weddings require a ton of shit! Some time during checking our bags, the flight was CANCELED! Since we were at the counter we were lucky to be the first people to change to the 3pm flight! So far so good.

Sitting at the gate, i was scrolling through facebook and talking with my buddies, damn it was looking bad! There are trees down everywhere! Saw one FB post of a woman saying there was power cables in the road that was arcing every time the wind hit it! I have a very connected (smart) house and it notified me there was no power. About an hour after that my UPS battery died and I lost all communication.

There was no sign from the airline that the 3pm flight was going to be cancelled. In fact, they told me that the jet was a large "air bus" and it was able to take high winds. Long behold, we boarded and took off!

A little over an hour into the flight, the pilot made an announcement in their typical pilot'ty voice; ".....uuuuuh so uuuh Philadelphia airport has shutdown uuuuuh all staff has gone home uuuuuh all tsa and customs has left the airport uuuuuh we are being diverted to Miami." I'm like.. fuuuuuuuu
The jet banked right.. see attached lol.

This is my honeymoon so gotta make the best of it. We hit up Miami for a fancy dinner and messed up some sheets at the Hamton Inn. The jet is parked for the night and we will reboard at 6am.

I get to the airport and holy shit the line for check in is HUGE. People everywhere! Pissed off and tired people! When you travel with other people, split up and try different ways to get checked in. Because of the circumstances, the only way was at the counter after waiting in the huge line. My wife went out to the curb side check in and apparently he could get us checked in! She pulled me out of the long line and brought me out side. The curb side guy started processing our bags and hit a snag. He said it had to be done inside (i would have to get back in the long line). I said "i thought you were the man!" and flashed a 20$. "Let me see what I can do" he says. He loaded our bags on a cart and had us follow him. He walked straight to the check in counter, mingled with the people there, and came back to us with two boarding passes. I'm so relieved!

To give you an idea how long the line was that we just bypassed, we walked for two minutes to see the end.

Welp, I'm sitting at my gate now. It was delayed again to 8am (another hour or so). Wish me luck!!!

How did you guys make out? You have power?

Can't wait for the nice weather and clean roads to take the M out of hibernation!!

[rcracin]

that was a fun read lol. Hope you get back safely.

Took me two hours to get from white plains to nyc yesterday. Hutch parkway closed due to downed tree, mad local driving with downed trees everywhere having to turn around. Good times.

[jdamore]

Originally Posted by rcracin

that was a fun read lol. Hope you get back safely.

Took me two hours to get from white plains to nyc yesterday. Hutch parkway closed due to downed tree, mad local driving with downed trees everywhere having to turn around. Good times.

My house is in the woods on top of a mountain.. I should keep a chain saw in my trunk for these kind of situations. Lol

I wonder how cold my house is going to be! I have to figure out the best way to hook up my brand new generator.. bought it a couple years ago but haven't been compelled to fire it up. Its never had gas or oil in it! I'll probably make up a hill-billy suicide wire and plug it into the dryer receptacle.

We are boarding now.. see ya on the flip side

[rcracin]

yea, it's just a little windy now. And I didnt think about the heat thing with the power going out! Hopefully your pipes didnt freeze!

I keep recovery equipment and an axe in my tundra. When we move to the sticks and finally get the hell out of this shithole nyc, I'm wiring a generator into the house.

[jdamore]

Aaaaaand delayed another hour.

Originally Posted by rcracin

yea, it's just a little windy now. And I didnt think about the heat thing with the power going out! Hopefully your pipes didnt freeze!

I keep recovery equipment and an axe in my tundra. When we move to the sticks and finally get the hell out of this shithole nyc, I'm wiring a generator into the house.

Thanks for the update on the wind. This summer, one of my projects will be replacing the breaker panel and cables up to the lines from the pole. Its a 200A which is good but the panel is rusting from water/moisture coming in from cable. When I do that, ill also put in a transfer switch.

The original plan was to put a generator connection in the garage. After some thought, I decided not to because I'm renovating it for cars and a work bench rather than filling it with yard toys/tools (mowers, blowers, whackers, ect..). I also heard many times its dangerous to run a generator in the garage even with the door open.
The new plan is to build a large shed for that stuff and run a large conduit for cables to run the generator out there. Keep the noise and exhaust away from the house.

[1MOREMOD]

That sucks. Phrase is lo and behold, not long

[GRUESOM3]

Congrats on your wedding. If it makes you feel any better I spent 4hrs on an express bus going home that day. Usually takes 1 hour and 15 mins total commute.

Friday I get off of work at 3pm get on subway in nyc and pick up express bus downtown to usual spot to speed up commute. Get on express bus and it takes the tunnel into the bqe. Dead stop traffic and nowhere to go due to tractor trailer flipping on a bridge.

My commute was longer then your flight from Cancun to Miami. Got home around 7:30pm. Total nightmare. Get home safe!

[jdamore]

Originally Posted by 1MOREMOD

That sucks. Phrase is lo and behold, not long

I'm not a rocket surgeon. After almost two weeks in Mexico, I'm a bit turned around

Originally Posted by GRUESOM3

Congrats on your wedding. If it makes you feel any better I spent 4hrs on an express bus going home that day. Usually takes 1 hour and 15 mins total commute.

Friday I get off of work at 3pm get on subway in nyc and pick up express bus downtown to usual spot to speed up commute. Get on express bus and it takes the tunnel into the bqe. Dead stop traffic and nowhere to go due to tractor trailer flipping on a bridge.

My commute was longer then your flight from Cancun to Miami. Got home around 7:30pm. Total nightmare. Get home safe!

Thanks! We had 53 friends and family come and stay at the resort.. of all the people, no one had any issues with flights. Happy it was us and not them.

Just an update:
It was a bumpy decent into Phily. I call it "a clapper landing". Thats when the passengers give a round of applause to the pilot for saving theirs lives.

We sat at the tarmac for another 30 minutes waiting for a jetway operator to pull the gate in. Everyone thought it was a joke but, after 20 minutes it clearly was not. Lol. We finally made it out brom the back of the jet (aka: airbus), pick up our bags, and made it to the car around 2.

Typically it takes about 1.5 hours to get home. Since it was Saturday afternoon, traffic wasn't bad at all. As we got closer to home, we noticed more and more trees down and more damage from the winds. There was reports of 70+mph wind gusts and 30-40 mph sustained wind in my area!

Once we were within a few miles of the house, there were roads closed everywhere! Three detours and I finally found a route that wasn't blocked! Ended up taking almost 2.5 hours.

The house was 52f degrees inside. Happy to see it held in the warmth as long as it did! It was getting dark and I was tired, so I put oil and gas in the generator and ran a few extension cords to a few space heaters. Generator started on the first pull!

Today, I made a suicide cable (male to male) and is back-feeding the panel through the dryer receptacle.

Taking a hot shower in my own shower was fucking amazing!

Looks like we will be getting power back on Wednesday! That is, if the next storm (on Wednesday) doesn't interfere??? About 20% of jcp&l customers were without power as of yesterday morning.

I pulled a few pictures from my township Facebook page and attached them.