Harvey & the Economy

[TexasFreedom]

Harvey is not that different than Katrina. In terms of flood damage, people evaculating, etc.

BUT, this is the economic forum page. Harvey and Katrina could not be more different, ECONOMICALLY.

Tell me, what does New Orleans produce? Drunks? Parties? Drugs (oh wait, they consume these!)?

Houston is actually a city that makes things. The oil industry has a 'base' out of Houston. No, not the oil rigs. But the equipment that are needed in oil rigs, companies that support refining and transportation and development related to oil all are based in Houston.

Expect gas prices to go through the ROOF over the coming weeks. The raw oil will keep coming in, but the equipment to make it into what we use will be off-line for some time.

If you have a spare 500 or 2000 gallon container, you might want to fill it with unleaded now. Or diesel...

 

[Danil54grl]

I do have to wonder how much water got in the gas during these flooded areas. Hoping I won't have to buy for a while now. Double edged swords here.

 

[Silent Earth]

Makes me give thanks that my little European van does 50 MPG and my wifes 1.6 Suzuki SX4 does 40 MPG

 

[Arcticdude]

I do have to wonder how much water got in the gas during these flooded areas. Hoping I won't have to buy for a while now. Double edged swords here.

There shouldn't be any water in the underground storage tanks at the filling stations. The filler connections are well sealed. Now if a car has been under water past the fuel tank vent or the filler pipe then there's a good chance of water getting to the fuel tank and it will need to be drained. Even if water only got up past your differentials you'll want to drain them and refill with new oil.

 

[DrHenley]

Makes me give thanks that my little European van does 50 MPG and my wifes 1.6 Suzuki SX4 does 40 MPG

Is that 40 MPG Imperial or 40 MPG US? 40 MPG Imperial is 33 MPG US.

 

[Silent Earth]

Is that 40 MPG Imperial or 40 MPG US? 40 MPG Imperial is 33 MPG US.

Imperial UK gallon = 8 pints or 4.54 litres

 

[DrHenley]

US gallon = 8 US pints or 3.78541 liters

 

[jimLE]

im glad,that the car im driving gets 39 per u.s. gallon. but i do need to stock up on gas thoe..

 

[TexasFreedom]

If we're having fun, I'm glad that my 25k lb RV gets 9 mpg, has wheels and a suspension that will roll over most small cars, and can roll through 2 feet of water easy with no problems.

It's funny how we all look at things differently.

 

[Silent Earth]

If we're having fun, I'm glad that my 25k lb RV gets 9 mpg, has wheels and a suspension that will roll over most small cars, and can roll through 2 feet of water easy with no problems.

It's funny how we all look at things differently.

My van sleeps 2 has kitchen, toilet, cooker and fridge, its about the same size as an old VW bus, it cruises at 60 to 70 but best economy is at 55mph, They use em as Taxis in New York, I would love a larger van but stuff like the Mercedes Sprinter ( dodge in the US) vans and the Ford Transits only do bout thirty which is abysmal in 2017, Insurance fully Comp is only £200 a year .
In the US they come with a 2 litre gas Engine that does 22 but in Europe and Africa and Asia it only comes as a 1.6 litre gas engine doing 40 mpg and a 1.5 litre turbo diesel that does 50 mpg. In the UK we only get the 1.5 turbo Diesel. But I like the economy and the 800 KG / 1600 pound cargo capacity. I think in the US your fuel is still fairly cheap compared to this side of the pond when a gallon costs $10 a gallon . One plus for me in prepper mode is the van is only 5 ft 6 inches wide so i can squeeze along footpaths , lanes and alleys that most other vehicles could not enter.

 

[Proud Prepper]

Our gas here just went up to $2.06 a gallon...

 

[Arcticdude]

I would like to have a vehicle that gets 40 mpg, but none of these cheap foreign made throw-away cars could pull my stock trailer, equipment trailer, boat etc. Until something better comes on the market I'll stick to my F250 at 12 mpg.

 

[Silent Earth]

Our gas here just went up to $2.06 a gallon...

And that is why we over here are so concerned about economy.

 

[TexasFreedom]

SE,

We don't believe socialism works. When the gov't puts $5 taxes on gasoline that should cost $2 with everyone's profits built into that $2, then you have pure socialism.

And socialism has never, never, never worked. Short term, it's great. But your own PM said it best: socialism works great until you run out of other people's money.

Yes, off topic. But it needed to be said. Not to say we in the US don't have our fair share of problems... (and then some)

 

[TexasFreedom]

While 98% of attention is on Irma, let me give an update on Harvey.

The disaster continues. One friend who's house slowly flooded Tues/Wed/Thursday last week (water got to 6 ft in the house), note that their house still has 2 ft of standing water. Another friend lost power but didn't flood, a week later they still have no power. And yet another friend who never had rising water (and was not in a 'flood plain', their roof was under water last week. And yesterday they could see the top 2 feet of their roof.

Did anyone thing the water would be standing for a week? Imagine the damage, need for housing and even just the basics. And these are the people that work in the refineries.

I look at this, and for anyone who doesn't run days ahead of Irma are idiots. Now is too late unless you have a plane.

God's protection of America has been removed, we as a nation have rejected God. These consequences really suck. But wait, it'll get worse...

 

[TexasFreedom]

More Harvey news.

Insurance companies are back in & working quickly. Our friend mentioned above (6 ft of water in house) had the adjuster show up & they are getting a 100% coverage for their home (they did have flood insurance). They were smart, as soon as the hurricane passed they went and found an apartment and rented it immediately. I suspect now is too late, every available closet that didn't go under water has been rented for top dollar.

Apparently a week of standing water does it's damage. If it wasn't sewage a week ago, 7 days of everything soaking in the water has turned it into putrid muck. Yes, that is the technical term, putrid muck. And that means that everything has to be removed: walls, exterior, even studs. And it's a 2 story house, so pulling studs isn't so easy.

So instead, they want to bulldoze it and start with a new foundation. I personally don't get it, why build on the same spot that went under 6 ft of water?

Other friends are very slow to get power turned back on, even if the house wasn't damaged. Help is arriving. One friend took a trailer-load of supplies down last week. Another friend left today for a full week ministering down there.

The biggest thing that surprises me is how slow the water is to recede, even a full week+ later.

 

[TexasFreedom]

Let me revise the previous post.

Same person who had 6 ft of water in their house. It's a 2 story house. I didn't know this: there is a $250k cap on flood insurance for home damage. I think they can get $100k for personal property losses. Remember, all flood insurance is through the federal gov't and they stipulate all the limits. So you can't get more than $250k coverage in flooding. Nobody else sells that insurance.

How put this into perspective. I don't know what they bought the house for about a year ago, but they spent $500k completely renovating the house, upstairs and down. I heard the mortgage, it was $600k or 800k, so who knows what it was worth?

They hired a crew to start gutting the downstairs, and realized two end walls are tilting. So the crews pulled out due to safety concerns and won't return without an engineering analysis for safety and what is needed to reinforce things. Insurance is backlogged 2 weeks, so they independently are hiring an engineering firm to get that done quickly.

I suspect 2+ weeks of standing water inside the house swelled and weakened the support timbers. Walls may be coming off their foundations? Only good news is that they did get an apartment and moved into it a couple of days ago.

This is the story of just one home. And they were lucky enough to at least have the flood insurance. Multiply this times 10's of thousands of homes.

 

[Danil54grl]

Just found out today that Granny's roof apparently was leaking during the storm. After awhile of the wood being wet, it started to buckle the shingles and don't know what else. I worked today so hunny is there now to try to figure it out.

 

[Maverick]

At the cheapest station the gas gone up to $2.87 as of last friday, was $1.99 the day of the hurricane.

 

[DrHenley]

I stocked up on gas when it was under $2 and haven't bought any since. I have a car sitting in the carport with a full tank (good for 450 miles), and if the price hasn't gone back down by the time I run out of gas in the cans for the pickup, I'm just going to switch to driving the car.

Screw 'em!