Hopefully people who didn't evacuate will now because it is getting pretty bad in some areas and some areas not bad yet will be. So, if you have been told to evacuate it might be necessary now. Areas like River Road people are starting to take this more seriously since so many got trapped in their homes by the mud and one lady was injured from mud and rocks coming into her home. So, evacuation isn't really a choice for many because they might not survive this now if they don't evacuate their homes below burn areas.
And they still expect at least 16 inches of rain between Big Sur and Paso Robles areas within the next day or so. So, there likely will be serious consequences for people who don't evacuate in some of these areas too. I have been watching the Atmospheric River and there is rain way way out into the Pacific Ocean still coming to devastate many Central California locations it appears as the weather man said at the noon news today.
My wife went out for PT today and found some of the roads were impassable and even roads near to where we live were closed. One Transformer blew up a tree when it went off like a very large several feet high Hand Grenade on a highway into our area so that road was closed while they cleaned up the mess that created because no one could drive through this after it happened.
When a line shorts out it is very common for the transformer to blow up in rain storms when trees fall into a 1000 volt power line. What a transformer does is to transform the 1000 volts into 220 Volts which is usually single phase which means one white line and two black lines. The way you get 110 volts is you take the white line and one of the black ones to get 110 volts AC. For your 220 equipment like Electric Stoves and Electric driers and Washing machines and some types of electric heaters they take both black wires and the white line to get single phase 220 Volts. This is done through the main Electric panels in your home.
Businesses sometimes have double phase which is usually 2 black wires and 2 white wires but homes don't usually have this kind of set up only businesses that run larger electric motors. You can also have 440 volt systems or 480 volt systems for specialized electric motors that run specific equipment too. For example, a TV station is often a 440 Volt System.
The first burst of the rain we received last night that blew out our power and exploded many transformers in our area as trees came down. However, it is sort of like a hose this Atmospheric river. So, as the hose pointed more southwards it moved south but then the wind blew the hose northward again over the Monterey Peninisula and up towards Santa Cruz, San Jose and San Francisco. This second hit by the storm likely will do the most damage as the hose (atmospheric River) really nails some places like Big Sur to Paso Robles and Santa Cruz up into the mountains above Santa Cruz which might cause serious damage to places like Ben Lomand and Boulder Creek areas within the next 24 hours.
Many roads are closed now up into the Lake Tahoe area because of heavy snowfall too. There is also snow in many coastal mountains likely above 3000 feet as well so this could be dangerous for people not used to driving in the snow there as well.
I'm a very experienced snow driver so maybe I should give some tips for those not used to driving in snow.
The most dangerous time is driving downhill in the snow. You mostly cannot use your brakes at all when you are doing this. The best way when going downhill is downshifting into a lower gear instead of using your brakes and letting the engine hold you back. You are more likely to survive going downhill that way. However, it can get too icy to drive downhill so be careful. It's better to stay alive and to be very cautious if you have no experience driving in snow at all!
Even most automatic transmissions have the ability to manually shift into lower gears. Do this before you move your car going downhill into a gear you are comfortable with staying in until you make it down the hill. If you have an all wheel drive make sure your car is put in the all wheel function fully before you down shift into a lower gear for going downhill. If you are going uphill you either will be able to do it or not. Trying to force your car uphill often just makes your car get stuck while being sideways or something like that and they you become a traffic hazard for all the other cars that might not see you and slide into you by accident.
If you have a 4 wheel drive it's a good idea to put your car or truck into 4 wheel drive High range or low range depending upon the conditions you are driving through in snow or ice especially going downhill.There are also conditions where you cannot drive up hill at all unless you are in all wheel drive or 4 wheel drive. And there are conditions where no one can drive up hill at all through the ice on the road. The steeper up or down the road is the more dangerous it is to drive either way in ice or snow. So, be very careful especially if this is your first time doing this. Because you don't want to be a road hazard or have other drivers kill you because you are cross ways in the road from inexperience and they cannot see you in time to stop their car or truck to help you possibly.
But, how are you going to learn to drive in snow if you don't test yourself in snow somewhere first. So, if you can test yourself on the level and around corners on the level first if you can. You will begin to get the feel slowly for driving in snow that way.
I didn't always know how to drive in snow. The first time I was 18 and from Los Angeles and my friend was 21 and we rented a car in Denver. He had never driven in snow before either and when he drove off the off ramp we were going too fast and crashed through a guard rail. Luckily this did not damage our rental car so we just kept going at that point. This would be in Winter of 1966 I guess. So, it's not that I haven't had pretty exciting near death experiences in the snow either.(even though I wasn't driving at the time.)
So, I learned to drive in the snow Starting in 1970 starting around Thanksgiving when I went to Santa Fe to visit a girlfriend and drop off people at the Rio Hondo Commune in Taos then who were helping me with Gas to get there. Starting around Flagstaff we had to drive through the snow but i was driving in a VW 1966 SeaBlau (Sea Blue) Bug with two people and their dog and I was having to learn how to drive through snow. The thing with a Bug is it has along with some older Fiats the most sensitive clutch of almost any Stickshift Car I have ever driven. This means that when you let out the clutch unless you are really good at feathering the clutch your rear wheels are going to spin some in the snow. One Trick is to start out (if you are on the level) in 2nd Gear. This puts less torque to the rear wheels and might allow you to start up in a sensitive clutch stick shift like an old Bug or Fiat without spinning the rear wheels and temporarily losing control of your vehicle.
The best car or truck to be in in the snow is an automatic transmission because usually the automatic transmission if you go onto the gas pedal very gently it might not spin the rear wheels if you are level in the snow. Starting out on a hill in the snow is almost always going to make your rear wheels (if this is a rear wheel drive car spin). If this is a front wheel drive and your drive wheels are in the front you might be okay BUT going down hill in a front wheel drive car is almost always scary because the rear end of the car might start to come around. If it does if you have a hand brake you should put your hand brake on lightly so you can let it off as needed. If you do this properly this should straighten out your car or truck if you have a front wheel drive in the snow.
One of my favorite things to do in 1970 in Alta Utah at the ski lifts there (because I was 22 then was to spin the VW Bug on the icy roads there in the ski lift parking lot by quickly turning the front wheel while engaging the the rear emergency brake to make the vehicle spin on the ice. However, then I got my car stuck in a snowbank and had to dig it out so I stopped doing that then. This was a 1966 VW Bug then and I owned this my second VW Bug with blue exterior and white interior from 1969 until 1974 when I got married and my son was born. I drove this car between 30,000 and 50,000 miles per year because I was traveling all over the place then visiting friends including Santa Fe, Denver, Salt Lake City and Alta Utah and after I was married in 1974 and had a baby we moved to Hilo, Hawaii for awhile too then before we returned back to the mainland and I worked as a working partner in a business with my father and uncle and cousin.
No comments:
Post a Comment