Hurricane Ivan -- How'd you make out?

[songsmith]

Last night the area got 6-plus inches of rain...AGAIN. Felix was at our show last night, and told me Bellwood was pretty bad, and I should have listened to him. All was well as I drove home up I-99, I saw on the big signs that Tyrone exit was closed, and Bald Eagle as well. Nothing about Bellwood. As I came off the exit ramp, I saw that there was water on the road ahead, but Sheetz had power, and was dry enough that people were getting gas (this was 3am). No flares, no barriers, and not a single EMS person in sight. I figured the water depth at about 6" on the road, stopped, threw my truck into 4-wheel drive and cautiously started through... I was less than a half mile from home, and pretty tired, and I just wanted my bed. Halfway through the intersection, the water was even with my door handles. I never expected it. I gunned it, and the 4-wheel helped me get through it, but I was VERY shaken. This may be the stupidest thing I have ever done. Please everybody realize that between fatigue, darkness, drunk drivers, and especially weather, the ride home from the gig is the most dangerous part of your night.
I didn't have any damage to my home, though, so I'm thankful for that. Does anybody have any stories from last night? How'd you make out in the Great Flood?------->JMS

[Jim Price]

On Friday night, I had no problems getting to the show I wanted to check out, Never Enough at Yesterday's Party in Ebensburg. (I figured this was a pretty safe bet, straight up the hill on new Route 22, to the Ebensburg Mini Mall - if there was flooding at this location, head to the nearest ark!) I was wary about any possible rock or mudslides on 22 heading back down the hill, but had no problem getting to or from the show.

My story, though - on Thursday night, "Big Jim" and I headed to Pittsburgh to see Norman Nardini's CD release party at Moondogs in Blawnox (northern Pittsburgh). To get there, we rode on Old Freeport Road through Fox Chapel. Less than 24 hours later, that whole area was underwater as part of the flooding Pittsburgh experienced. Norman's CD release was to be a 2-night event, but they had to postpone the Friday night side of it for obvious reasons. I'm glad we went Thursday night, and just as glad we didn't decide to try to go there on Friday!

[Jacklyn Miauff]

Hello Guys! Hair Force One played at the Warehouse last night in Bedford! We had an awesome crowd considering the weather. You would have never known that the weather was that bad with the crowd we got!
Thank you everyone who came out!

[bassist_25]

I thanked God that I didn't have a gig last night. Driving in rain doesn't usually bother me, but I had to seriously drive on the defensive last night. (Ice is a different story - I almost died 100 times last winter while I was driving to a gig at Davey's. *LOL*)

I decided to stay in last night and just rent Fight Club. The five mile drive to the video store had me braving quarter foot road creeks, mudslides, and gravel wash-outs.

[Sanctify]

here's how INNER-G made out...

We didn't play last night... we are on break due to our bass player's wife having a baby any minute (she was due 9/12, and still hasn't gone into labor yet) anyway... I got a call this morning that our drummer's basement flooded last night (we practice there, and usually leave most of our equipment there)...

Anyway...

I get up there ASAP, 45min drive, All our shit was in/under 5 inches of water... my les paul (in it's case) was reported, by the drummer's live in gf, to be floating around the basement... all my floor pedals were submerged... by the time I got there the basement was all but emptied and everything was out drying in the garage...

I just got home tested my equipment... here's the damage that we know of so far... (this is just the damage to band equipment... not counting the rest of the stuff that was in his cowboy's dedicated barroom/basement...

Me - Guitar Player
1. my les paul was soaked, chiped but works fine so far
2. my mesa cabinet was wet up to the bottom speakers... works fine so far
3. mesa triple rectifier head - had to replace one tube (not sure why a tube got ruined) but it's working fine so far... for now...
4. 4 boss pedals, arion foot board, cry baby wah, mesa channel select foot board all ruined
5. several cables ruined...
6. half dozen packs of strings ruined
7. probably more I didn't check yet...

Mike Evil - Drummer
1. brand new dw custom paint drum (bass drum) soaked... waiting to see if they are warped
2. another drumset (forget the brand) completely soaked (complete kit soaked cause it wasn't set up... it was in cases)... had standing water in the drums
3. and of course all the shit in his basement including a $2600 tv

The GIB - Bass
1. basses - wet but ok so far
2. cabs - wet but ok so far
3. pod floor pedals - totally submerged - but after drying out it's working... for now
4. wireless system - submerged... but working!!
5. PA system - wet... hasn't been checked yet...

TR- Vocals
1. 5 pieces of paper with lyrics on them - DRY

Anyway... INNER-G got hit hard...

Moral of the story - Singers have it easy... bastards...

[noAngel]

made out ok this time around because my basement flooded the LAST time we had all this rain, so everything was up on blocks. the basement flooded again and my wife and i thought we could suck it up with our shop vac fast enough...wrong. call todd (the other guy in the band) and had him come over with his shop vac and got done just in time to leave for the hitching post... carried everything in in the pouring rain, completely soaked, and set up in time for a 9:30 start. with it storming outside and the roof leaking on us, we had a pretty good night... 'course i had to drink plenty of JD to ward off the shivvers...

[Jacklyn Miauff]

Sanctify, That happened to me before when my husbands band practiced in the basement. My homeowners covered it as long as I reported it as his stuff!!! Not for a band business!! Have your friend try his home owners!

[Sanctify]

jacklyn - yeah... we are... crappy thing is this happened several weeks ago... so he already replaced the carpeting and other stuff (with insurance money) then they dug a whole new sump line to the street drain... so this shouldn't have happened... anyway... thanks for the advice...

[the herald]

we played in LOCK HAVEN last night.....i know im insane.....i thought i was at kennywood park going down the water rides. we hit this pond that you could not see at all and my window was down, needless to say that was just the begginning, then trying to get home we had to take three detours almost wrecked like 20 times and almost stalled out in the water lucky we were in a four wheel drive suv what an adventure!!!!!! got home aroun 4 am .oh when we left around 7:30 pm i jumped over a ditch and apparently my cell phone landed in a 6 inch runoff by the curb, halfway to lock haven i relized i didnt have my phone i figured it was at home when i went to leave this morning i found my phone laying in the now receded ditch , unbeleivably it was on and working!!!! so i guess my phone is hurricane proof!!!!

[lonewolf]

I spent last night moving equipment to the 2nd floor and watching the Little Juniata river rise. I only got 2 feet of water in the basement last night and the river only got within 10' of my house. I couldn't go anywhere even if I wanted to because Rt 22 was closed in both directions.

Frances was another story. The river was 6" deep all around my house and the water just poured into the basement windows. It was 2" from the floor joists. Shewolf's parents down the street didn't fare as well, with 1-1/2 feet of water on the 1st floor. I think I might move into my real estate project on higher ground and sell this house instead. There was no damage, because there's nothing in the basement except spiders.

[gypsy123]

I had some band business(for Gypsy&Crazymoon) here in State College Fri night and got 2out of 3 things done before we had to head home because of heavy rains,when Sat 18th, my guitarist in my acoustic band says we cant go to our job in Philly which was contracted and a very nice paying gig.
I-80 was shutting down 322 was closed and any and all routes out were backed up for miles which would have made a3hr drive turn into six ,but I decided to call the venue in west Philly and they were flooded there and shutting down early and told me (PHEW!)please dont worry it -its an act of god theres nothing you can do and the entertainment company got back to me 4 hrs later with 3 more gigs!But I was restless all night for not having the gig when I was in the MODE to play, everything came out all right except for my boredown of NOT PLAYING. I have never cancelled before and it took an act of god for me to have to.I wonder if anyone else had any problems with shows because of the storm.I wish all musicians here in rockpage well in this trying time of bad weather.

[tonefight]

At times it can be a little trying living up here on the mountain ( winter )but I guess at times like this it isn't so bad, we had rain but no major flood issues and our only gig this weekend was up here as well so we didn't have any travel issues. Now come January when we have a foot and a half of snow and Altoona gets 3 inches I'll complain then.

[facingwest]

I have a friggin' bone to pick with Hurrican Ivan. Imagine just getting to your vacation spot (Key West) and the very next day getting booted off the island because of a friggin' hurricane. To boot, we were supposed to play at the Blue Knob Club House and Grill and because of the rain and floods that bastard brought, our gig was cancelled!! All I can say is throw me a friggin bone Ivan.

[JeffLeeper]

Well , a week ago , Wednesday , my wife hit a patch of highway , on rt. 453 , south of Tyrone , that was actually now a part of the river.....She barely made it out of my now ruined Mazda 626 LX GT.....Loved that car....and my wife , for that matter....

She said she was never so scared.....don't blame her.

The car was at the mechanic's in Tyrone when Ivan showed up to finish it off. The photo I saw just showed the roof , so there goes the money I spent to get it fixed the first time......Oh , since it was flooded twice , it's now a loaded turbo with power sun roof , worth approximately $50.00 , at the junk yard.

We were cancelled Saturday night becase Alexandria has been officially designated as a rice paddy.

What a week...

[Jim Price]

Here's a sad picture...



That's Attic Records in Millvale, one of the sections of Pittsburgh ravaged by the flooding. (Thanks to Eric AiXeLsyD and www.pittsburghbeat.com)

[ERiC_AiXeLsyD]

Here's a sad picture...



That's Attic Records in Millvale, one of the sections of Pittsburgh ravaged by the flooding. (Thanks to Eric AiXeLsyD and www.pittsburghbeat.com)

Heh, isn't that devastating? There's an article about it & the surrounding area here:

http://www.pittsburghbeat.com/viewtopic.php?t=1378

[Jim Price]

Don't panic yet, anyone, but more could be on the way...

http://www.weatherunderground.com/tropi ... _5day.html

I'm supposed to go to North Carolina's Outer Banks on vacation starting Sunday. My travel entourage and I might have to rethink that...

[ERiC_AiXeLsyD]

Yeah, Jim, a lot of people like havin' you around... we don't want you blown out to sea or anything!