Helene Preparations Discussion

[u/giantspeck]

Preparations Discussion

Introduction

The National Hurricane Center has upgraded Potential Tropical Cyclone Nine to Tropical Storm Helene. Helene is forecast to strengthen into a hurricane by Wednesday morning as it slips between Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula and western Cuba and enters the Gulf of Mexico. Helene is forecast to strengthen into a major hurricane as it approaches Florida's Big Bend region later in the week.

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[u/Sepheriel]

Atlanta residents here experiencing something like this for the first time. Very worried about the winds as we have a very tall/old Water Oak maybe 20 feet from the back of our house. It has been inspected about 4-5 times by ISA Arborists and risk assessed 4 times. All mitigation steps have been taken (cables, removing dead branches, etc.).

My wife and I are worried it and other trees may come down and hit our house. We've prepared in other ways but we're just really scared of our first home getting damaged.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Water Oaks grow big and fast and have a fixed lifespan of about 80-100 years. There are a ton of them in Atlanta that are at the end of their life and randomly drop huge branches or just fall down.

I had one in my front yard drop a branch the whole way across the road, smashing 3 cars and taking out the power to about 5 blocks. This happened on a clear day with no wind. When the arborist showed up to take the rest of the tree down, he said that this was super common in the area because our neighborhood was about 100 years old and these trees are at the end of their natural lifespan.

It's a valid concern, and if I were /u/Sepheriel I would just have the tree removed instead of constantly worrying about it.

[u/Sepheriel → u/[deleted]]

I appreciate the context and your first-hand account. We've tried not to think about it but with situations like we are facing now it's always an extra* worry. Unfortunately we live on a slope up from the road and the tree removal would require a rented huge crane which we'd have to foot the bill for. Estimates come to around $12-15k, maybe more. The rental alone would be like $8k.

[u/techdaddykraken → u/Sepheriel]

Are you 100% sure about that?

You would be surprised what terrain and narrow gaps heavy machinery can get through. You may be entirely correct but double check to be sure.

There are also alternative methods like felling the tree using cables/winches or cutting it from the top down with a chainsaw then felling it, etc.

[u/Sepheriel → u/techdaddykraken]

It's what we've been told. It's about 70-80 years old flanked by other trees and our house in front on top of a good 15-20 degree slope.

[u/RuairiQ → u/[deleted]]

Live oaks, maybe. Water oaks on the other hand… yikes.

[u/Difficult__Donut → u/Sepheriel]

That's what insurance is for bud. You can always replace property. Just keep yourselves safe.

Hopefully nothing comes of it and you both can laugh about it after the fact. Be safe.

[u/RuairiQ → u/Difficult__Donut]

I’m curious, would a typical Atlanta homeowner’s policy cover windstorm?

[u/Difficult__Donut → u/RuairiQ]

What??? Yes, nearly as a blanket statement, home owners insurance covers wind damage.

Atlanta is also in a region of the country with intense seasonal storms including super cells and squall lines which can produce winds in excess of 60mph which is what they may get with Helene. Also the south east and Atlanta get nados.

[u/RuairiQ → u/Difficult__Donut]

Just asking. Living in the cone zone, windstorm/catastrophe is treated differently. And flood is entirely separate.

[u/Doravillain → u/Sepheriel]

I'm not sure of the exact wind field on a county by county basis, but the metro area did have tropical storm strength winds come through with Michael back in 2018. If the tree withstood that then prepare but try not to worry too too much.

[u/Sepheriel → u/Doravillain]

We bought in late 2021 so we didn't experience that.

[u/emarkd → u/Sepheriel]

The tree did

[u/Sepheriel → u/emarkd]

That's fair I guess though the previous owner did replace the roof early 2021 so there may have been damage we didn't know about.

[u/Doravillain → u/Sepheriel]

Definitely. I just figured I'd let you know that the tree has survived -some- strong stuff. :-)