In the path of Hurricane Michael

GreenLights · 2018-10-13T03:06:47.000Z

I am not in the totally destroyed area of Mexico Beach, Florida, or Panama City, Florida, but about 100 miles east. I’m going on three days with no electricity, but finally got data back on the phone today. I just wanted to say I didn’t even know what an 18650 was until I joined this forum 10 months ago. Now I have about 20 of them, along with some S2+, a Q8, a headlamp and a lantern I built from the info I gathered here. All have been a lifesaver, so I wanted to thank you for all the great information here.
I discovered the importance of a good moonlight mode when it is literally pitch black, and also the awesome power of the Q8 when searching for downed power lines. The two extremes each have their place and are both important. My area will be up and running in a few days, but those in the direct path will be recovering for months. Just wanted to say thanks again for all the great information and great people here.

offline · 2018-10-13T03:13:42.000Z

Glad you’re safe Greenlights

Steeldog · 2018-10-13T03:24:39.000Z

Glad to know you’re doing well.

raccoon · 2018-10-13T03:27:18.000Z

I hope you get power back soon, GreenLights...

Hang in there!

Macka17 · 2018-10-13T03:51:16.000Z

I think the planet has had enuff of us.
And is letting us know.
MUCH more to come methink’s, when you look around the planet at present.

We get “Cyclones” over her. IE Larger in volume than your Spinners, but not so concentrated.
Last one that put it’s eye 25KM North of us registered 287kmph (We on Coast)
at top of hill just behind us. We live half way up it Facing N.
Windy, but they do get rid of all the loose green and dust etc (some houses)

We get them 4 or 5 a yr every yr. SAme on W Coast and North
A lot of us buy generators for such.
Mine’s a 3.8KVA as I use it for caravan. Aircond’s fridges etc
as our power is normally out for 6 or 8 days, some up to a month or so.
Hang in tight there mate. The sun ALWAYS comes out again.

teacher · 2018-10-13T04:28:22.000Z

Glad you were spared the major grief GreenLights. :+1:

I have friends & acquaintances in PC & Port St. Joe that lost it all. Literally nothing left… :cry:

The one in Apalachicola dodged the bullet for the most part…. he faired fairly well in the grand scheme of things.

It sure turned into a monster on it’s quick trip from the west end of Cuba to landfall at Mexice Beach less than 2 days later. :person_facepalming: .

klrman · 2018-10-13T04:42:22.000Z

Hang in there GreenLights. I'll never forget the beautiful emerald green waters of Panama City and Destin when I used to live in Florida. It's shocking to the see the aftermath of that storm.

2100 · 2018-10-13T05:07:18.000Z

and also the awesome power of the Q8 when searching for downed power lines.

Glad that you are ok.

Again, this is another testament to a very good practical and a very optimised light design there…… good endurance, good size/weight, good heat management, excellent hotspot size wrt field of vision and throw capabilites .

You probably don’t need extreme throwers that would make you develop “tunnel vision” up close with very low spill light making navigation very difficult and ungodly sizes/weight hosts, or extreme 10-30k lumens extreme lumen flooders that can throw 300 metres which means = wasted power, heat and wasted endurance and the foreground spill making your pupils constrict so you’d even need even more “brute force lumens” to get the cp up to get it to throw. I’m speaking from experience…….

All the optimisations above matter quite a lot in emergency prepping.

ps. of coz i am not dissing the other lights, they have their own uses eg the wide flooders would be good as video lights for aux supplementation esp to say 28mm on a FF sensor.

DavidEF · 2018-10-13T12:35:48.000Z

Glad you’re okay. I’m in Western North Carolina. We mostly got rain, and lots of it! There was some flooding, and some areas did lose power. I’m glad you found BLF and got yourself some very nice lights to use when you needed them most!

Robowski · 2018-10-14T01:34:06.000Z

Greenlights,

Best wishes from Australia to all of you people living in that region.
We can only hope that you get through this OK and things get back to normal soon.

NeutralFan · 2018-10-14T02:24:27.000Z

It’s interesting how most of the time we think of our flashlights as a fun hobby, but when a natural disaster happens like hurricane Michael, our flashlights become a necessity.

Glad you had your arsenal of flashlights GreenLights during your power outage. And most importantly, glad that you’re safe!

2100 · 2018-10-14T04:33:47.000Z

NeutralFan:

It’s interesting how most of the time we think of our flashlights as a fun hobby, but when a natural disaster happens like hurricane Michael, our flashlights become a necessity.

Yes it does, and things like endurance etc suddenly become very important. Flashaholics in not used to power cuts gotta experience that once or twice in their lifetime to fully appreciate it, even it’s just a short 12-48 hours.

You’d soon find that small flashlights = small outputs, never mind the number of lumens it makes at 10 seconds, 30 seconds, 60 seconds, 120 seconds. The total surface area of the host makes a big difference, unless you could tailstand it in a jar of water that can cover till the driver portion of the head, that’s for your ceiling bounce or put a diffuser on top of it. Either that or you’d need to turn on at least 10 of your small lights for decent and useable outputs.
A few lumens isn’t terribly useful, though that’d do in an absolute SHTF situation in which one doesn’t have an alternate choice anyway.

I am not mentioning battery run time since I keep reading this and that BLFer having > 30 or even 100 cells in their collection. :smiling_imp:
And besides if you have juice from a solar setup, then power to you, it really slows down the “overall total discharge rate” of all the cells.

Boaz · 2018-10-14T06:08:32.000Z

We had a pretty good black out about 8 years ago//5 days no power//.

Suddenly having too many lights or batteries isn’t a bad thing.

Every single flashlight,battery,candle ,wick,birthday candle .. you name it...were gone off the shelves. The shelves looked like they’d been mauled by bears . People I’d given lights to all came back and thanked me . Even commenting on it years later . Light may not be the most important of all things in these situations ... But they shed light on those most important things .

Glad you’re safe

spinynorman · 2018-10-14T12:01:44.000Z

Michael’s parting shot was to the NC Outer Banks, where it managed to put 3 feet of water in my (and lots of other) yards by blowing the Pamlico Sound places it didn’t belong. It was handy having a nice thrower (Catapult V6) to spot the floating ice chests, dumpsters and propane tanks ahead of time so I could push them around the house as they drifted by.

CNCman · 2018-10-14T12:23:13.000Z

“GreenLights” :+1: We are so happy to hear you are OK and your damage is not catastrophic. Make sure you get clean water to drink. And be very careful not to get injured cleaning up and helping others with their needs, medical help is spread thin at this time. I had purchased a hand crank light that was very well used for weeks after Katrina. It also had a radio that was useless because all the radio stations were destroyed, so just get one with light only before the next Hurricane hits. Keep us informed how your are doing and surviving. :+1:

We Love the Florida Panhandle and those Beautiful Beaches and Waters. When Ivan hit , it was terrible devastation. It will be many years or hard work to recover from that. Our hearts hurt to see this again.

ActiveAl · 2018-10-14T16:03:18.000Z

GreenLights, thanks for passing on your insights. Would like to hear more when you get a chance - perhaps a list of lessons learned. Many of us could probably benefit from your experience. Take care.

atbglenn · 2018-10-14T16:34:07.000Z

Greenlights, glad you’re ok. We lost power for 2 weeks due to Hurricane Sandy. Luckily my house had no damage. The house next door to me had the back end of his roof blown off. That caused major damage internally due to the heavy rains. I have around 60 flashlights and a generator. I got by on 15 gallons of gas because I used my generator sparingly just to keep my refrigerator cool, and to keep my house at a reasonable temperature. The rest of the time I used my flashlights.

Nachtfeuerzeug · 2018-10-14T19:58:29.000Z

I was in Destin this summer and it is a beautiful area. My heart goes out to all of you in that area as well as for those still recovering from Gulf and East Coast storms.

I have 2 D4s and they can sure consume a battery fast but their flooder beam profile and long run time at the maximum of regulated output would take care of ceiling-bounced centralized light for the first and second story of the house.

Convoy diffusers with 1" tube lights would be very practical, too.

maildroid · 2018-10-15T00:00:03.000Z

Yeah i live on the coast of nc near Wilmington. My hobby has saved me . 5 days no power. A good charger that can be used as a usb bank. Like the littokala charger. Has keept me safe and with 3 people phones charged with plenty of light. So be safe and shine on .

deleted-200707 · 2018-10-15T00:49:03.000Z

I’m liking my 2ea MR70’s for those SHTF situations. One is in my car and the other in my wife’s car. That 26650 holds enuf current to charge smaller lights and my cellphone. The charge out feature should not be overlooked. And it’s sleek and svelte and looks like a flashlight.

My best to all who weathered the storm. We’ve been thru an earthquake rebuild 1994 Northridge, and a flood 2011 on our little(got bigger) creek and we were out of house for 3 months. It’s that time of year for all of our insurance policies to come due. Home, Car, NCIP, it’s a big nut to crack, butt we have received benefits beyond our premiums into the next millennium.