Posts: 22,238
Threads: 2,844
Joined: May 2025
Reputation:
2
A progress report of sorts. I should be in pretty good shape ... already have quite a few canned goods, lots of bottled water, plenty of batteries. Cleared out the front of the catch basin, but I've got to assume that my street will flood, as SW&B does its usual finest in this city. The only thing I worry a bit about is my car ... there's no easy way I can think to park it on my front lawn.
Current track has TD Marco now going to the West of us, but Laura coming right at us... ugh.
Edit: oh, and it would have been nice for me to buy that generator I'd been asking about here awhile back, but since it's not a small investment, I would have wanted to think it out a bit more before buying something.
Edit #2: they're saying on the news that we could end up with a situation of two hurricanes in the Gulf at the same time, which has apparently never happened for about 90 years...
Posts: 42,600
Threads: 545
Joined: Nov 2023
Reputation:
0
Be safe. Keep us posted. Just remember, if things get really ugly, phone texts can sometimes get through when cell phones are jammed for bandwidth or are down.
Posts: 5,728
Threads: 440
Joined: May 2025
Reputation:
0
Well wishes Peter! I'm not sure I want to do those kind of storms.
We did a different kind of storm prep over the last few days. More dry lightning is expected in the next few days. The last round set off over 750,000 acres burning in CA. More han 115,000 people are evacuated.
We packed up our camper van with everything non-perishable. It's pointed outwards in the driveway. Today we centralized all important papers and passports, etc. So if evacuation happens, we just grab some clothes, electronics, dogs and two boxes and we're ready to go. We probably need to maintain this ready state until November or later.
Posts: 33,855
Threads: 2,463
Joined: Apr 2025
Reputation:
0
Posts: 22,238
Threads: 2,844
Joined: May 2025
Reputation:
2
Racer X wrote:
Be safe. Keep us posted. Just remember, if things get really ugly, phone texts can sometimes get through when cell phones are jammed for bandwidth or are down.
Actually that brings up a point of something else I think I'd asked about here awhile back. I no longer have a landline, and my whole house's connectivity is through a wireless access point (I have no wired internet at all). What I've occasionally had happen is to lose cell reception, but interestingly, the wireless access point usually still works. So... my question is, what's the best way to make phone calls over wireless? Do I just use FaceTime?
Posts: 42,600
Threads: 545
Joined: Nov 2023
Reputation:
0
most phones have a setting where you can switch on wifi calling. then you just use the phone.
Posts: 9,996
Threads: 393
Joined: Apr 2022
Reputation:
0
PeterB wrote:
[quote=Racer X]
Be safe. Keep us posted. Just remember, if things get really ugly, phone texts can sometimes get through when cell phones are jammed for bandwidth or are down.
Actually that brings up a point of something else I think I'd asked about here awhile back. I no longer have a landline, and my whole house's connectivity is through a wireless access point (I have no wired internet at all). What I've occasionally had happen is to lose cell reception, but interestingly, the wireless access point usually still works. So... my question is, what's the best way to make phone calls over wireless? Do I just use FaceTime?
Facetime audio calls, yes. That would probably work.
But I'd have backups/failsafes. Skype and Google Voice at least. If a trunk goes down without taking down the whole 'net for your area, some services may route better than others.
...Messages uses data instead of riding the SMS service, so if cell service is spotty, it will fail. The "Send as SMS when iMessage is unavailable" option in the Messages settings under iOS is not reliable. (I experience this a couple of times a week when I try to send messages from the parking lot of my office where I'm out of range of WiFi, but the phone hasn't detected that it's no longer connected to the office WiFi network. Messages fail to send until I toggle off WiFi.)
Turn off iMessage in the Messages settings before the first storm hits and send a test-message to someone to confirm that they receive it as a SMS message. Turn it back on when the storms have passed and Internet service is solid.
Posts: 20,321
Threads: 766
Joined: May 2025
Reputation:
4
See if you can enable WiFi calling on your iPhone (Settings>Cellular>WiFi Calling or Settings>Phone>WiFi Calling). Then you can make and receive actual voice calls, and send and receive texts too.
Posts: 54,615
Threads: 1,938
Joined: May 2025
Reputation:
2
Good luck. It doesn’t look like it will be real serious this time.
Posts: 22,238
Threads: 2,844
Joined: May 2025
Reputation:
2
Actually, I was hoping I could make video calls too...
And it's still too early to tell if it's going to be serious. Even a Cat 1 would likely be a problem for us, but once it hits the Gulf, anything can happen, including strengthening to a Cat 3. Unlikely, but possible.
|
