Devastating Hurricanes Have An Upside

[thegarehanman]

My dad is a born garbage picker. Give him a 7 figure salary and he's still going to grab a dresser out of the trash if it looks restorable. Anyhow, a lot of people threw things out due to Hurricane Katrina, either because of water damage or bad food(fridges). My dad calls me today and tells me he found a craftsman radial arm saw and scroll saw for me. He sanded and oiled everything to get rid of dust, and says they both work like a charm. I had wanted a scroll saw for a while too. The moral of the story: there's always an up-side.

peace,

russ

[Marzocchi705]

Thats great man, looks like things are getting better for you. Now put thoes things to good use!

[erikbojerik]

Don't forget about all that deadwood....after Hurricane Isabella hit here in MD a couple years ago I ran into a few guys scouting about, knocking on doors, looking for maple & walnut. Don't know what you have down there in LA but there must be something....swamp ash?

[Scott Rosenberger]

There'll be alot more stuff like that in the Trash in Louisiana. insurance Companies will come in and declare a property a total loss including everything inside. That means everything gets tossed

[thegarehanman]

Actually, my dad got my mom a freezer too. My dad's a minister and has been leading up a lot of the rebuilding in Slidell. He's been picking up refridgerators that people threw out because they contained rotting food, cleaning them out, taking the smell out with charcoal, and giving them to people who have no flood insurance but lost everything. He's also leading a few demolition/construction crews. I'm very proud of him. Anyhow, I really doubt there's much good wood here. Not all of the trees got knocked down, but most of the ones that did were pine. Apparently the pines that were knocked down aren't good for anything other than paper pulp. I don't know if swamp ash is indiginous to this area, but if it is, then it's really in the swamp. There's a guy in my church who owns a saw mill in montana, and I could probably get a saw out of him. I'd rather just buy swamp ash though, especially considering I've never even used it.

peace,

russ

NOTE:

I learned something about water damage. It doesn't neccessarily destroy electronics. Whoever gutted my church threw out all of the soundsystem hold the speakers. Being the frugal sound tech I am, I grabbed the mixer and 5000watt(I think) power amp out of trash pile. Both had been flooded, but they had a month to dry. I cleaned them up, inside and out, and what do you know? They both function perfectly. It should tide my church over until they can buy new equiptment.

Edited October 13, 2005 by thegarehanman

[bigdguitars]

lol. My father the executive does the same thing.... Why throw something out when it needs to be cleaned.

I think it has to do with the depression and how people were raised.

Go looking for some swamp ash........

Hope the clean up goes well. Maybe the local high school will trash thier shop?

[crafty]

I learned something about water damage. It doesn't neccessarily destroy electronics.

Yup. First thing to do when anything electronic is flooded is remove the battery and submerge the device in clean, preferably distilled, water. Saved a bunch of friends' cellphones that got beer spilled on them that way over the years. Take 'em apart, clean off the rest of the residue, let dry or dry with a hairdryer and it's usually good as new.

[thegarehanman]

The only highschool that flooded...got anhialated. There was 2 feet of mud(and an aligator) in their gym when they got to it. I think you'd have to worry about more things than water if you got your hands on their tools. Doubt it's worth it though. I'm more than satisfied w/ just a new scroll saw. I wouldn't mind finding a load of carbide patern follower bits, hehe.

[Pr3Va1L]

i THINK electronics should be alright with water as long as they're not powered up with water in em, to avoid shorts...