MURKAT JAY!!! Flood guitars crash course!!

[Jeff R]

Don't know if it's made the news anyone's way, but right now Baton Rouge is the epicenter of a 500-YEAR FLOOD that is decimating the place literally out of nowhere. Freak summer storm front that stalled over us late last week and poured massive, massive amounts of non-stop rain into already summer-soaked rivers, bayous and creeks. There are areas in and around town, many of which are residential areas, that have never flooded as long as records have been kept. 

Vonnie and my immediate family are somehow high and dry (so far, part of my neighborhood was mandatory evac) but our social media accounts are filled with friends and co-workers whose homes and businesses are flooded totally out, lost everything. Absolutely insane - Hurricane Katrina, any hurricane in my lifetime, was a hiccup compared to what we're seeing here right now. Shit is insane.

It is inevitable my shop is going to get slammed with flood guitars in the very near future. One of my best clients has three feet of water in his house and he's flooded out away from it, so I guess his axes are floating in his kitchen right now. 

Jay, I know you have experience with this and I kind of have an idea of what I can and can't do, but I'd love it you shared some lessons learned from the Nashville event a few years ago. Particularly a quickie on "arrives wet" arrives "arrives dried out." But any and all, please pipe in!

Much appreciated!

 

 

[diablo175]

Jeff, I was just thinking about you yesterday and today when I saw the news bits regarding that situation down there. My hopes and positive thoughts are with you, your family and the folks directly impacted by the storms.

[crunchee]

Yikes!  I hope everybody's staying safe there, and the weather lets up really soon.

[Jeff R]

Just found out my sister's house is taking water now. She's in a suburb 15 miles east of me. In between are my parents and great aunt - dry house but islanded by roads only passable by boat in every direction. Interstate 12 connects our three homes and it's closed from Baton Rouge for 70 miles eastward. We are hearing reports of hundreds of people stranded on that highway since Friday and National Guard helicopters are now dropping them provisions. That stretch crosses a few major rivers, all of which are cresting at record levels.

I live literally 150 feet from Interstate 10, probably the reason we're high and dry right now. Our interchange just closed, totally impassible just a couple miles south. No accurate counts yet on people boated or airlifted out of neighborhoods, off of rooftops, etc., but officials are saying in the thousands. That's just the authorities tallies - the locals who own boats are out in full force too. Shelters for the now-homeless are filling up all over the region.

Live remotes at wafb.com. It's truly nauseating.

 

[cmatthes]

Jeff - glad you and the fam are out of harm's way, and positive vibes, mojo, etc. to all those hit around you.  It looks bad on the news, and I know that doesn't even scratch the surface.  Thoughts are with everybody impacted in LA.

I think Roy B. also had some flood experience a few years back.

[murkat]

the prep.

out of the case.

write up an estimate, with pics for insurance if applicable.

remove strings, remove all hardware.

take the garden hose to the guitar, remove all debris, dirt, etc. shade dry out in the open for the day, move inside at night and keep in there with a fan on them, ventilated. not a lot of A/C, you want to dehydrate at a medium, slow pace.

Buy lots of naptha, 1 gal acetone, 1 gal denatured alcohol, scotts paper towels, absorbent cotton rags.

once dry, deusch them with naptha. let them sit for a day or two.

toss all pots, wire, pups (they could be rewound) etc. Cases will be trashed.

soak hardware in denatured alcohol.

All in all, your just trying to stabilize, sterilize, and crossing fingers at this point.

Once you, them have got a moment of clarity, call me.

[mathman]

Man, that sounds terrible.  Hope everyone is safe.

[Jeff R]

13 minutes ago, murkat said:

the prep.

out of the case.

write up an estimate, with pics for insurance if applicable.

remove strings, remove all hardware.

take the garden hose to the guitar, remove all debris, dirt, etc. shade dry out in the open for the day, move inside at night and keep in there with a fan on them, ventilated. not a lot of A/C, you want to dehydrate at a medium, slow pace.

Buy lots of naptha, 1 gal acetone, 1 gal denatured alcohol, scotts paper towels, absorbent cotton rags.

once dry, deusch them with naptha. let them sit for a day or two.

toss all pots, wire, pups (they could be rewound) etc. Cases will be trashed.

soak hardware in denatured alcohol.

All in all, your just trying to stabilize, sterilize, and crossing fingers at this point.

Once you, them have got a moment of clarity, call me.

You are the man, Jay. Nothing's shown up yet because it's still high water and it's all lives and livelihoods things that are front of mind right now, I'm just getting ahead of the curve. I've got half of the above supply list already, thanks a bunch for the rest of the list!

I have a feeling my repair shop will take on an instrument triage role soon, which is nauseating me even more. I'll keep you and for that matter, BCR Greg, Stike, Josh and Mike, all the HFC talent in mind as applicable situations present themselves. And they surely will.

[murkat]

start making 2x4 slotted guitar racks with casters....

[fractal]

Best wishes for everyone in that area (and their guitars!).

 

[Northfield]

Have seen it on the news, please stay safe.  Please let me know If there is anything I can help with.  

[Steve Haynie]

Were the nursing homes and hospitals evacuated?  We had a situation like that in South Carolina.  Sewer lines backed up in the flood, and the plumbing in the buildings could not be used.

Someone I know had to tear out the sheetrock and insulation on his lower floor walls.  Now is the time to remodel whether you want to or not. 

[Jeff R]

Yes, evacs were moving swiftly by local law enforcement and the National Guard and locals with boats and within 24 hours, there were agencies from all over the state joining them.

We were watching on TV and they were doing a live remote with a green reporter at a rescue staging area a few miles from my house, and he was saying they had just received a few dozen elderly folks from a nearby nursing home. When the TV anchor asked where those older folks were heading next, the reporter said officials were taking them to slaughter.

Slaughter is a Baton Rouge suburb to the north, but man that sounded funny LOL

Getting reports from many friends and friends of friends about folks returning to their homes now that waters here are receding. Pulling up carpets, knocking out drywall, moving out soaked furniture to the curbs. The areas south of greater Baton Rouge are now getting all that water that's exiting.

I saw on the news yesterday that either Friday or Saturday's rain total in BR, can't remember which, was the second-highest (deepest?) on record and the Friday/Saturday total was the record for 48 hours by far. We were already pushing the wettest August since data has been kept BEFORE Friday and Saturday - like I said, all the rivers, bayous and creeks were swollen to capacity already. 

[kizanski]

Just when I was thinking, "They never mention the anniversary of Katrina anymore..."

[Jeff R]

The next issue around here is going to be backwater flooding. The now-very-over-swollen bayous and creeks are now hitting now-very-over-swollen rivers with currents so swift they are shutting out the tributaries. Some are already actually flowing backwards, the weathermen are reporting. The major creek that is the south boundary of our neighborhood rose like mad Friday, flooded part of our neighborhood Saturday, receded Sunday and the water's now creeping back up slightly due to no outlet downstream. Our house is still safe as long as torrential rains stay away (fingers crossed), but plenty of folks are still a ways from relief and rebuilding.

[BubbaVO]

Prayers and positive vibes for you guys in LA. 

[Sugartune]

I've seen this on the news and it's some crazy stuff. At first I thought it was replays of Katrina before tuning in closer. We're going through a crazy drought, as are many other areas near us and then when the rain does come, it all ends up focused in one area, causing even bigger issues. What's up with this angry planet? It sure has some strange ideas about balance.  

I hope the best for you Jeff and everyone else impacted. I really cannot imagine going through anything like this. 

Good luck with the shop...which is also ok? 

 

[Jeff R]

Yep, shop is high and dry too. It's in my backyard

[gtone]

Godspeed to you all down there Jeffro - best to you and yours throughout this turmoil.

Freakin' weather's "broken" these days, ain't it!!

[geoff_hartwell]

Jeff, So glad you're doing okay. 

Murkat- what do the guitar racks with casters look like?

[The Shark]

Man, I thought I had it bad when we had four hurricanes in a six week period back in 2004.  We survived and it did suck at a very high emotional level.  I'm just not sure two huge floods in such a short period of time wouldn't drive me to higher ground.  And I love my home.  I just don't think I could bare it.  We get up the next morning and know everything we're up against after big wind.  Flooding is such a more invasive disaster.  Prayers.

[Dave Scepter]

Prayers sent~ 

[Jeff R]

Here you go. That little island in the red circle? Our home and my shop are on that little island.

Where the water on the inundation map stops is just the parish (county) line. Every adjacent parish saw at least similar to this.

A report was issued today by the area chamber of commerce that an estimated 110,000 homes in the BR region saw some degree of flood damage. Insane.

Here's the full parish map. Keep in mind we're a metro for the most part so the entire area is developed.

 

[HSB0531]

On 8/14/2016 at 2:55 PM, Jeff R said:

Don't know if it's made the news anyone's way, but right now Baton Rouge is the epicenter of a 500-YEAR FLOOD that is decimating the place literally out of nowhere. Freak summer storm front that stalled over us late last week and poured massive, massive amounts of non-stop rain into already summer-soaked rivers, bayous and creeks. There are areas in and around town, many of which are residential areas, that have never flooded as long as records have been kept. 

Vonnie and my immediate family are somehow high and dry (so far, part of my neighborhood was mandatory evac) but our social media accounts are filled with friends and co-workers whose homes and businesses are flooded totally out, lost everything. Absolutely insane - Hurricane Katrina, any hurricane in my lifetime, was a hiccup compared to what we're seeing here right now. Shit is insane.

It is inevitable my shop is going to get slammed with flood guitars in the very near future. One of my best clients has three feet of water in his house and he's flooded out away from it, so I guess his axes are floating in his kitchen right now. 

Jay, I know you have experience with this and I kind of have an idea of what I can and can't do, but I'd love it you shared some lessons learned from the Nashville event a few years ago. Particularly a quickie on "arrives wet" arrives "arrives dried out." But any and all, please pipe in!

Much appreciated!

 

 

Jeff:

Hope you & you're family are ok.

I've been watching it on the news for over a week, and I can't imagine what it's like to go through that. 

I have a friend who lives in Denham Springs and she lost her house and business to the flood.

I haven't heard back from her in 8 days and I'm real worried about her and her family.

[ArnieZ]

Hope things are still OK down there!! 

ArnieZ

[tomteriffic]

All the best to everyone there, Jeffro.  I've woken up to several feet of water in the basement and the foundation pushing out of the ground, so I have some small idea, but the degree of devastation (of all types) is nearly unimaginable.

I'm hoping that you, with the help of all the fine builders, repairmen, techs and loo-teers here, can possibly bring some bright spots to a few folks in times to come. After Katrina, Cajunboy (IIRC), came across a pile of waterlogged, wrecked Music Man amps on the curb outside a pawnshop.  Some time thereafter, the badges from one of those wound up on my badge-less formerly waterlogged Music Man that I rescued out of a leaky warehouse in Wisconsin.  I'm very proud of those badges and their heritage and very thankful to Cajunboy.  You just never know how much of a difference some small thing can make, even if it's just drying out a guitar the right way for somebody.