Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with disaster

Ok to use a public insurance adjuster?

neilkod — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:17:38 -0800

Flood! Will it be worthwhile for me to use a licensed public adjuster to handle a flood insurance claim? A neighbor, who has been in this position with both his own home and his rental properties recommended I consider a public insurance adjuster. I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences. I'm trying to be a good mefite and honor the 'if it sounds too good to be true' axiom, but I need to make sure. We took on some damage (and two cars were totaled because of interior flooding) and I want to make sure I'm treated fairly.

Give the gift that keeps on smearing

DarlingBri — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:53:24 -0800

[HomemadeCandyFilter] We made Chocolate-Almond Buttercrunch Toffee according to this recipe. The toffee part is great; the chocolate part appears to be a train wreck. Basically, it's break and spread nuts, spread toffee over top, break and spread chocolate, add another layer of nuts. Everything went flawlessly, including the making of toffee with our thrilling new candy thermometer. But the chocolate is not re-hardening at all. This is not good.

I used continental plain chocolate (74% cocoa) and it never occurred to me this might happen or that I needed particular chocolate. Is this stuff ever going to get hard or will I have to scrape it off and do this over again with some other chocolate?

Where did I go wrong and how do I fix this? We plan to give this stuff as packaged gifts so I do need to fix it. Thanks!

Worst reason ever for getting a PhD?

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:16:43 -0800

I've been academically wronged on an epic (to me) scale. How to overcome? The details don't matter. Suffice it to say that, after years of work and sacrifice, a morally bankrupt academic department has screwed me over with regards to my Ph.D. program. Net result: The original reason for getting the degree has become virtually impossible to achieve and irrelevant. To keep going is going to involve years of extra work and sacrifice with no assurance that I'll ever get the degree. Or I could say "screw it" and walk away with a master's. Six months later I am still so far beyond pissed off that it's sometimes hard to function. My primary motivation at this point is the feeling that, by finishing the degree, I'll be exacting some sort of "You fuckers couldn't beat me" revenge as, on graduation day, I let them know (verbally) exactly how I feel.

At the same time, I recognize that this isn't a healthy mental state. I can lose my job if I seek psychological counseling so I was hoping the collective you might have some tips for getting past the anger so that, if I choose to continue towards the degree, it will be for more noble reasons.

Nowhere to go but up?

serazin — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 09:37:06 -0800

How did you come back from miserable failure? My life was humming along more or less well until a couple weeks ago when disaster struck. I have, temporarily at least, failed out of school, which, beyond the obvious, has enormous financial and personal implications. I'm 35 and a single parent, so starting over, while possibly necessary, feels extra daunting. As often happens, this one disaster is causing me to see everything else in my life as a failure. In an effort to avoid spiraling into depression, I'm trying hard to keep my brain together by exercising, talking to friends, and seeking inspiration from other people who have had their lives fall apart and recovered. In short, I am seeking metafilter-flavored chicken soup for the soul. Can you tell me how you came back from totally fucking things up?

How best to be useful on the ground in Samoa after the tsunami?

metaseeker — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:30:14 -0800

How best to help out on the ground in Samoa after tsunami? My husband spent two years in Samoa with the Peace Corps in the 80's, and has maintained close ties with a family there. Their village was among the hardest hit by the tsumani. He is planning to head to Samoa to help out in a few weeks.

My question is to people who have worked in disaster areas - how best can he help out? What to bring? Who to coordinate with? What to watch out for? Assume a budget of $2k outside of airfare.

thanks!
loving wife

What can you see in satellite photos?

k. — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:33:01 -0800

Satellite photos: what interesting features can be seen or measured in them (or other aerial photos), and where can I get a supply of images? Examples I have already seen, from some crude Google-searching:
Roads
Buildings
Degree of development (urban/suburban/rural)
Oil spills (apparently these are usually hard to see)
Blooms of algae (cyanobacteria) in the Baltic Sea
Damage to buildings from earthquakes

More would be appreciated--the more specific, the better. These will be used in a computer vision system, so I'd especially like to know where I can find a supply of images containing whatever feature I'm looking for (including the above)--easy for buildings or roads, but hard for rare events like oil spills. Natural disasters seem interesting, if there are pictures available.

I would also consider some other kind of non-photographic data as well, if it could be combined with maps or photos. Don't worry whether you think it's suitable; any idea you have will help!

In need of a Disaster Recovery Template

MattScully — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:56:46 -0800

Does anyone have an outline or template for an IT Disaster Recovery Plan? I have been tasked with creating our disaster recovery plan. The old plan is so old as to be pretty worthless so I am starting from scratch.

Any advice would be helpful.. a template or outline would be extremely helpful.

We know what we are going to do as far as the actual technology goes, so I don't need any help there. The difficulty is in writing the plan and the process itself.

is it just sad?

chicago2penn — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:36:55 -0800

2-Part question: 1) Why did my wok catch fire? 2) Why did it turn blue? I was cooking fish last night using a stainless steel wok.

it was on the eye of the stove heating up, and i let it stay for a little while longer than i had planned, because i was occupied preparing the stuff to go in the wok.

i finished prep, and poured less than a tablespoon of canola oil into it, which immediately started to boil. i turned around, and then looked back, and the oil had caught fire, with a bright orange flame about 2 feet tall (way cool!!!).

after i put it out, i poured a bit of water into it to cool it off (free wok, so i didn't really care about ruining it, just wanted to get it off the stove), and let it cool for a while.

i looked at it this morning, and the whole bottom of the wok is blue (also, way cool!!!).

why did all this happen? i thought the smoke point of canola oil is much hotter than my electric stove could bring anything.

What is the Name of This Tornado Doc?

LeeJay — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 10:33:09 -0800

Inspired by this thread, I am trying to remember the name of a tornado special that aired, I think, on HBO several years ago. Around six or seven years ago (I believe, it might be older) I saw a documentary on HBO (again, I could be wrong about the channel but it definitely aired on a premium, no-commercials movie channel) about F4 and F5 tornadoes in the United States. It was made up mostly of interviews with eyewitnesses, rescuers and survivors and almost all of the storms profiled were relatively recent. There are several bits that I remember clearly but the story that stands out most is the story told by a rescuer who found an elderly woman in wreckage. He had a cell phone on him and was able to contact the victim's family so she could speak to them one last time. There was also a story about a nurse who lost her son and a church that was totally destroyed except for one hallway which was where the church's occupants chose to ride out the storm.

Thinking about it now, it could have been originally produced for public television but if memory serves there was plenty of language that wasn't censored so I'm thinking it really was a cable production.

I've searched and searched but I cannot for the life of me seem to find it. Anyone remember what it was called?

How do I get a job in the field of disaster relief?

tr0ubley — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:39:36 -0800

How do I get a job in the field of disaster relief? I have felt a lifelong drive to help those people in the greatest need. I would really like to work in the area of disaster relief, perhaps internationally. Currently I am a scientist (wildlife biologist) and a volunteer firefighter/EMT, so some of my skills are tangentially relevant. What can I do to make myself marketable in this field? I am looking at this as a five-year transition, so I would appreciate any advice about schooling, volunteer organizations, and job direction. Thanks!

Making HUGE MISTAKES, and being okay

ADoubtfulTrout — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:28:51 -0800

What are stories like this about making huge mistakes, and then recovering from it? Inspired by this story about Citicorp Center, I've been looking for other stories about people who made mistakes which would have huge, disastrous consequences, and how they handled both the ethical situation of what to do when they discovered it and how they acted to prevent disaster. I'd like to put together a short set of them addressing the same issues with a few conversation-starting questions for a luncheon discussion group, but I'm having trouble finding for good examples. Bonus points for suggestions related to software.

Halp save my oyster stew!

thatbrunette — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 13:16:02 -0800

The milk in my oyster stew boiled over. Is it salvageable? I've got an oyster stew on the stove, ingredients are half and half, a tonne of butter, oysters, shallots and celery. I left it (I know, I know) in the care of a roomate for two minutes, and it boiled over. Now the milk is a little clotty. Is there a fix, or has this been ruined?

Please predict the future of housing!

fiercekitten — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 09:52:41 -0800

HousingFilter: Given the incentives to buy a house this year, we're seriously considering buying something in the low $200s this year. Given that we live in Portland, most available properties in that range are townhome/condo/rowhouse style homes. Would anyone care to provide me with a scholarly or trade-related projection how these sorts of homes will be viewed in 15 years? Maybe it's because I've lived in not-Portland Oregon more than Portland Oregon, so I've seen my share of really, really terrible tract housing. Also, as I've lived longer than 25 years, I actually have seen what goes around comes around and my fair share of fads. (Neon, anyone? It will come back.) Are these sorts of things likely to be seen as a by-product of the insane housing bubble of the Naughts or a unique aspect of Portland housing?

What are all of these illegal immigrants doing in my bed?

troika — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:02:01 -0800

Help my friends play an epic prank on their vacationing roommate! Ideas, please. He's gone for the next six weeks. The remaining two residents of the house want him to return to something truly awesome...but can't think of anything good enough. They just don't want to do anything smelly. Other than that, the sky's the limit. What would you do?

They want to do something to his bedroom, and they like this guy (so nothing mean....nothing too mean anyway).

Looking for a bulletproof web host with built-in colocation and failover.

benzenedream — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:33:55 -0800

Looking at setting up a simple web site (no CGI) but needs to be up 24/7 and reasonably disaster proof (earthquake, hurricane, regional fires, etc.). Hosting company needs to be multisite with automagic failover assuming one site goes down. Updates from primary to failover site can be as slow as hourly, they do not need to be in realtime. Minimal traffic (less than 2Gb/month). Don't care if it's straight hosting or a whole VPS, proc and memory usage should be minimal. Dedicated colo hardware would be overkill.

I realize there are various hand-rolled ways to achieve the same thing (rsync, cron, various DNS tricks spring to mind) but would prefer that the vendor worry about it. Most of the vendors I've found have a single bulletproof site but have no site failover.

How do I get through a terrible vacation without a meltdown?

Anonymous — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 07:33:20 -0800

How do I de-stress during and after an awful, expensive vacation? I am in the midst of a disappointing, stressful vacation and will be returning in a couple of days to my stressful, low-paying job. The breaking point is near. Help it to not happen. I originally went on this vacation with the anticipation of having an excellent time visiting good friends I haven't seen in a while. I was also looking forward to a much-needed break from my job.

But as the departure date grew closer, I began to have second thoughts. It became apparent during the planning process we'd mostly be doing activities I find uninteresting at best, stressful at worst, and attempts to suggest other activities were ignored. It looked like the vacation was going to be a good deal more expensive than I could afford, and I felt the friends I'd be visiting have changed in a such a way that we'd no longer connect as we once did.

But my travel partners (including my significant other) encouraged me to not bail out and promised it would be great, and so I came along anyway. My gut instinct has unfortunately been pretty much right on track. I don't even want to call what I'm on right now a vacation, because "vacation" implies a degree of relaxation I'm not even close to experiencing right now. I'm stressed from doing lots of activities that I hate and are way, way too expensive for my budget. It feels like I'm experiencing all of the stress of my day-to-day life, only without the opportunity to engage in the hobbies that relax me, and with the extra kick of losing money instead of earning it (I have an hourly job). I skirt the poverty line, so the money issue is a big one.

It does not help that this would have been my first real, no-strings-attached vacation in many, many years, and due to money, job, and school issues there won't be another one for a relatively long time.

I can't simply bail on the expensive, awful activities, as everyone else really wants to do them and me sitting at the hotel or going off on my own would lead to bad feelings all around. When I have made the suggestion of doing something like that the reaction has been bad enough that I worry there would be some tremendous melt-downs if I actually went through with it.

And yet I'm having trouble hiding the fact that I'm upset at myself for not initially standing my ground and not going and upset at my friends and significant other for badgering and guilt-tripping me into coming here. The vacation is not over yet. I need a way to get through the rest of it, and then get back into the super-stressful job and devastated finances without completely exploding from disappointment and rage. How can I make the best of this?

Looking For A Data Recovery Company

Brian Puccio — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:47:02 -0800

Please recommend a data recovery/harddrive recovery firm, familiarity with HFS+ filesystems a plus. I've got a dead harddrive that spins up and shows one partition, but I cannot repair it either under OS X or with a Linux live CD. I've tried a few software packages, but none of them get any data off the drive. (Though Data Rescue II does show a list of the file names, when I restored a file, it didn't open, so it can see the files, it's just returning corrupt data.) Before you all say "restore from your backups" this is my backup disk, specifically, my Time Machine backup harddrive.

I'm in the US and will ship pretty much anywhere and pay the considerable amount of money it will probably cost to recover the data (mostly images - CR2 files) from this drive.

Thanks!

Defend New Orleans: Lakeview v. ENOLA v. Algiers

Ogre Lawless — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:00:15 -0800

Post-Katrina Recovery: I recently caught corners of Lakeview and New Orleans East. While Lakeview seemed more affluent and maybe older and more established, it didn't seem like it would have great advantages over NOE that would account for the relative degree to which it appeared that Lakeview was recovered compared to NOE. Is NOE really behind the curve in recovery and if so, why? Additionally, as my junkets to Algiers and through the Garden District had me curious: I understand that the brackish and otherwise toxic water snuffed out most vegetation below a certain level. Were these two areas also landscaped in a generous manner before the storm?

Important book damaged, how can I fix?

arniec — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:18:35 -0800

A book that is very personal and valuable to me got damaged due to a leak in a car which allowed rainwater in. The book cover acted like a sponge dragging up the water as well as dirt from the upholstery. I've talked to two book repair places, but I have my reservations. Any suggestions? Even more desired: anyone have EXPERIENCE with book repair shops? The damage is mostly to the bottom corner of the book where the spine is located, though the other bottom corner has some discoloration and some warping. The pages of the book closer to the cover (beginning and end of the book) have perhaps 3-4" diagonal of warping and a brownish discoloration that looks like iced tea (though it was water and dirt).

Towards the middle of the book it is about one inch diagonal.

The book is oversized with coated pages.

Now this book is still in print in its exact format, however I have had many pages of this book autographed by some people who no longer sign. So I am thinking the best solution would be:

a) get a new book
b) Repair only the pages in the old book that contain autographs
c) Merge autographed pages of old book in place of non-autographed pages in new book.

My wife and I have found some book binding places online. The first, http://bookrestoration.net/ seemed great online, but when we sent pictures they said they "can't work miracles with coated pages" and said they were unable to present any type of quote without seeing the book first-hand.

The second, http://thebookdr.com/ seemed good at first, we provided pictures of the damage as they asked, and then they stopped replying to our e-mails.

We are both very upset about this book being damaged and would like to restore it to original condition as much as possible. I can't say "cost is no issue" but the book is very valuable to us, but we want to get service worth the price we pay.

Can anyone recommend a book repair place, perhaps some that specialize in coated books? Please, no "do-it-yourself" options...neither of us are very handy and would likely make the problem 1000 times worse.

Thank you!

Can you hear me now?

kbanas — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 07:19:23 -0800

In the aftermath of major natural disasters like, for example, an earthquake, hurricane or tornado, there exist certain conventions and procedures for communication - like, for example, channel 19 on a CB radio, or the emergency broadcast network on TV. When speaking in terms of RADIO-based communication, what are the protocols and technologies that are in place now that are most likely to be used in a crisis such as this? CB? AM/FM? If I suffered a disaster and I wanted to be in the loop and learn information about where I might go for rescue or aid, and direct contact wasn't viable because I was trapped somewhere, is there some pre-determined set of frequencies and channels where I should be tuning in?

Reconstructing cost basis on gifted bonds while I was an infant

Ryaske — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 13:44:24 -0800

I was given (gifts) federal savings bonds throughout my early childhood. When I was starting college, I cashed the bonds. Then, we had a devastating home fire disaster. I lost ALL of the paperwork for these bonds. The IRS came back regarding my taxes and wants to tax me on ALL of the redemtion. How can I construct the proper cost basis with NO information? Continue on for more details ... So, I was given (gifts) federal savings bonds throughout my early childhood. When I was starting college, I cashed the bonds. Then, we had a devastating home fire disaster. In it, I lost a lot of important things.. including the "shares redeemed" tax forms from the sale of my bonds, as well as any remaining paperwork we may have had regarding the gifting process.

So I filed my 2006 taxes, completely forgetting about these cashed bonds and my tax liabilities for them. Now, the IRS came back with the 1099-B from "Focus Fund Investor Class", "Boston Financial Data Services" located at 2 Heritage Dr, N Quincy, MA 02171.... which reports I received $5,442 in redeemed securities, which I believe to be 100% true.

The papers I received from teh IRS indicate that my cost basis is assumed zero, because I did not file a schedule D. They are asking for $871 in backed taxes.

I would like to correct this change, and provide the proper cost basis on these securities to reduce my taxes, BUT I HAVE NO PAPERWORK AT ALL regarding the purchase, transfer, nor redemption of the bonds. I don't know much if ANYTHING about the gifted bonds. Not where they came from, who gave them to me, etc. I just know my parents had them (in my name) while I was growing up.

I have about 3 weeks to mail my response before I am penalized further. How can I go about gaining information, paperwork, or anything else about these? Am I fresh out of luck? Should I just pay these taxes at a loss, and be done with it?

Thank you very much for any insight you can provide me. This is a huge punch to my stomach after what we've been through.

Thanks,
Ryan

San Francisco Storms

mto — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 20:39:38 -0800

Should I be scared of these 3 big storms about to slam into San Francisco? The news has been going on and on about these storms. The city is giving away sandbags. They're mentioning hurricane force winds. It's freaking me out. How scared should I be? You can see about where I live in my user profile.

I bought a bunch of food I can make w/ my camping stove and some extra water. Should I be doing anything more to prepare? Is my neighborhood likely to flood? (Bernal Heights)?

Also, and most importantly, how likely are these storms to produce a tornado? I hate tornados, I left the midwest thinking I'd never have to worry about another tornado again.

My rib roast is finishing too early. How can I let my meat loaf?

donpardo — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 13:11:00 -0800

My 11 lb rib roast is about to be finished early (4:00 for a 6:30 dinner). The roast is currently out of the oven, wrapped in foil and a towel, sitting at 115 degrees. I'm planning on putting it back at 5 or so to bring it up to 125, then blast it at 500 after it sits for a bit (I'm using Alton Brown's method). Is this a reasonable approach? Or should I just plan on making hash?

Details: My oven can handle as low as 110 reliably. I'm planning on making Yorkshire Pudding, but I'll be happy to skip that to save the roast.

Where to buy emergency kit items and water rations in Canada?

acoutu — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 20:57:12 -0800

Where, in Canada, can I buy emergency/disaster kit items such as water rations? I'm looking to put together a 72-hour kit. I'd like to purchase long shelf life water rations. I can't figure out where to buy these in Canada. They seem to be everywhere in the US. In Canada, they only seem to be available as part of ready-made disaster kits. Is it possible to buy water rations from within Canada? (Note: I'm in a condo, so living off a hot water tank isn't an option.) I've been able to figure out where to buy many disaster readiness items, but it would be great if someone could point me to a Canadian source for things like water rations, high calorie food rations and so on. Mountain Equipment Co-op doesn't seem to have boxed water. Thanks.

Email Crisis

juiceCake — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 16:07:43 -0800

I've just been informed by my ISP, which hosts all of my client's sites and email, that the email servers are being switched tonight and tomorrow morning all my clients have to add new email accounts with new user names (but same email address.) In addition, the new accounts will not have any of the old emails.... Changing username and password details is small potatoes as long as the email address remains the same. However, not being able to access their old emails in the new account on the new server is. Furthermore, they can only access them for a few more days at a specific IP using the old settings for a few more days (and of course, none of the new emails are going there.) I need to know if there is any method of having email clients like Firefox, MacMail, and Outlook take what emails they have now in what will be their old accounts (IMAP) and make them accessible, at least locally, within their new accounts?