Prayer Request for Hurricane Victims

Glad to hear that your son is safe, Clarence. The local news said that we got 26 inches of rain yesterday. At eleven last night, I was afraid that water would get into the barn so I took all of my guns out of the safe and stood them up on my loading bench. The wife came out to check the horses and looked at the stash and told me.that she should have bought me a smaller safe. I asked her why and she told me that I didnt appreciate it or I would fill it up. I sure do love her.

Thanks to everyone for the thoughts and prayers. They are appreciated. It is times like these that make having both local and long distance friends so valuable. We might not agree on every subject, but who wants a puppet? If we want someone to tell us that we are right all of the time. We might as well talk to ourselves. Thanks again to all of you at PM. We came out unscathed, but some very close friends did not. Ya'll stay safe.

Jerry
 
Originally Posted By: sandy hicks
It is times like these that make having both local and long distance friends so valuable. We might not agree on every subject, but who wants a puppet? If we want someone to tell us that we are right all of the time. We might as well talk to ourselves. Thanks again to all of you at PM. We came out unscathed, but some very close friends did not. Ya'll stay safe.

Jerry

Jerry,
I spent probably 50% of my career on a boat.
You have no idea how much it bothers me that I'm too old and too far away to help.
I hope you and your son stay safe.

JP
 
My wife just did a FB update and my local KY Power guys are in Corpus Christi right now.
The crew leader was my best man at my wedding!

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That's good news, Jerry!

Have two friends who live in Richmond (forced evacuation). One moved as much of his furniture as he could upstairs, locked the door and went to New Braunfels. The other was having back surgery in Michigan when this thing blew in, so had not prepared for flooding. I think the Brazos is still rising, so that jury is still out.

It is so sad to see all the suffering going on up there. Wish I was younger and able to pitch in but about all I can do is offer up a few prayers and kick in a few bucks. Wonderful how folks are coming in from all over the country to help out.

Regards,
Clarence
 
Originally Posted By: tnshootistSandy they are raising gas prices here.it's gone up 50 cents so far but they are saying 5 dollars.

Hope today was a better day.

It"s up about 50 cents here so far.
 
Originally Posted By: sandy hicksTwo vridges have collapsed very close to home and they are worried about others. This storm is making it hard to get around.

Good to hear from you.
 
All four local refineries tried to run through the storm at reduced rates. Entergy had a power failure which killed eveyone. For example, making moonshine and gasoline are about the same. Distillation is distillation. Now lets say you have a 200 foot tall still, we actually call it a pipe still, and pour 1k barrels of road asphalt in the bottom of it and let it dry. When it cools it is literally like black glass. Not only do these plants have multiple towers full of it we have miles of pipe full of it. Absolute worst case scenario short of burning it down.

I dont know, the Houston and Lake Charles plants may be in the same situation.

Eveyone will compete for the same construction companies for repairs. Heater tubes have to be cleaned, pipes cut out or heat stress relieved to unplug them. Add to that, there are limited numbers of skilled workers to do the job. High schools have pushed college to the point that the building trades are depleted of skilled labor. If you can work and will work there is a good paying job here and has been for several years.
 
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I went back to work today. While some things are as ugly as we thought that they would be, there are some bright spots. We could ciculate our crude towers today. Quick actions by good operators will save valuable time in returning to beneficial production. My guess would be 4 or 5 weeks at most.

Motiva, the largest refinery in the US will be back in that time frame also, give or take a couple of weeks.

I think that the media wants everything during Trumps presidency to be bad. This wont take us long to get sorted out. We took some big steps today. The equipment works and that is the main thing.
 
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Sandy I wish I could call back a few years. I feel sure a man could sit on his tailgate with belt and hooks and not sit long till he was making some good money.
Lots of opportunity for a man who would work as you say I am sure.

Be careful with all that will be going on as I am sure you always are. it gets touchy when everyone is working ot and everyone gets worn out.

I don't know if I would want to have that tar in the pipes to get lose. That sounds like a aggravating job.
 
Man, I feel for you guys, Sandy. Never worked a refinery, but have spent many an hour with steam hoses during the winter thawing out lines on barges to transfer Acetic Acid which freezes At 16.2*c (62*f). At least the barge lines were usually uninsulated; even worse when steam traced & insulated lines froze up.

As JJ said, be careful...lots of OT and startups can get hairy.

Regards,
hm
 
Quote:we actually call it a pipe still

Pardon my ignorance, Jerry, but as I said, no refinery experience. Did operate chemical stills for 9 years or so before moving to distribution.

When you said you could circulate your crude towers, assume that means you can heat 'em up carefully to liquefy the crude and bring 'em up without physical entry to clean tubes, etc.??

All our stills had either bubble cap or sieve trays, depending upon the product being processed. Do the refinery stills have trays throughout like chemical stills? Can't imagine having to go in and clear tar off several hundred trays before you could heat 'em up.

Regards,
hm
 
Mostly sieve trays in the atmospheric still. Bubble caps limit through put to a point. There is packing in the vacuum stills. We have 2 of each. What we call circulation is being able to use the pumps with the lowest draw point on the tower to circulate oil through the whole systems. Being able to circulate means no major plugging. I was shocked to say the least.

The vacuum towers are plugged though. They are the worst to deal with. But, 2 out of 4 aint bad. Batting 500 will get you into the hall of fame. Lol.
 
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Thanks for explanation, Jerry. I only operated one still that used circulating pumps to force material through the steam calandrias and that was for a relatively short period, thankfully. Had almost forgotten that one.
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Most of our process was pretty light stuff so no problems w/solidification during emergency shutdowns.

Stay safe.

Regards,
hm
 
Running two 12 hour shifts? Nights not all that bad, especially startup/shutdown....less maintenance (& tech men
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) to get in the way. Be safe, Jerry.

Regards,
hm
 
Yessir, I will be the night coordinator. Having to start up 2 units while doing a schedulednturn around on the other 2. Lots of work.
 
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