Norm:
Sometimes, necessity is the mother of invention. On August 13, 2004, hurricane Charley was bearing down on us. I went to change the battery in our Radio Shack weather radio and the wires pulled of off the circuit board. It was early Friday morning and the power was already blinking in and out. Rather than try to use the soldering iron, I asked my wife for the super-glue. I used it to reattach the wires to the circuit board and it worked. The weather radio was working flawlessly. Charley became a cat 2 storm, and I got worried and loaded my wife, son, dog, and hurricane supplies into the Jeep and sent them to her sister's house. My house is within ½ mile of Charlotte Harbor and sits 10 feet above sea level: my sister-in-laws house sits 16 feet above sea level and was more secure from storm surge. By mid-morning, the hurricane had become a cat 3 storm with a predicted storm surge of 12 - 14 feet. At the urging of my wife, I loaded-up my storm supplies (a case of beer, cooler and ice) into the car and headed to my sister-in-law's house. When I got there, the wind was brutal. Trees were bent into odd angles and the power lines were arcing and sparking. My brother-in-law had tried to change the battery in his weather radio. He had not only pulled the wires off the circuit board, he broken the circuit board clean in half. He didn't have a soldering iron, so I asked my sister-in-law for her super-glue. I used the glue to reattach the battery wires, then used it to reassemble the circuit board and connections. It worked! The telephone, cell phone, power, and cable TV went down, but the weather radio and its' 9 volt battery kept us informed, to the limited extent that the NWS puts out information, as to what was happening. Is this stuff conductive, I don't know, but it worked for me and I wouldn't hesitate to use it again.
Post Script: Charley went on to become a cat 4 storm (145 mph winds, with 165 mph gusts), moved up Charlotte Harbor, and directly hit my home. I would subsequently lose power, not only from Charley, but in hurricanes Frances, Jeanne, and Ivan. It was this experience that brought me to this discussion board and the concept of wind power.
Respects,
WPHFLA
