Question Of The Day - Tuesday, May 2

[cassiopea]

Hello everyone! Happy first Tuesday of May!




What was the worst natural disaster/weather you have ever been through or witnessed?




Thankfully *Knock on wood* the worst I've ever been through was some nasty snowstorms - terrible roads, power outrages (Longest I've been without power was a few days, though others have gone through weeks) freezing temperatures etc it stinks and it is stressful, but compared to some really narly circumstances in other parts of the world it isn't that horrifying and feel rather fortunate in any case.


How about you? Floods, wildfires, hurricanes, volcanoes, snow, mudslides, tornadoes, earthquake etc?

 

[jcat]

Hurricanes, blizzards, floods, tornadoes, and a few small earthquakes.

 

[cheeser]

Hurricanes and floods. I've seen a couple of tornadoes form, and that was scary enough.

Oh, and I once got zapped by an indirect lighting strike on a sunny day, if that counts.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

Hmm... A few hurricanes, a few blizzards. A couple tornado warnings. One was during a hurricane. I've felt 2 very small earthquakes but they weren't bad at all. At least where I was at the time. The most disruptive/concerning was the blizzard that took out the power when DD was about 4 weeks old. We didn't have a wood stove then and I was living attached to an electric breast pump for DD (at least that's what it felt like). So that wasn't fun. We were evacuated for that one.

 

[sivyaleah]

Hurricane Sandy.
I'd lived in Florida for a few years and never encountered anything like it while in the South. That night was frightening for so many reasons even though we aren't near the shore where so much more damage occurred. A nearby power generator was blowing up, crackling, sending off sparks so large we could see it from blocks away and the sky looked green because of it. We didn't know if we should try to leave just in case it blew up entirely.

Somehow, we made it through the night only to wake up to devastation the likes of which I'd never personally seen, let alone in New Jersey. Our neighborhood has huge, old trees in it. I walked outside and saw dozens of them laying on the ground, some so close to our house it was a miracle they didn't fall on us. My next door neighbor lost one in her backyard that fell into their roof, just grazing it but doing enough damage to be problematic for many months (let alone trying to find someone to get rid of that tree!).

We lost power completely and being it was October, and had started to cool down, it was down right frigid in the house. We had NO power for an entire week. Talk about challenging. I'm glad I had the foresight to plan in advance having lived in Florida, I took warnings very seriously. We had enough food, water and cat food to last a while and also had a big cooler filled with ice. Luckily, we have a gas stove and a gas grill so cooking was easy enough. We also have a fireplace and although we had to restock on wood during that week (we were able to find someone who delivered same day) nights were incredibly frosty and we slept with every blanket and quilt we had on us.

It was BORING too. The local hospital, a bit of a walk but doable, allowed residents to come and charge their cell phones but put a limit on how long one could stay there. We couldn't get gas for the car anywhere and I wanted to conserve the full tank I had just in case we had to be evacuated. We spent a lot of time in their waiting room since they had a backup generator and the TV was on all the time. It enabled us to keep on top of what was going on.

I was out of work that whole week as the trains weren't running at all and then, the next week getting in was dicey at best. Our office had to be relocated also as part of it was underwater (it's a block off the Hudson River in NYC) and all the flooding totally ruined building components necessary to run it safely - plus, there was no phone service either since all underground wires/cables had been corroded with salt water. We were able to secure a really nice space mid-town, graciously given to us by a client for about 5 months.

You sure find out a lot about yourself and your family's ability to cope. I was super organized, on top of things and not fazed too easily. Tom, was freaking out somewhat and glad that I was able to take control.

There's so much more to this, I could write a book about it!

I know this was long but when you go through trauma (of any kind, and this was very life changing) it really sticks with you!

 

[di and bob]

I've witnessed two tornados but thankfully had no damage from them. The worst I have had involving me was that the church up the hill from us put in an acre hard surface parking lot and had it funneled all towards our place. We discovered this right after it was done and had a 2 inch rain which caused extensive damage to our hill in the back of our property, causing 4 inches of mud hundreds of feet long over our grass. We had just covered that hill with plantings and two pallets of wood chips, all gone and spread over our property. It uprooted a couple of trees too. It took us 6 weeks to dig all that mud off and get things back, and many complaints to the church and city to do something. They tried to deny it but didn't succeed, we had the flood coming from their parking lot all on film! That wasn't the end of it, two months later they still hadn't done anything and we then had a 6 inch rain! Twice as bad and this time it took out our deck and stairs going up the hill!Now months later (that was back in August) and 7000.00 worth of 'studies' done they are prepared to install a curb and lift stations, but still nothing has been done. Next time our lawyer will be talking to them, we're too old to do all this again, it is back breaking. I just thank God my husband was smart enough to install our driveways around our house to direct rain away from the house.

 

[neely]

Hurricane Sandy.

I was there visiting my daughter during Hurricane Sandy, saw lots of confusion!

On the home front we have had many snow blizzards which I've become accustomed to and 2 microbursts that caused damage to the back of our house and trees in our yard.

 

[sivyaleah]

I was there visiting my daughter during Hurricane Sandy, saw lots of confusion!

On the home front we have had many snow blizzards which I've become accustomed to and 2 microbursts that caused damage to the back of our house and trees in our yard.

Wow, that was bad timing for a visit!

I'm adding a few things now that I've thought about it.

1. Have seen a couple of small tornadoes, thankfully, far enough away from me to not have to worry.
2. Blizzards - yea that. Too many to count.
3. A few small earthquakes here in NY/NJ. We had one a couple of years back while I was at work. You could feel the building sway very slightly. I knew immediately what happened but others were saying no but later on the news confirmed it was indeed an earthquake!
4. Similar to cheeser once when I was about 12 years old, there was a lightening strike on our front lawn nearby me and my little sister at the time. I thought for years I imagined it but then my younger sister mentioned to me that she remembered this too! So it did happen.

 

[Mother Dragon]

Most of the big weather events here are hurricanes. Hurricane Carla in 1961, with the highest recorded winds ever, was terrifying. I was living about 45 miles inland from landfall. We watched green balls of electricity dance across the front yard as the wind screamed. Of course, our power was off and we were using kerosene lamps for light. The damage to Galveston was terrible, especially with the F4 tornado that was embedded in the storm. Fortunately, our damage was relatively minor.

Our area floods if someone spits. They keep building underpasses, promising each time that they won't flood. However, none of the engineers volunteer to be at the bottom of one during a heavy rain because they quickly fill up with 15'-20' of water. You'd think people would learn not to drive into them, but they don't. They even go around barriers to try to drive through.

Tropical Storm Allison in 2001 wasn't much of a windstorm, but she dumped over 40" of rain on us in about a day. I was at work when the rains started, and since we overlook the confluence of two large bayous, we looked out at huge waves formed where the two smashed together. My husband was telecommunications officer, and when the phone system went out in one of our buildings, he was ordered to come get it up again. We were safely at home, and we had to drive the wrong way on the freeway to avoid the water, and almost flooded out our Explorer. Then, when we finally got there, the system was back up. Downtown Houston was badly flooded. One of our premier research hospitals kept its research animals in the basement. The watertight doors weren't, and they lost everything, including years of work. The symphony's music was stashed in the symphony hall's basement and most of it was ruined. In all, 70,000 houses were flooded. We had looked after a heavy rainstorm and had chosen the lot to have our house built on high ground, so although the water came over halfway up the front lawn, we were dry.

The basement of the place where we worked flooded completely because the pumps stopped when the downtown power grid went down. Our company didn't care whether there was power and we worked in the offices without it for a few days. Huge generators were finally brought in, but only powered the lights. The phone switch had 5 million dollars in damages and so we were using our cell phones for a week or so. Slime and mud were everywhere and mosquitoes were in clouds. For such a little storm, there was tremendous damage.

At home we were without power for about a week. A kind neighbor loaned us a small generator to keep $1800 worth of medicine cold. We wanted to kiss both him and the little engine.

Hurricane Ike in 2008 was a terrible hurricane. Again, Galveston was devastated, and boats were blown or floated as far as 15 miles inland. We're about 75 miles north, and we lost trees and limbs to the winds. We were without electricity for about 8 days. We managed to find a generator after about 5 days. We cooked on the grill, although not well.

Believe it or not, we slept through the F1 tornado that passed directly behind our back fence. The next morning, we went out to see what had happened and a neighbor, one of many picking up limbs or cutting up fallen trees, handed us a turbine vent. He said it was ours. Huh? Sure enough, both vents had been ripped off as we snoozed. The houses directly behind us were badly damaged. We could see the path of the tornado as it rose and fell for several miles. The owner of a doughnut shop overslept for the first time ever. When he got to his shop, it wasn't there.

Houston is strange. It almost never snows and when it does, it might be up to two inches, none of which ever lasts. Nevertheless, the whole city shuts down. Nothing moves and no one ventures out. The sanding trucks don't even go out because it's pointless. No one has snow tires and none of us know how to drive in snow anyway. The transplanted Yankees laugh at us, but they don't go out because we might.

So far I've avoided earthquakes, blizzards, mudslides, and sandstorms, but with Texas weather, I can't rule them out.

 

[denice]

I grew up in Kansas so tornadoes and also high wind damage in general. Here in Ohio it was one ice storm that took down a lot of electric lines in this area. I was without power for five days over Christmas, it happened the day before Christmas. It got bitter cold after the storm.

 

[amysuen]

Blizzards and tornadoes. And once in MI there was a windstorm with tornado-force winds that didn't spin but only went one way. I forgot what they called it but it did as much damage, if not more, as a tornado.

 

[Freedom]

Blizzards and hurricanes.

The Blizzard of 1978 - Feb, it snowed for 4 days. The state shut down completely, no traffic other than emergency vehicles and snow plows. My Dad had a plow, so I went out with him. One of the places he had to plow was an apartment complex. I'd knock on doors, ask if folks needed anything. Get some shopping lists and money, return to the truck, Dad would drop me at the food store. I'd go around getting everything - the hard part was getting each order separate, the right change, and so on. Then back to the apartment complex and I'd deliver to everyone while Dad continued the plowing.

I was in college, a commuting student to Boston University. As most of the students lived in the dorms, they resumed classes as soon as it was ok for the professors to be on the roads to get to work. I missed over a week of classes, had to get notes for so many classes from different students / friends! Took ages to catch up!

Hurricane Bob came through here in 1991, one of our maple trees was blown over. Dad went out - after the storm! - and put stakes in the ground, stood it up and tied it. It lived another 15 years.

Hurricane Sandy, I was living in RI. Lost power for 23 hours, and that was tough. I really don't know how the folks without power for a week and more survived.

And not weather related, I remember the Great Northeast Blackout of 1965.

 

[kashmir64]

Blizzards, high winds, even some funnels that thankfully never touched down. The most common though was haboobs. (a wall of dust/dirt over 1 mile high and 10 miles long). Been through many of those.

 

[DreamerRose]

Blizzards and deep snow - 1977-1979, Hurricane Hazel - 1954, and ice storms in Atlanta.

We had numerous blizzards during those years here near Chicago, and one winter we had three feet of snow on the ground for months. People had to put flags on their car antennae to be visible around corners where the snow was piled up to the top of stop signs, and I remember one white-out where the snow was so thick you couldn't see more than six feet ahead.

Hurricane Hazel has faded out of most people's memories, or was never experienced at all. It was the deadliest hurricane of the 1954 season. When it hit the Carolina coast, it was a category 4 hurricane. I lived in the Washington, DC, area at the time, and the eye passed right over us.

One ice storm in Atlanta left us without power for almost three weeks. The night it happened, we looked out our bedroom window and watched transformers explode over the city like fireworks. We lived in the family room huddled around the fireplace. Since we had an electric stove, I also cooked on the fire. Some people left town for the duration, and electric companies came from three states to help restore power.

 

[micknsnicks2mom]

i'd say the worst for me has been earthquakes. i was living in LA when the earthquakes centered in Landers and Yucca Valley occurred, in late June and mid July of 1992. more recently, we've experienced an earthquake here in New York State in recent years -- it was strong enough that we definitely felt it.

 

[Kat0121]

2004. We had back to back major hurricanes come through. Frances and Jeanne. It was rough. They were 3 weeks apart.

 

[Winchester]

In 1972 Hurricane Agnes roared through Pennsylvania. Rick and I lost everything. We had only been married a year and our son wasn't a year old. Thankfully we had some insurance and we also had flood insurance. But it was rough, trying to start over again. I remember walking through our trailer; we lived in a mobile home park. The trailer had been tied down, so it floated. When we walked inside, the water level had been up to my nose.

We've lived through blizzards since then. Lost power a couple times. Nothing has ever affected us the way Agnes did.

Mom used to talk about a Hurricane that came close to or through North Carolina in 1955. I was a baby and we lived at Camp LeJeune. She said they put me in the bathtub because they figured that was the safest place. They had a red Coleman lantern that they used after the power went out and they were the only place on base that had light. She said it was really crowded at their place! (I still have that red Coleman lantern.) Might have been Hurricane Diane, but I have no clue.

 

[AbbysMom]

Blizzards and hurricanes. There was a fairly major flooding issue a few years back as well.

 

[Norachan]

I was in Japan when the 2011 Tohoku earthquake struck. We are quite a long way from the epicenter, but we felt it here and had no gas, water or electricity until the next day. Then power cuts for the next month or so because the tsunami took out the nuclear power station in Fukushima.

We had a blizzard here a few years ago that dumped nearly 2 meters of snow on us overnight. The whole town shut down for a few days because of that.

I remember a really big typhoon the year I first came to Japan too. Loads of trees down and flooding in the town I lived in then.