Hurricanes, If You Have To Deal With The Wind Why Not Have the Liquor?

[Heaven's Cloud]

[color=indigo]If you have ever spent the late summer or early fall on the East Coast of the US (particularly the south-eastern coast of the East Coast), then you know what time of the year it is: Hurricane season.

With Tropical Storm Hermine now entering the mix Iâ??m reminded of the few years I spent in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, and the hurricanes I weathered. Poor college students my roommates and I were far too broke to seek shelter inland when hurricanes battered the coast, so we often rode out the storms in a boarded up apartment.

Sane people would worry about their safety and well-being, but not us (it truly is a wonderful thing being 19-21 and invincible). We dubbed these often two-to-three day hiatuses from college (in one case eight days due to category four hurricane that blew through) hurricane holidays. Weâ??d load up ice chests with beer and liquor and fill our cabinets with rice crispy treats and potato chips and ride out the storm in a drunken stupor with friends and girlfriends.

While my memories of terrible storms tend to be nostalgic and somewhat fond (except for the time that a storm blew in two of our boarded up apartment windowsâ?¦that sucked) Iâ??m sure many of have weathered some bad storms and have some interesting stories to tell.

So, what are your experiences weathering bad storms?
[/color] Edited September 7, 2010 by Heaven's Cloud

[Magus]

Bad storms huh... I don't know if I even have the right to talk about bad weather compared to anyone living in the central plains (specifically tornado alley). But still Detroit's had some pretty rough weather this season alone. (More like end of Spring beginning of Summer type thing) A lot of our bad weather came in the overnight hours. And this is almost back-to-back (every other day) storms would roll through late at night causing me not to sleep because we'd be under a tornado warning.

Anyway, memorable storms... Back when I was about 12-15 we'd usually go fishing, but mainly around that age group we'd end up finishing on days where it would storm even though it's suppose to be a clear sunny day. Then we usually end up getting stuck in the crap because of traffic. Seriously, seeing dark clouds move fast is a terrifying sight to see when you're that young.

One close encounter we had though, I forget the year but it was a tornado outbreak during summer where 11 tornadoes were reported or something like that and 9 touched down. Man, seeing a green sky is freakishly scary. Something I don't think I'd ever want to see again.

Honestly, I'd rather tough it out through some hurricanes than witness a tornado (I've yet to see one and I pray that I never will see one)

[CaNz]

I once ran away from home in a thunderstorm. worst night i have ever spent outside.
i wound up sleeping in the hot tub at a local pool, i pulled one of the chairs in and laid there in my boxers while i tried to dry my clothes a little bit under a table.
at least it was warm... but car alarms were going of and the sky was blinding... it was just terrible.

[Heaven's Cloud]

[quote name='Phenom' date='07 September 2010 - 05:24 AM' timestamp='1283851442' post='700293']
Bad storms huh... I don't know if I even have the right to talk about bad weather compared to anyone living in the central plains (specifically tornado alley). But still Detroit's had some pretty rough weather this season alone. (More like end of Spring beginning of Summer type thing) A lot of our bad weather came in the overnight hours. And this is almost back-to-back (every other day) storms would roll through late at night causing me not to sleep because we'd be under a tornado warning.
[/quote]

[color=indigo]Sure you have the right to complain about it! Just because they have more bad weather, doesn't mean they hold the monopoly on it.

I get lots of tornado warnings where I live as well, fortunately no bad ones have ever wandered this way. When I lived in the Piedmont area of North Carolina we would watch the funnel clouds form in the flatter lands South of us. We lived in a pretty hilly area and apparently tornadoes tend to disperse when they hit areas with really diverse topography. It was pretty cool looking from afar.

We get quite a few bad thunderstorms up here in Ohio, and today we had a brief but violent hailstorm that actually managed to crack to of my coworkers windshields. [/color]

[chibi-master]

Back in El Paso, there was a sandstorm so vicious that it took most of the city's power. It only got worse as the afternoon passed into evening. By 5 p.m. our small neighborhood was filled with the hum of generators, though you could barely hear it over the sandstorm. I was an idiot and decided to see what would happen if I went outside in the middle of this. I ended up with very bad bruising all over, I looked like I had taken a shower in dirt, and my eyes and mouth were still seeping sand a few days after the storm passed.

The first year I moved up to WNY, I was excited for snow. It was October and I was asking my friend, "When do we see snow?!" She told me not to get excited because it wouldn't snow until late November. That very week, it snowed. I woke up Friday morning to darkness and my parents saying that school was cancelled. The snow was up to my hips, which was great! Of course, we were still living in an apartment at the time because we hadn't bought a house yet. We got out our generator and chained it to the apartment's stairway. We then proceeded to enjoy being the only room with power. Glee~! School was out for a week.

[Korey]

[quote name='chibi-master' date='08 September 2010 - 06:43 AM' timestamp='1283920981' post='700324']
Back in El Paso, there was a sandstorm so vicious that it took most of the city's power. It only got worse as the afternoon passed into evening. By 5 p.m. our small neighborhood was filled with the hum of generators, though you could barely hear it over the sandstorm. I was an idiot and decided to see what would happen if I went outside in the middle of this. I ended up with very bad bruising all over, I looked like I had taken a shower in dirt, and my eyes and mouth were still seeping sand a few days after the storm passed.

The first year I moved up to WNY, I was excited for snow. It was October and I was asking my friend, "When do we see snow?!" She told me not to get excited because it wouldn't snow until late November. That very week, it snowed. I woke up Friday morning to darkness and my parents saying that school was cancelled. The snow was up to my hips, which was great! Of course, we were still living in an apartment at the time because we hadn't bought a house yet. We got out our generator and chained it to the apartment's stairway. We then proceeded to enjoy being the only room with power. Glee~! School was out for a week.
[/quote]

[font="Georgia"]Where you there for the floods back in '06? It rained so hard and quickly, there was water about knee deep in El Paso. It's probably not much for some folks, but to a City like EP that doesn't have a lot in the ways of irrigation it was a disaster area. Cars were getting stuck on the street, people's homes were damaged. I felt really bad for our friends, because the water had seeped into their home and basically made their entire bottom floor a huge mess. The damage was so bad in El Paso that they called it an official disaster area and had FEMA come in and help with repairs to damaged homes. A lot of the homes in the Lower Valley area of El Paso were pretty much wrecked, because all the run-off from the mountains came ended up there. I was registering for my Senior year of High School back then, so I ended up stuck at school for a good portion of the day until my Mom could come and pick me up (I wasn't about to drive in that kind of weather.) [/font]

[chibi-master]

[quote name='AvalonAngel' date='08 September 2010 - 12:11 PM' timestamp='1283962319' post='700337']
[font="Georgia"]Where you there for the floods back in '06? It rained so hard and quickly, there was water about knee deep in El Paso. It's probably not much for some folks, but to a City like EP that doesn't have a lot in the ways of irrigation it was a disaster area. Cars were getting stuck on the street, people's homes were damaged. I felt really bad for our friends, because the water had seeped into their home and basically made their entire bottom floor a huge mess. The damage was so bad in El Paso that they called it an official disaster area and had FEMA come in and help with repairs to damaged homes. A lot of the homes in the Lower Valley area of El Paso were pretty much wrecked, because all the run-off from the mountains came ended up there. I was registering for my Senior year of High School back then, so I ended up stuck at school for a good portion of the day until my Mom could come and pick me up (I wasn't about to drive in that kind of weather.) [/font]
[/quote]
Yessir! I forgot to mention that one! I was in a car on the way home and was driving on the mountain that UTEP is on, and I was in awe at the miniature waterfalls cascading down the mountainside. Some firemen came to our home and told us we may need to evacuate because the Rio Grande, being right behind our house, was flooding too fast to stop. And of course there were no drainage systems, so the entire city was in chaos.

[Delta]

[COLOR=#35425e]One time, a typhoon coincided with a volcano's climactic eruption (Mount Pinatubo, 1991). I woke up from my afternoon nap and saw what looked like snow on our neighbor's roof! I was whooping with glee until my mom told me that it was just ashfall.

Now I'm a geologist.[/COLOR] Edited September 10, 2010 by Delta

[Chaos]

I live in New Orleans, so yeah. I've had my fair share of hurricanes...

Andrew when I was a kid, and a bad flood in May of '95 that ruined my childhood home. Georges a few years later, though he veered east and didn't do any damage to the metro area. Katrina of course, did a ton of damage...we came home and were doing repairs when Rita struck and did more damage. That one broke a lot of spirits in my neighborhood, but we managed to survive. I buried too many friends and relatives in '05. =/

In '08 Gustav did a lot of damage, too, but nowhere near the devastation as the sisters. Still had to fix a third of the roof and the attic. Never lost power though. Odd, right?

Seen a bunch of tornados on the north shore when I lived there for a few years. Actually drove through a forming one once, that was a scary experience. Driving rain suddenly pulled upwards and the Jeep swept sideways. Corrected it and floored it. I-12 then became an obstical course of limbs and small trees behind me... Parked under an overpass a few minutes later and laid down in the ditch. Was there for like two hours before the storm passed and drove home. I've had my fair share of close calls before but that, I will never forget. It was like being chased by a train. Had cuts all over my back from the wind and hail.

Lightning actually struck twenty feet away from a friend of mine, on a stump he was sitting on a few moments earlier. He's deaf in one ear and has flair-ups of pain in his legs every so often. He doesn't go out much anymore... =/

Friend of my mother's died riding a motorcycle when I was much younger. A bad storm was coming through and he was trying to get home. He was about ten minutes from his house when he hydroplaned and hit his head on the ground when he laid the bike down. He was out on the street unconscious in a flash flood and drowned.

I kinda hate the rain, you know? Edited September 11, 2010 by Chaos

[Japan]

Storms are awe worthy because of their power but can be very scary. It's crazy. I lived in Illinois, England, and Florida before moving to Washington state where I live now. I had to deal with earthquakes, thunderstorms, wind storms, hurricanes, and tornados. I even remember a tornado touching down on RAF Lakenheath in England sometime before I left in 2000. I know this is wrong of me, but I miss tornados. The Inland Northwest is too dry and hilly for that to really happen. ): Edited November 11, 2010 by Japan