BellaOnline Forums News and Politics Weather Your hurricane experiences?

Have you ever experienced the tremendous power of a hurricane up close and personal? Tell us about it! I know that many people went through the immense devastation brought by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Please share your stories!

Thanks,

Living on the northeast coast for many years, I have been through a number of hurricanes in my lifetime but have been spared anything as totally devastating as Katrina.
I was in Cape Cod when Hurricane Bob came through about 15 years ago. We knew it was coming, so prepared as much as we could. My husband took his little fishing boat out of the water but for some reason didn't pull the boat trailer all the way up up the driveway. We were caring for a 2 year old granddaughter at the time, and it was her birthday. We ate birthday cake in the basement as trees fell all around the house. It was frightening because it went on for so long, hours and hours and was so noisy! You can't imaging how loud a hurricane howls, or how much the house shakes! The next day we emerged to see that a huge tree had fallen the length of the driveway, just where the boat was supposed to be, but wasn't. The next door neighbor had a tree fall right down the 1 foot space between his parked car and the house. Unfortunately most of the people in the area weren't as lucky and there was much damage to roofs and vehicles. We were without electricity for over a week, and the most vivid memories I have of the aftermath are the strange scent of dying oak trees, the constant roar of chain saws and the swarms of frantic yellowjacket bees whose nests had been destroyed.
My middle daughter was very pregnant at the time and sure enough, when the barometer dropped she went into labor. The traffic off the Cape was terrible as all the vacationers were fleeing the storm and she came close to delivering in the car, and when she finally got to the hospital the power went out. No, the baby was not named any variation of "Bob", but those 2 grandchildren share the birthdate and every August 20 we have 2 reasons to remember Bob.
A coda to the story is that a couple of years later a severe nor'easter dropped another tree in the driveway, this time crushing the boat. My daughters took a photo of the wreckage and entered it in a contest that asked "Tell why your father should win a weekend fishing trip in 25 words or less." No words at all, just the photo, and they won!

One year I was sailing across the Gulf of Mexico with a friend in a 40 ft. sloop when a fast moving hurricane ripped by, but that is another terrifying story!

Wow, what a story! It may have been good it was the little girl's birthday; it probably gave you a way to distract her from all the loud noises!
I love the coda about the boat; priceless!
And, I can't imagine sailing at all, much less in a 40 ft. sloop, when a hurricane passes! Could you share about that too?

I'm in New England so we're very lucky - if we get hurricanes it is only the tail end of one. Even so it's very scary. I can't even imagine having the full force of one hit me!!

My hurricane experience was a nightmare (of course who's isn't?)

But I went through Hurricane Iniki on the island of Oahu, Hawaii.

Unlike living in Florida or other places, even if we had warning - there was nowhere to go! It's a bleeding island!

We got very luycky on Oahu that it didn't hit us that hard, we only got the "outside" of it, but the island of Kaui was pretty much wiped out. My (now ex) husband was a helicopter pilot in the Army at the time, and part of his job following the hurricane was search and rescue.

You would not believe how many idiot boardheads saw the hurrican as the perfect chance to catch some "gnarly waves". They were picking up guys with broken legs, dehydrated, and worse off the cliffs - that was how high the waves got.

My DD who lives in Key West has a similar problem. Once the exodus begins it could take so long to drive up the keys to the mainland you could be in far worse trouble on the road than staying put.
She did stay put for the 2 hurricanes that came by Key West the summer of Katrina, and both times the island was completely under water, since the highest point on the island is only about 7 ft. above sea level. Her house is a few steps above ground level and she had sea water up to the top of the steps both times, and all sorts of dead fish in the yard when the water finally went down. What horrified her was the number of idiots in pickup trucks who were driving around at the height of the storms.
It took a couple of years for all of the damaged homes on the island to be repaired or demolished.

We lived in central FL the year Charlie, Francis and Jeanne hit. Even though we weren't in the worst hit areas, it was (pun not intended, but hopefully appreciated) eye-opening. My first and only hurricane experiences, all within about a month of each other.

Charlie was fast moving -- we actually stood outside our side door for the whole 45 minutes as it passed. The door was on the west side of the house, which meant the house was protecting us from the winds, as they were coming from the west. What really surprised me about it was the rain. I expected heavy rain, drenching rain, but what happened was almost a mist. Before and after, it was normal rain, but during that 45 minute period of real wind, it was like the rain droplets had been atomized. Not expected.

We saw all sorts of colorful flashes of "lightning" -- which we later discovered was transformers blowing. Cool looking, but it meant people losing power! We were fortunate enough to get power back in about 19 hours, but a friend about a mile or so up the road lost it for a week. We lost a handful of shingles from the house, which we collected.

Francis -- well, that was so very different from Charlie. After Charlie, I thought, "Oh, well, that wasn't so bad..." But Francis was sloooow moving, and, to be honest, got kind of boring. The rain was more normal rain, but the wind just kept howling, which got on my nerves after a bit. We lost a few more shingles off the roof, and one of the side supports for our pool screen enclosure fell into the pool -- but the rest was strong enough, the enclosure stood. (DH repaired it afterwards.) Power was out, but less time. Always nice to have power when you are on a well!

Jeanne -- kind of half-way between the other two. Not as short as Charlie, not nearly as long as Francis, a few more shingles gone, but not a problem, really.

We had one neighbor who lost his screen enclosure after one of the hurricanes. He had a great attitude, though. He actually got to see if fall -- his kids called him to come look as it swayed back and forth -- then it just collapsed. But he said, "No one was hurt, so it isn't a big deal." That was the best way to approach it.

I know some people will think we were crazy to stay outside during Charlie, but we felt it was a safe spot. And it had the added benefit of calming our son down -- he was a bit nervous about it all, and actually SEEING it, made it less frightening to him. He was much calmer for the next two.