Tell me about your hurricane experiences

[cajungal]

We are fast approaching hurricane season 2004. I would like to hear as many hurricane experience stories as possible. Tell me what the name of the hurricane was and it was like.

[gboudx]

I was in Baton Rouge for Hurricane Andrew. Even though I grew up in the New Orleans area, I had not really experienced a hurricane that I could remember. Andrew was the first significant one for me. I believe the winds were sustained at 100+ for about 6 hours. I was in college at LSU at the time and living in an apt near campus. We watched the house next to us as the shingles peeled away like paper. We watched the fence bordering the house and our apt complex become flattened to the ground. We watched limps, leaves and other debris flying past us. After it was over, LSU decided to shutdown for about a week due to no electricity and the mess of leaves and branches on campus. There were huge oak trees knocked down near campus and blocking a major road into it. Since classes were cancelled, we decided to go home to New Orleans since my apt didn't have electricity. On the way down, it was surreal looking at all the damage to trees, billboards and highway signs. I don't think I'd stick around for a cane more powerful than what came through BR with Andrew.

[cajungal]

The only one I really been through was Andrew. I was just turning 16 and was a junior in high school. I live in a small town called Schriever. We are 25 miles to the west of Morgan City where Andrew's eye came through. We got reports that we were getting winds sustained at 100 mph. The wind was howling really bad and I was scared that we were going to lose our roof. We ended up just losing a few shingles. And our walls in our house were caving in and my curtains were sucked all the way in with no let up. We were without power for about 8 days. And we are all electric. We lost our fishing camp due to Andrew. It was located only a few miles from the gulf and you could only get to it by boat. Only 2 walls were still standing. That camp had stood for at least 25 years and was a lifetime of memories for my family and I. We since bought another camp in almost the same location. But, it will never be the same.

We got Isidore and a minor brush with Lili in 2002. But, that was nothing compared to what we went through with Andrew. Lucky, we only lost our fishing camp and just a few shingles to our roof. My mom and dad went through Betsy in 1965. They were both still teenagers and had not met yet. But, my mom was living in Thibodaux with her family and my dad was living in Cut Off with his family. They were both in the eye of the storm. I seen pictures of the damage. The damage was severe everywhere.

If anyone else has another hurricane experience to tell me, please post it here. Especially any Betsy, Andrew, or Camille stories.

[cajungal]

Sorry, I made a mistake in my previous post. I live 25 miles to the east of Morgan City, not the west.

[dixiebreeze]

Hurricane Elena in '85 -- almost wiped out in Cedar Key (Fla.). Rode out most of it, left, then came back! She never made landfall there, but the destruction was enormous. Been on the edge of a number of others, but remain unscathed.....

[Josephine96]

Only 1 direct hit from a hurricane in my life. Her name was Erin and she hit in 1995. She was scary for a Cat 1. Maybe because I was only 12 years old, maybe because my window nearly shattered who knows lol..

Had not much cleanup to do afterwards. Our house only lost a couple shingles and only a few dead limbs flew off the trees.

I remember being woke up in the middle of the night by my then 10 year old sister and she was watching the local news coverage of the hurricane. She kept asking me questions about what the eyewall was and where we were in relation to it.. {funny thing is when she asked it was right on top of us lol}..

That's the only hurricane I've taken a direct hit from. I have seen lower ends of storms when they have traveled up the state.. But that is the only hurricane I have seen a direct hit from..

[msbee]

Hmm!
Let's see. I've been through so many I forget the names of them....
there was Hugo..was that in 89?
and David and Frederick..79?
then in 1995 came the crunch
St. Maarten was hit 6 times by hurricanes, 3 of those being major hurricanes. It started in '95 with Luis and Marilyn, Bertha in '96, Georges in '98 and Jose and Lenny in '99.
Now I did not live through Luis which was the worst. I came home 3 days after and lived through the aftermath of cleaning up and rebuilding.. no electricity for 3 months, no phone for 6 months.. I could go on and on.....
Marilyn came right after Luis..gave us a lot of rain damage.. drowned out people who had lost their roofs during Luis and who were trying to salvage their belongings.
Berrtha in 96 was a piece of cake..after Luis,everything was.
Geroges blew through quickly
Jose came and a couple of weeks later ,here comes Lenny. Lenny doused us with rain .. so much rain.. the entire island was flooded out and there was almost as much damage from the floods as there were from the high winds of Luis..
getting ready for a hurricane is an experience.. running around, securing everytihng,boarding up your home, making sure you have battereies and flashlights and water and food..
then you sit in a boarded up house waiting.. waiting...
sometimes they don't even come....
but when they do come, you sit in the dark and you lsiten to the howling of the wind and the beating of the rain...which never seem to stop.....
then if you are in the eye, it calms down..then it starts again from the other direction..
eventually it quiets.. you crawl out from under your barricades and you begin to survery the damage
and you hope there is no serious damage or loss of life..
you then start the cleanup and the restoring of your property back to normal.
and then you wait and watch again... hoping that the next one does not come your way
can you believe this is how we live 6 months out of the year?
amazing!

[Guest]

Welcome to the new forums!!!!!!! This will be great!!!

[cajungal]

Thanks,Bob, this will really be fun. I love discussing the weather especially the tropics.

[newt3]

was in the florida panhandle for several storms. Kate, Elena (85) Alberto,Beryl (94) Erin, George , Opal (95) . Elena and Opal was the most intense, Alberto and Beryl was the most rain makers.[/img]