Post Your Hurricane Experiences

[beachbum_al]

The first one I remember is Frederic in 1979. I was nine years old when it the area I live in. We stayed in the house that my parents still live in in Fairhope. I remember hearing the wind blow. It sounded like a bunch of ghosts. (Hey I was 9 years old) I remember hearing the trees snapping and hearing them fall. I remember when they eye came over and my dad went outside to check on my grandmother and our neighbor who refuse to stay with us. Nothing something he should had done. I remember when the eye passed over us and you could the hear the wind start up again. It was an eerie sound.

The next morning I remember waking up and seeing all of the big trees down in my neighborhood. Power Lines down like lights on the Christmas tree after you take them off. (Well like I do and it is not pretty) My parents fence was gone. The limbs of a tree were on my parent's house. Trees were all over the road. My meme lived near the Bay so we walked all the way across Fairhope to see her house. Unbelievable...the big oak trees fell but they went the other way. I do remember seeing a couple houses on the way that were demolish with trees through the roof. Trees were everywhere. School being out for at least 3 weeks and no power for 3 weeks. Thank goodness it didn't scar me for life. Just made me appreciate the power of mother nature.

Went through some TS and little hurricanes growing up but none of them were significant memories. I remember Opal coming up to Auburn. But I was in Fairhope at the time. Don't know why I left? I would had been there. Lived in Sylacauga when Danny and Georges both visit the Gulf Coast so I really can't claim that I went through them.

And we moved back to the Coast in 2001. I remember having one or two tropical storms but nothing major...and then last year. Ivan all in one word! It is a whole different game when you have children. I thought about leaving the area but my husband had to stay here in town because of his job so we stayed with him at his office. Nice safe building in Daphne. Ivan was bad but I didn't realize what really happen until we went down to Orange Beach and Perdido Key to check on our family's condos there. Then it hit me. I remember seeing buildings completely destroyed. Walking out on the beach was like a knife being stuck in my heart. Seeing people's personal belongings all over the place hit hard. I remember finding a Santa Claus still in good shape and walking it up to one of the condos in hope that it would find its owner. Shoes and clothes buried half way in the sand. A blender just sitting up right.

And then this year has been...busy!

[huricanwatcher]

I remember my mom talking about the hurricane Diane that hit jersey in 1955 (five year prior to me) and seeing pictures of my ol home town Belvidere totally under water the the Delaware river..... All my years in NJ never saw much of anything else, except a few major blizzards and such...... but then I moved to NC in 1998, driving down to look at the potential house I was going to buy, we drove into Greenville in the middle of a hurricane…. OMG… new experience and totally scary. Can’t remember which one that was. But we bought the house and then I got to experience a real hurricane 1999… or two I should say… Dennis …… left us almost under water for seemed like over a week of rain…… he came up the coast – dumped on us and then circled around and came back in for another shot……. My yard became a lake… the Floyd moved in… watching out the front windows, seeing my pine trees in front yard bending to almost breaking, and then hearing the water starting to drip on my 2nd floor ceilings… we crawled up in our attic crawl space to put down plastic trays or packing boxes to help catch the water being blown in between the sides of the roofing… heard the wind spiraling and wailing…. (after all this was done people told us we lucky to be alive going up there in 100 mph winds) after that the electric went off for 2 days…… no phone no electric….. Cooked on grille. Had water stocked up,. Just barely enough to get through one day of cooking, toilets etc…
Day 2 or 3 . Mostly blur in my mind… Church around the corning became a drop spot, since there was no way out of our road for miles… water came in faster than anything I could even imagine. 500 yards from my house 3 days after the hurricane, the houses were under water… Tornadoes had blown down trees on the only road that wasn’t flooded and no one could get in to cut them away. Gum Swamp Church became a very busy place providing for our road and others that could reach for just the bare necessities one could imagine.
For over a week army helicopters would drop off supplies at the church and spiral over our house, the guys always yelling a hello and checking to see if we were alright.
We helped at the church filling boxes and cooking meals for anyone who could reach and were in need. Raleigh TV station came in on helicopter one day and did a report on people stranded in western Greenville that most had wrote off and didn’t get much press or help. Neighbors helped neighbors and lots of souls came together…
Greenville Utilities Electric company was about to fail entirely to the Tar River.. The major sub station was being propped up with polls to keep the major lines from becoming victims of the river. The airport was unrecognizable and completely submerged. Many people died and many people probably wished they had with all the destruction and torment that Floyd brought on.
Two weeks later the major businesses finally were able to get the power they needed and roads were clearing. Was able to get back to work and start again at what seemed a normal life…
After Floyd and the havoc… I will never be easy about a SE coastal storm let alone take one for granted. Can’t take my eyes off a storm no mater where it’s going to hit. Thank goodness my house was slightly higher and survived, but I feel for all those whose houses were totally lost.. I rode a jet sky over the water down Ol River Rd…. over top of cars… trucks and houses roofs… total devastation…Tried to rescue a dog stranded on a porch that had floated away from the house… too mean to get, told officers further down the flooded area about him. I hope they rescued him… I invited many in during the flood and let them stay without consideration. It’s a heartfelt sad feeling for those who had nothing to go back to. All these storms are so exciting to track and watch, but the wind, and the flooding that results – changes a person forever… no matter how many times you go through it.

[huricanwatcher]

I could of went into much more detail about the dead cows and pigs laying all around, but thougt spare the details...... its was too horid to see let alone post about... ok... i blabbed enough

[NC George]

That would have been Bonnie in 1998. I too, was in Floyd. I left work (told them I was going home, and did,) and as I was driving home a really bad rainband hit I couldn't see 5 feet in front of my truck, huge puddles were forming on the side of the road. I made it to my street, but the road was blocked by a flooding stream - and I could see it was flooding my yard. I drove around the back country to get at my street from the other direction - a 10 mile trip.

I drove through Ayden and a police officer stopped me and told me the town was under curfew. I told him I was just trying to get home. Of course he couldn't have stopped me if I wanted to get away, he was in a stock Cherokee, and and water in downtown was up to the top of his tires (2.5 feet) I was in my bad weather vehicle - a 78 F-150 lifted 4 inches with 35 inch tires, and a huge winch up front.

To get home I had to drive over a bridge that the water came to the top of my tires (won't do that again, stupid stupid, stupid.) Anyway, I made it home and my yard was flooded. Half the cars were underwater, and things in my shed were floating. I moved as many cars as I could to high ground. As I was doing this a neighbor offered me shelter during the storm, which I acepted. I rounded up valuables, got the cats, put the electronics in the attic, shut off the power and gas, and left the house. We rode out the storm all night, having a neighborhood party.

By morning the water had gone down enough I could get to my house, where much to my relief it had not entered (bottom of floorboards were wet, but carpet wasn't. Sadly, my business of fixing cars was essentially ruined, and I'm only now recovering from it. Most tools in shed were up high and thus safe, and my air compressor, although found floating upside down, is still working to this day. Washer and dryer had to be replaced. All in all, though, I lost a lot less than many others.

Other storms: Bertha - bad wind, eye passed over my house. Fran - worse wind, but eye passes to my west. Power out 5 days with Fran, longest of any hurricane. Bonnie - wind, rain, not really that bad. Isabel - didn't seem that bad, but on west side of storm. Two huge oak trees fell about 1/3 miles on either side of my house, blocking me in for a few hours.

[yzerfan]

We moved to the FL Panhandle in June, 1998. So we've been through the usual suspects since then.

When I lived down by the beach, my apartment building and the flapping palms in front of it ended up being the stock footage of "Tropical Storm Helene comes ashore". I remember calling up my Mom, and telling her to flip on over to CNN Headline news to see it.

I race triathlons, and provided they can get a safe swim and bike course, the local race directors don't see any particular reason to cancel a race just because there's a hurricane watch or a tropical storm watch posted. We competed through the far eastern feeder bands of Tropical Storm Matthew last year, and somehow it seemed fitting since it was the first chance the locals had had a chance to celebrate and race since Ivan had come through. (and there was much discussion there of how brush hauling and shingle repair should count for cross-training in one's training log)

[MomH]

I have been through several hurricanes but, the two which are most memorable (other than last year’s three) are my first and one that I missed.

My first was in Sept., 1948. I was eight. We were living with an Aunt and Uncle in Sebring for a prolonged vacation before our move to California. I was extremely afraid, of course, but that was fleeting. What became my biggest memory of that week was what happened after the storm. We had large numbers of evacuees from the Okeechobee area here in Sebring. People wanting/needing to get away from the lake. My cousin, her husband and baby had moved in with us for the storm. During the storm and for about a week afterward, the six adults took turns in shifts, one couple working at the Salvation Army taking care of evacuees, one couple baby sitting the baby, my brother and myself, and one couple sleeping. They were all exhausted and stressed but, all did their best to keep us children unafraid, happy, entertained, and quiet. Don’t remember the first one of them raising their voices at us.

The second most memorable was Donna. I missed her but only because I insisted that as a newly wed I was not going to be separated from my husband. I had gone to Birmingham with my brother-in-law and his wife and then planned to go home with them to Sebring. When I heard weathermen thought Donna was headed for the pan handle, I insisted on returning to Ft. Walton Beach to be with my husband. My sister-in-law’s family took me to the bus station several hours after she and her husband left for Sebring. My husband picked me up in the middle of that night. He was ill so we planned to get up early to do whatever needed for hurricane preparation. In the middle of that night, Donna made an early turn and really belted Sebring that evening. My mother worked at the local IGA in town and agreed to stay until the last possible minute so others who had children at home could leave. Dad owned a gas station and pumped gas until things got pretty dicey. About the time they were ready to go to the house, Dad realized they had not put up the tires they carried for sale. He had to stop and put them in the shed hooked to the back of the station. It was too late then to leave. They sat in the car pulled as far under the eaves of the station as possible. Dad saw what he thought was a person being blown down the street. Mom literally hung onto him so he could not get out to rescue this person. Turned out it was a mannequin from the “5 and dime.” They watched as the stop light on the corner took out all the huge plate glass windows in the Chevy showroom across the street. They heard the storm take the roof off the shed in back and collapse the walls. They sat there all night. Afterward they had to spend three weeks in a little hotel they owned in town. Their house was across the street from Lake Jackson. It had a septic tank and they could not flush their toilets for that long. Had I not insisted on going to my home, I would have been alone and across the street from the lake through the worst storm this area had experienced in many years.

[Shoshana]

We've never lived anywhere where hurricanes have hit while we lived there. I've been thru alot of tornado outbreaks and an estimated 80 mph downburst that I thought was a tornado. That was a wee bit unnerving - seeing billboards flying thru the air, telephone poles snapped in half, hail inches deep, live electric lies draped over the road. The road you say? Yup, I was driving home from the airport and it was fine one minute - boom and all the lights for miles away were off. Pitch black, the radio stations were off the air and a bunch of us were just creeping down the road, with no where to hide...

OK... hurricanes. 2001, my husband got us a great deal on a cruise - the 7 days kind from FT Lauderdale into the Eastern Carribbean. It left Ft Lauderdale for Puerto Rico on Nov 30, 2001.

Nobody said anything about any kind of weather, and we'd never been on a cruise. That night and the next day we had 10 foot seas - at a minimum, that's what the cruise crew admitted to -I have photos of the water in the pool going straight up about 15-20 feet in the air. Needless to say, the pools were closed. It wasn't just the up and down that made so many sick - we were corkscrewing thru the water that first night. We had a cabin waaay at the front, way up high (they'd upgraded us! lol) so we got the full action as the ship went uuuup and thunk came down. Tons of people were seasick, including my husband who wound up having to sleep by the pool with the other people who couldn't handle the waves. The pools were in the middle of the ship and so rocked less.

Me I found out I don't get seasick. I was reading in bed while it was corkscrewing - my husband couldn't believe it - watching me made him green. I loved going on deck and seeing the waves and the spray.

And the hurricane? Hurricane Olga. I don't know how close we came, but it was raining as we cruised across the waters it churned up.

[Swimdude]

Well, i'm YET to be in a hurricane, because I like in freakin' Houston... However, i've experienced 2 tropical storms...

Francis - 1998 ... This one wasn't that exciting. I'd say we had wind gusts to 30-35 mph. But you know, it was what got me interested in these things... And... I'll confess... I used to be SO scared of thunderstorms, i'd hide under my bed... Francis changed this.

Allison - 2001 ... Yup, I experienced the only retired tropical storm. Amusingly enough, this one sprung up SO quickly, I didn't have time to track it! I was 12 years old at the time, nearing 13, and my Dad picked me up from daycamp. There was REALLY heavy rain, and I asked, "Woah! This wasn't forecast for today, was it?"

My Dad looked at me and said, "This Jason, is Tropical Storm Allison."

That was an awesome day.

[baygirl_1]

camille- i was 3 so all i remember is that i couldn't watch wonderful world of disney. my sister tells me the entire family slept in the living room and that it sounded and felt like the house was going to come apart (even all the way over here in mobile).
frederic- that is the benchmark, still. i never want to hear wind like that again. we all slept in the living room for that one, too. my dad swore he heard tornadoes at different times, scaring the begeebies out of us! we finally were able to go to sleep and dad woke us up around 5:30 or 6:00, i believe. the sun was out and the sky was blue. the storm was over, but the real test was just beginning. it took a long time to clean up the mess as we had been in the middle of adding on to our house. it even blew out some of the mortar between bricks in our chimney! we were without power for 2 1/2 weeks. my poor mother broke a finger and a couple of ribs during the aftermath of frederic.
elena- we had to prep twice for this one-- a real pain! as she went by us into miss. she spun off a tornado that destroyed my brother-in-law's parent's home. it carried their roof 1/2 a mile away!
erin- chased us home from our vacation in tampa bay area.
opal- knocked out our power for 3 days and really messed up my sister's home in Fort Walton area. we spent like two days getting water out of their house!
danny- got caught over in the florida panhandle and could not get home for days. and they kept telling us he was coming over there, but he never did. what a mess!
georges- three days of rain and wind and rain and wind... and without power, again.
ivan- we evacuated, but fortunately, we only had some tree limbs down and were without power less than a day.
this year, so far:
arlene- just a lot of rain here.
cindy- had a really nasty squall line come through with 4 inches of rain in an hour and a good amount of wind.
dennis-- evacuated for this one, too, but had just small limbs down, thank goodness!

[Ixolib]

frederic- that is the benchmark, still. i never want to hear wind like that again.

Yep, as far as NOISY storms, Frederic left the same impression over here in Biloxi - Winds almost straight out of the north throughout the whole ordeal. VERY LOUD!!

[mobilebay]

frederic- that is the benchmark, still. i never want to hear wind like that again.

Yep, as far as NOISY storms, Frederic left the same impression over here in Biloxi - Winds almost straight out of the north throughout the whole ordeal. VERY LOUD!!

Frederic was constant roar all night long! None of these other storms we have had compare to Frederic. At least in mobile!

[HalloweenGale]

You must mean the Halloween Gale? that was the perfect storm.
let's see what I've been through:

1980's
1985: ANA,BOB,CLAUDETTE,DANNY,ELENA,FABIAN,GLORIA,HENRI(what a pathetic storm)ISABEL,JUAN,and Last, and certainly least: KATE
1986: ANDREW,BONNIE,CHARLEY,DANIELLE,EARL,and FRANCES.
1987: TS #1,ARLENE,BRET,CINDY,DENNIS,EMILY,FLOYD.
1988: ALBERTO,BERYL,CHRIS,DEBBY,ERNESTO, FLORENCE,GILBERT,HELENE,ISAAC,JOAN,KEITH.
1989: ALLISON,BARRY,CHANTAL,DEAN,ERIN,FELIX,GABRIELLE,HUGO,IRIS,JERRY,KAREN.
1990 I retired this year.: ARTHUR,BERTHA,CESAR,DIANA,EDOUARD,FRAN,GUSTAV,HORTENSE,ISIDORE,JOSEPHINE,KLAUS,LILI,MARCO,NANA.

AFTER I RETIRED:
1991

BOB,GRACE,#8(I WILL ALWAYS REFER TO IT AS HENRI)
1993
EMILY
1994
BERYL
1995
ALLISON
1996
BERTHA,EDOUARD,JOSEPHINE
1997
STS# 54,DANNY
1998
BONNIE
1999
FLOYD
2000
GORDON
2001
ALLISON
2002
KYLE
2003
BILL's Remnants
2004
ALEX,BONNIE,CHARLEY,FRANCES,GASTON,HERMINE,IVAN (true IVAN) JEANNE

That brings me up to date

[cancunkid]

Well being from the Ozarks my experiences have only been on vacation which isn't nearly as bad as actually living somewhere and having to worry about my stuff since all of it fits in your car. Tornadoes I know pretty personally but they are just so much small and shorter in duration you can't really worry about them much.

In 1969 I was on Dauphin Island with my family when they evacuated all non residents for Camille. My father wasn't happy he loved big weather and was just sure it would be a once in a lifetime experience! We went to Long Beach MS to my Great Grandmothers house but she had already left so tried my cousins house. They were all there but were going to stay because they felt protected by the college. At this point even my Father was trying to get them to come North with us but they stayed, in a house a block from the beach!
My Great Grandmothers house was lost, most likely in surge as her house faced the beach right across 98, my cousins all survived although did without services for almost a month.

Then I was on Dauphin Island when they evacuated for Fredrick. Needless to say DI does not want me back

Most of my family live along the gulf coast from Punta Gorda to New Orleans so I am always worrying about someone. Couldn't live without the information provided here.

[Wacahootaman]

Dora in 1964 when she came ashore at St Augustine in a rare north Florida hit as a cat 2. Had gusts up to 90mph where I lived. Lots of big trees down, no elect for 3 weeks and 19 inches of rain inland at Live Oak.

[facemane]

1965 Betsy – Lots of wind and a long night; my first storm.
1969 Camille – We all know THAT story...
1979 Frederic – Noisiest storm with the winds consistently from the NNE.
1985 Elena – Coming here, going there, coming here; She's baaaaack!!
1998 Georges – Longest storm in my memory.
2004 Ivan – Brushed with only the gusts, put no power here for two days...

The same for me,except power was restored to me the follwing day after Ivan. It
was 30 days before we got power after Camille.

[HeatherAKC]

Andrew 92. In SW Dade. Kendall. Sometimes I feel like tellling the story, sometimes I don't. Today I don't.

[baygirl_1]

Andrew 92. In SW Dade. Kendall. Sometimes I feel like tellling the story, sometimes I don't. Today I don't.

i was talking with a woman from our church group last night about experiences evacuating for dennis last weekend. during the course of the conversation, she alluded to another hurricane she'd experienced which convinced her she'd never do another one. when i asked, she told me she'd been in homestead when andrew came in. the only thing she would say about it was that she was convinced they were going to die that night. she didn't share anything else and somehow i didn't feel right asking. it seems folks don't like to talk about andrew very much, which is fine. i'm sure it's an experience one would not want to repeat, even in memory.

[ajurcat]

First storm - Carla 1961. It was headed towards Galveston and we left to go to my grandparents by Rosenberg. Storm started heading that direction so we went to my aunt's farm by Victoria. Oops, storms going there. We ended up in San Antonio but the trip back to my aunt's was eye-openning. Partial houses, if any at all. Water, debris everywhere.
We make it back to LaMarque and our house is full of cousins, friends, etc because they had so much water in their houses. We try taking my other grandparents back to Galveston where they lived and since everyone in the car did not have a Galveston ID, we were turned back. Daddy finally got Gma & Gpa back to Galveston and luckily they had no damage. But driving thru Galveston after Carla reminded me of doll houses. The fronts of the houses were torn off and you could see every room with furniture. And Carla was not a direct hit on Galveston.
Carla sticks out but we've had more including Alicia, Allison and Claudette which went right over our bay house. The house 4 doors down was destroyed and in the street but thankfully we only had minor damage.
Thanks and I know so many more people have experienced worse and you are in my thoughts. But I could never imagine living inland. I need the water within 1 hour from me.
Annette