Question of The Day. Saturday October 12th

[Norachan]

Hello. I'm posting today's question a bit early, hoping that the power doesn't suddenly go off mid-post. We're getting hit by Typhoon #19 at the moment, so the cats and I are all indoors, hoping it doesn't bring any trees down and cut off the electricity.

It's so hot and humid, but if I open the windows more than a crack the rain gets blown in.



Have you ever experienced a natural disaster? What happened?

I've been through a couple of bad typhoons, a few times we've been without power for a day or more but usually the worst thing that happens is loads of trees come down and we have to cut them up and move them out of the way.

I was in Japan for the big 2011 earthquake. I was quite a long way from the epicenter, but our electricity came from the Tepco Daiichi power plant so we had no electricity for days after that.

I was also here for a blizzard in 2014 when we got 2 metes of snow in one night. The whole town shut down. The highway was blocked, so no trucks could get in or out and none of the shops opened for days after that. At least the heat stayed on. No power in Japan in the winter would have been pretty grim.

What's the worst you've experience?

 

[jcat]

Hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, blizzards, dust storms, and some minor earthquakes. I think that's enough! The blizzards were bad enough to be snowed in for several days.

Stay safe, Norachan !

 

[Elphaba09]

One blizzard, several heavy snowstorms, several ice storms, and one tornado.

One of my earliest, fully formed memory is of the blizzard of 1978, also known as the White Hurrican. I was three. We had to stay at a neighbor's for some reason, and she gave us tomato soup. I am allergic to tomatoes and had a pretty bad reaction. The thing I best remember is my sisters and me playing in snow paths my father had dug in our backyard. The snow was so high that it was just a wall around us. We were running through and went to our shed. There we found a frozen cat. I cried off and on the rest of the day.

The worst snowstorm I can remember was in 2008, if I remember correctly. It was not windy enough to be a blizzard, but it certainly seemed like it.

The tornado was the scariest for me, though. It was only an F2, but it was terrifying. I was on bed rest for my second pregnancy. My son was outside with his great-grandpa. My (now) ex-husband came home from work. For whatever reason, he wanted to go for a drive, even though I was only supposed to be up a total of half an hour a day. Whilst we were driving, I noticed a strange color in the sky. It was almost green. It was also cloudy with a sort of wall of clouds a bit off in the distance where it seemed to be raining. It was not, however, raining where we were. We kept driving. (We lived out in the country, so it was a lot of fields and small wooded lots.) All of a sudden, things were flying around us. I started yelling and told him to get us home. I was looking back on our way home and saw the funnel start to form. It did not hit us, and, thankfully, only one person was injured.

 

[Mia6]

A blizzard, an ice storm, and a few maybe tornadoes. The 1978 blizzard was horrible. I was in a restaurant early am
when the ice storm hit, this was in the early 90s. The Governor shut everything down. To get to my car, I had
to crawl, I only had sneakers and sweats on because I had been to the gym, should've gone straight home but
I had to have my two eggs over easy and chorizo brekkie. It normally took me about one or two minutes to get
home from the restaurant but on that day, it took 45. I had to crawl up the grass to get into the house.

jcat You've been through it all!
Norachan I'll be thinking of you. Please give us an update if you can.

 

[denice]

Nothing big that would qualify as a natural disaster. I was stationed in Germany in 1978 so I missed the blizzard. I grew up in Kansas but no big tornadoes at least where I grew up. I remember two fairly recent things that were not pleasant. We had an ice storm shortly before Christmas then it got very cold, we were without power for 5 days over Christmas. A few years ago we had the Artic vortex conditions that started in December and didn't break until March. That was the worst winter that I remember. I was working from home then and I would stay inside for days at a time because it wasn't worth it to go outside.

 

[NY cat man]

Two hurricanes and several blizzards. Hurricane Hazel spawned a tornado that demolished one of our outbuildings on our farm, and Agnes brought severe flooding to wide areas of WNY. A blizzard in '59 left us cut off for a week, then there was the infamous Blizzard of '77, the October Surprise snowstorm, and another in 2002 that eventually left around 7 feet of snow behind- that one I almost was stranded in, but for 4-wheel drive and real snow tires.

 

[Mia6]

A few years ago we had the Artic vortex conditions that started in December and didn't break until March. That was the worst winter that I remember. I was working from home then and I would stay inside for days at a time because it wasn't worth it to go outside.

Oh, that was awful. The minus 50 degree wind chills......so many days of them.....placing rubbish and litter in a plastic container
on deck because the receptacle was too far away.

 

[di and bob]

I have been snowed in by several blizzards but they wern't near the experience that 8 inches of rain in one day did to our place. The church at the top of the hill behind us had just installed an acre big parking lot with asphalt. And funneled it all towards OUR HOUSE! Well needless to say all that water drained off of that parking lot and rushed towards our house like a raging river. Thank goodness my husband had installed a cement driveway all the way around our house that funneled the water towards the street. But my steep back hill with all my beautiful plantings and winding staircase didn't fair as well. Mountains of mud loosened the staircase, washed out much of the hill and had trees with their roots exposed. We had to move all that mud with a tractor bucket and I swear thousands of 5 gallon bukets full so I didn't destroy more than the mud did. It took us a week to get back to somewhat normal. We had to do this three times while they were figuring out what to do!!!! At first they denied it, but we were smart enough to film the 'river' and follow it back up to their parking lot. We got the city involved and they couldn't do anything but fix it. It cost them, but they put in a system that contains a lot of it and pumps it out. We didn't even get help cleaning up, and insurance does not cover it.( flood inurance in a city as dry as ours is?) We had even had a 12 inch rain in one day a few years back and never had the flood we had then. Very minor damage. That was the worst I have ever been through because it was SO much physical work!

 

[Winchester]

We lost pretty much everything during Hurricane Agnes in 1972. We had been married about a year and had just bought a new washer. We lived in a mobile home. We had flood insurance, not many did. We were lucky.

A few minor floods also hit our area, but by that time, we were living on our hill and weren't affected.

We were in a blizzard during the mid-1990s when we got well over 2 feet of snow.

And we were involved in some kind of an intense freeze (vortex?) when the temp dropped into the -20s. That's unheard of in central PA.

 

[bbdoll22]

We were left without power and heat with my one week old infant son during the February 2010 northeast blizzard. Thankfully after 2 days of no power my husbands brother felt bad we had no heat and a newborn and loaned us a generator.

In May of 2018 we had a thunderstorm with a tornado nearby that took the life of a young girl. My children only had 1/2 day of school for some reason, and the storm hit at the time of regular dismissal. We were forecast to have storms around dinner. I had chicken to grill so I started it early. We were all outside me grilling and hubby and kids playing when it got breezy. I looked and the sky was a weird yellow color. I pulled the chicken off the grill and it started pouring with thunder and lightning as we got in the house. The winds started picking up and I said everyone in basement just as nature showed her fury. I was the first to come upstairs from the basement as the storm was losing intensity. Couldn’t find any cats. I then noticed the master bedroom ceiling leaking so I looked out the window. 3 pine trees were down one on my husbands truck and work trailer, one on/in our roof and 1 totaled my car. Thankfully we were all safe and the cats were hiding under beds and in closets. No power for 5 days. I was terrifying seeing all the damage. It seems straight line winds hit our house which can have the intensity of tornado winds.

 

[EmersonandEvie]

Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Michael both hit us as strong tropical storms. It was nothing compared to the devastation of a Category 4 and 5 storm, respectively, but it was still scary. We lost power both times for about 24 hours. We have been so fortunate that we never had any roof/other structural damage to our house.

When I was much younger (8ish?), we had a freak ice storm hit us. I lived in South Carolina at the time. We got several inches of ice, I want to say 3 or 4, which is nothing comparatively (hello Colorado and the Dakotas with your 2+ feet of snow!), but that entire state is grossly unprepared for any sort of snow and ice event. Clearing the roads and melting everything took FOREVER. I have a very distinct memory of finding a cardinal in my grandparent's bird bath (we stayed at their house for some reason during the storm, unsure as to why) that had gotten frozen. I can remember the bright red against the gray concrete and crying over the bird.

 

[artiemom]

OMGosh.. so many things:

The Blizzard of '78, was the first one I was really remember. I was an adult during that time. Since then, many more Blizzards.

I vaguely remember a hurricane when I was about 5-6 years old, when power went out, watching the wind .. sneaking near the windows when my mom was not looking.

Since then, several other hurricanes...

Of course, Ice Storms..

We had a tornado in my city, a few years ago.. not near me, but I walked over to see the damage.

And I do remember a huge Black-out.. Perhaps 1964 or later... and another smaller one. We usually have periodic power failures due to storms, etc..

My parents learned from the earlier storms. They kept a camp stove on hand. Great for coffee for all the neighbors, workers..along with canned milk, soup, etc.
It was a great help to all. People were always helping each other, during the bad times.. now, it is a lot different.

As they say, The weather in New England is unpredictable..
I had an emergency box filled with supplies: batteries, flashlights, transistor radio, candles, lanterns. Always have plenty of food, have extra blankets also, and extra water.

Now, that I have moved into a senior complex, I just have cut back a ton. In case of an emergency, The City is very good about making sure we are taken care of.

 

[Katie M]

Two hurricanes, although I only have vague memories of the first one. The other was Floyd in 99. My most vivid memory of that one is looking out the window and seeing my younger brothers outside

We did spend three years in an earthquake-prone area near a volcano, but there wasn't even a single tremor that entire time.

 

[muffy]

I've been in quite a few blizzards here in Maryland. Some of the worst ones happened in 1966, 1972, 1979, 1996 and 2,000.

The worst hurricane happened in 1954 "Hazel". We also had bad ones in l972 and l979. I was 4 years old when Hazel hit and I remember it well. I remember the tops of trees were leaning down touching the ground and I ran out in the middle of the storm to get my 3 wheeler and my mother had to come out to get me.

We had a tornado in 2002 and 4 or 5 people were killed.

We had an earthquake in 2013. It was 4.6 and the center was in Richmand and it went as far as DC.

 

[Lari]

Chicago is not known for many natural disasters. Blizzards and bad snow are about it. There are occasional tornadoes, but I don't think any bad ones have come close to the city since I've been born.

 

[bbdoll22]

Norachan prayers
to you and your kitties for safety throughout the typhoon.

 

[susanm9006]

Of course, blizzards have occurred here multiple times, but my scariest experience was getting caught in a white out from a tiny but heavy snow storm. When I left to drop my son off a just couple miles from home it was clear. But as I turned around to go home in suburban roads I traveled daily it began to snow so heavily and so quickly that within minutes not only could I not see a few feet in front of me but I could not even tell where the road was. I could have been driving in oncoming traffic or the ditch because I couldn’t distinguish anything. I was somewhere fairly close to home and totally lost. I kept thinking this was so silly but I was just terrified. Fortunately I could see on my right side through the snow a light shining very faintly in the sky . I hoped it was a parking lot or at least a street light where I could pull over so I turned towards it. It turned out to be the huge lighted sign of a Howard Johnson motel, four blocks from my home. I managed to park without hitting anything and sat inside for maybe fifteen minutes until the snowstorm passed.

 

[Kat0121]

More hurricanes than I'd like to think about including 2 that were back to back in 2004. Frances and Jeanne. I'd take any one of them over a blizzard any day. I've seen too many of those including one in mid October while we were in the Denver area in 98 or 99 that gave us so much snow that DH had to dig the front door out. I was working at the evil empire back then (AKA Wal Mart) and had to walk there because the geniuses that maintain the roads there decided that secondary roads don't need to be plowed. The snow was up to my mid thighs. I'm 5'6". Someone in the neighborhood had a plow attachment and plowed the streets leading to the main road. The store was all but deserted that day and I thought the manager was going to hug me when he saw me walk in the door.

When we moved to Florida in 2002, I left the snow shovels in the garage and vowed that I would never own one again.

 

[susanm9006]

More hurricanes than I'd like to think about including 2 that were back to back in 2004. Frances and Jeanne. I'd take any one of them over a blizzard any day. I've seen too many of those including one in mid October while we were in the Denver area in 98 or 99 that gave us so much snow that DH had to dig the front door out. I was working at the evil empire back then (AKA Wal Mart) and had to walk there because the geniuses that maintain the roads there decided that secondary roads don't need to be plowed. The snow was up to my mid thighs. I'm 5'6". Someone in the neighborhood had a plow attachment and plowed the streets leading to the main road. The store was all but deserted that day and I thought the manager was going to hug me when he saw me walk in the door.

When we moved to Florida in 2002, I left the snow shovels in the garage and vowed that I would never own one again.

One of my favorite work experiences occurred during a blizzard. I worked in Human Resources in a community bank and only couple of us made it into work due to the storm. But this was in the days before ATM’s and it was the first of the month so while we had no tellers we had a lobby full of customers who needed to cash their checks. So even though I was totally inexperienced I had to be a bank teller for the day. It went fine though and I balanced at the end of the day.

 

[aliceneko]

I haven't, though my mother was caught up in Hurricane Katrina and had to move flats because the roof of her old building was damaged in the hurricane. We don't get natural distasters on such a scale that often here in the UK, so fortunately I've not been affected by any.