Question of The Day. Saturday October 12th

sivyaleah

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Lots of blizzards, so many I can't even count them.

More than a few hurricanes the worst being Sandy when our electricity was out for just an entire week - and there was an early cold snap that week which made living pretty awful. Thankfully we have a fireplace, and had a supply of wood but at night, wow, we were sleeping with every blanket in the house on us and even that wasn't helping. Every day we went to the local hospital to charge up our phones in and watch the news in their lobby so we would be able to know what was happening. While others had it much worse, that was pretty darn bad. Not only that but my office, which is all the way downtown in NYC was completely down for the count also as all of south Manhattan was flooded. There was effectively no way to get down there via mass transit as the subways were ruined. Our office had to be moved to another location for about 9 months while downtown recovered (that in itself an ordeal).

Felt a couple of earthquakes but luckily no damage.

Several major blackout in the northeast too. The ones in NYC were really bad, one I wound up wandering through the streets of NYC w/my ex husband trying to figure out how to get back home to NJ for literally hours. We finally managed to get on a bus to Staten Island, to his parents, grab their car and drive home from there.

And last, the absolute worst, was 9/11. While not downtown - I was mid-town and had a clear view of the towers from down the block of the office I worked at then. Won't go into the whole story but we did see more than we cared to and the aftermath of terror being in the city, not knowing what to do, where to go, what was happening, how to proceed, etc. was utterly mentally debilitating in a way that I'd never experienced before and since and the aftermath of those emotions lasted with me for an entire year. Nothing compares. I hope, nothing again ever will.
 

NY cat man

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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.
Don't feel bad. I was driving to work one morning, at about 4 a.m. when I saw flashing lights through the snow squall. It was 2 N.Y. state snow plows off in the ditch. They travel in tandem, and when the lead plow got caught in a whiteout and went in the ditch, the other followed right behind it.
 

lizzie

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Growing up in the NY,we were used to the blizzards,nor'easterns,etc.I can remember one blizzard as a child that we lost power for days and days,which was not the norm.We were back in NY for my father in law's funeral that October surprise blizzard.I remember the sound of breaking limbs and falling trees...sounded like a war!Mom's house lost power,along with most of the county I think.We were delayed coming home a few days ...getting to the airport wasn't possible.Living in MO,we've had our share of ice storms,but we were very fortunate to not lose power but for a day,and one storm not even that long.Of course,tornadoes are the one thing I'm scared of...Joplin and before that Stockton and Pierce City,and others,too.I hesitate to say as to not jinx myself,but so far so good.
 

misty8723

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September 5, 1996, Hurricane Fran made landfall near Wilmington, NC. It got on the Cape Fear River and came inland, basically going right through my backyard. It came ashore as a Cat 3 and was barely a Cat 1 when it hit us, but it caused a lot of devastation. Fortunately, the only thing we lost was one tree and it fell away from the house.

Also here when they had a record snowstorm in Raleigh, NC. Started the night of January 25 into January 25, for a total of 20.3 inches. I can remember it started with the local weather guy saying it was not going to be much, but it just kept snowing and snowing. Closed the area down for days - but that's not unusual for here even with a lot less snow.

Fortunately, I've never been anything really severe, and I hope I never am.
 

Willowy

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I've been through typhoons, earthquakes, blizzards and bad storms. Nothing too terrible, thankfully. There were 3 tornadoes that hit Sioux Falls a few weeks ago, but the storms weren't so bad by my house.
 

MonaLyssa33

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I was going to say that I haven't experienced any natural disasters, but I see other people mentioning blizzards and I've been through many of those. It's par for the course here in Minnesota, so I wouldn't really call it a natural disaster. There have been tornadoes near me, but that is about it.
 

DreamerRose

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I've seen hurricanes, blizzards, floods, and tornadoes, with their accompanying power outages, but none of them resulted in a local disaster. Keep your paws crossed.
 

Silver Crazy

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12 years old, driving a tractor, bulldozing down fences and gates and bawling my eyes out at the same time so the fire trucks I was leading could reach the farmhouse and dairy in the bushfires of 1972.
Then watching the flames jump the road, over the house and orchard into the pine forest behind.
Farm house and everything was untouched but all the apples on the trees in the orchard were cooked.
Grew up that day.
 

margecat

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Various blizzards, with 3 feet of snow in one day; Arctic temps, flooding, and Hurriance/Storm Sandy, but we were not in the direct path of Sandy, so we were very lucky. They did set up shelters in our area, though. Does anyone remember those Emergecny Broadcasting System ads on TV ("This is only a test")? It was the first time that I heard the REAL message on TV.
 

NY cat man

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Various blizzards, with 3 feet of snow in one day; Arctic temps, flooding, and Hurriance/Storm Sandy, but we were not in the direct path of Sandy, so we were very lucky. They did set up shelters in our area, though. Does anyone remember those Emergecny Broadcasting System ads on TV ("This is only a test")? It was the first time that I heard the REAL message on TV.
We still have them, only now it's called the Emergency Alert System. I remember when it was called CONELRAD, back in the day.
 

neely

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Snow blizzards and polar vortex during the winter months. Twice we had a microburst that caused two trees to come down in our yard. I was visiting NY when Hurricane Sandy struck.
 
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