What was the worst weather situation you have been in?

[NJmaverick]

Explain

[hobbit709]

1. You name it.

I've been in blizzards, tornadoes, hurricanes, extreme heat(115+°), floods.

I've also been through earthquake and volcanic eruption.

[NJmaverick]

5. So which, in your estimation, was the worse?

[hobbit709]

10. In terms of what I could do about it-the quake.

Driving in a blizzard was no fun either. Took 6 1/2 hours to go 130 miles and I was in a 4-wheel drive vehicle. couldn't stop in the middle of nowhere, and it just as far either way going forward or back when it hit.

[txwhitedove]

2. H.Katrina, 1-block from beach, Bay St. Louis, MS took the worst of

the storm with up to 35-foot storm surge. The long, loud, bizarre noises of the unknown happening right outisde your home while you are hiding inside was incredible, especially when we heard and felt the huge concrete bridge over the Bay go down but didn't know what it was at the time. Then the water came up. My daughter tried to make us go into the attic, but the howling wind was ripping the tin off...

[NJmaverick]

7. That certainly sounds scary

Glad you made it out OK

[merh]

41. Katrina

10 miles inland from the coast in Biloxi, just south of 1-10 - 2 miles from a small tributary of the river, drainage ditches near by - we took on over 9 feet of water and sought safey in the 2nd story of my sisters house after rescuing my brother and his family from next door as the water filled their 1 story home.

After it was over, the entire 1st floor was gutted, my brother's house gutted and all vehicles destroyed.

The next day I found that my house was flattened and pushed into the middle of my street - folks were climbing over the ruins to get to their homes down the street. The next day it was bulldozed/pushed aside so vehicles could get down the road.

Here is to the Katrina Survivors :toast:

[NNadir]

64. I remember the videos you posted here. How are you recovering?

I hope you are well.

[merh]

77. Thank you for asking. I am happy to report that I have rebuilt

and have recovered - I still have issues with anxiety during storms, but nothing like what I had when I was in that trailer. My poor Jack Russell has really bad anxiety during storms, she just pants and jumps at noises at stays at my side.

Oh, I realized the other day I horde containers for water, LOL. You know they say FEMA won't be supplying us with water or ice if one strikes again.

The coast is coming back, though the economy is hurting our casinos so recovery has slowed. Between the slowed economy and the insurance prices (out friggin' rageous) a lot of folks can't afford to rebuild so there are plenty of empty lots still to be found.

Thank you again for asking

[NNadir]

80. And thank you for giving voice to the case...

[Richardo]

3. Hurricane Ike - September 2008

Category 2 is as much as I ever want to experience, thanks very much.

[onestepforward]

38. Same for me. n/t

[redwitch]

4. cruise from Bermuda to NY

A Nor'easter at sea. Pretty intense watching the furniture go flying along with dishes, people. They had to close the shades in the main dining room. Too scary to look out and see walls of water coming at us.

Then there was flying back from Florida in an ice storm, very tense and bumpy too.

Driving in upstate NY in the dark in a snowstorm with no cell service.

[NJmaverick]

9. I'm thinking the dining room wasn't all that crowded in those conditions

[redwitch]

19. You are correct..

There were many folks who never left their cabins. I can't believe I wasn't sick too. The odd sensation of walking down stairs and stepping up to do it! I also found it strange to feel pushed down onto my bed and then feel in the next moment like I was levitating. Made it hard to sleep. Pretty funny also to stagger down the hallways falling into the walls.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

36. Sailed on the Queen Mary through a hurricane

This was back in the mid 1960s. I don't recall the name of the hurricane which I believe hit North Carolina, but the Queen Mary sailed through the northern part of it going to New York. The ship was rocking so much from side-to-side I thought it would capsize. The ship had already sailed through a storm in the English channel where a lot of the food was destroyed. No one was showing up in the dining room, however.

[suninvited]

6. I had just left Hawaii and moved to Elizabeth City

the first of March 1980. We had rented a townhouse before we got there, and upon arrival my then husband dropped me off at the townhouse. He immediately took off to go check into the Coast Guard station because it had started snowing and he wanted to get back before it got bad.

Then the blizzard hit.

All I had was a couple of pillows, a blanket, 2 books (I remember one of them was Farenheit 451, the other was some obscure book I dont remember the title of),some clothes, a bag of potato chips and 2 16 oz. diet cokes.

I sat there for three days waiting for my husband to come home, reading, sleeping and rationing my bag of potato chips and my diet cokes. He finally showed up, after having got stuck in the snow about five miles from home and walking the rest of the way.

[NJmaverick]

8. Did he bring home food?

[suninvited]

11. ha ha!

no.

The whole city was shut down, but it opened back up the afternoon he got home. I have a photograph of me that day. We built a big snow woman. It was a snow man, but my husband gave it breasts.

[NJmaverick]

12. LOL! leave it to a guy to add breasts

:hi:

[Chan790]

13. Caught in an open field in a thunderstorm...

not a usual thunderstorm, one of those nasty ones where the sky turns pea-green, lightning is breaking all around (some within 200 ft.) and the entire area has St. Elmo's fire. I found out later that the same micro-cell I was caught in spawned a tornado in College Park that killed two people, a college-aged brother and sister.

Those thunderstorms and tornadoes, two things I don't miss about Maryland.

[Patiod]

31. Glad someone else has seen a green sky

I saw one once when returning a rental car to the Detroit airport - I had never seen one before

God Bless the Avis employee who held the bus for me and yelled at me "forget the paperwork - just leave the car and come here right now and get on this bus" about 30 seconds before a monsoon-like rain arrived, with high winds. There were tornadoes reported all over the area.

I wrote a letter to Avis about her, and how her caring about people said to me that AVIS cared about people.

[Sequoia]

92. Hooray for great customer service !

[PVnRT]

14. The ice storm here in Kentucky last winter

[begin_within]

15. The Cedar Fire

October 25 to November 5, 2003. Fortunately for us the fire never reached our neighborhood, so we never had to evacuate, but we should have evacuated because of the air quality. It was like living inside a barbecue for 4 days. We live right in the middle of San Diego, the thickest part of the smoke in the picture below. I wrote my name in the ash on my car, then rinsed my car off with the hose, then came back 2 hours later and wrote my name again. On the morning of the 4th day I opened the window thinking it was over, and the bitter acrid smell of the smoke came pouring through the window immediately and I had to slam the window shut. There were some people trying to escape some areas that were driving with their cars on fire. On the 5th day the wind shifted directions and blew the smoke inland and we had clear air finally. I was still coughing from it 3 weeks after the fire left our area. They said there were many toxic chemicals and known carcinogens in the smoke from all the man-made things that burned. The fire was contained a few days later but continued to burn for more than a month before finally being put out by rain. It burned a total of 280,278 acres, destroying 2,820 buildings and killing 15 people including 1 firefighter. 104 of the 1,478 firefighters that worked on it were injured. Total cost of the firefighting alone exceeded $27 million. One unfortunate family in the Descanso area rebuilt their house after the fire, only to see it burn down again in the wildfires of October 2007. The Cedar Fire was the worst weather-related situation I have ever been in.

[cwydro]

16. Hurricane Georges and Hurricane Wilma.

Very bad surge in both. A scary scary time.

[NJmaverick]

17. Were you near the ocean?

[cwydro]

18. Oh yes.

I live in the Keys...on the water. I can spit in it from my porch.

[AngryAmish]

20. Outside in a small tornado when I was 14

Pro tip: When you are inside the basement of a brick building during a tornado do not run outside to get in a car, especially when trees are falling down around you.

[Iggo]

21. Sideways stinging rain.

;-)

[Tommy_Carcetti]

22. Hurricane Wilma

The eye passed right over where I live. Catagory 2, 100+mph winds. Thankfully, when compared to what other hurricanes like Katrina and Andrew have done, our damage was rather light in comparison--a cracked window, a couple of pool screen panels, lost the rear fence and we needed to get the roof re-shingled.

[NJmaverick]

23. For me it was the NJ Blizzard of 96

I was working at the Hospital at the time. My department was in charge of keeping the lots and walkways clear as well as called upon to pick up nurses and other critical people. It was a blizzard with 3 feet of snow. I remember plowing until the plow broke (a buried concrete curb was my undoing). Then working outside on the walk ways in the wind and blinding snow. It was a 3 day event that started in an afternoon. After 2 or 3 hours of sleep I remember waking up to huge snow fall totals. I used my new Chevy Blazer (the one that was like the S-10) to pick up hospital people. It was wierd driving all by myself on highways that were normally packed. It was strange to have 4 wheel drive and having all 4 wheels slipping and kicking up snow. I even got stuck a couple of times as the truck bellied up on the snow. I had one nurse who refused to walk to the end of her unplowed street because she was afraid (being only 4-11 and the snow being over 3 feet). After getting stuck trying to go down the street I freed myself and came from the other direction. I ended up driving on a rather wide side walk that had been cleared and walking the rest of the way to get her. Managed to fall face first in the snow as I fell off a hidden snow bank.
Picking up another nurse I walked to the door of her house. I was a bit unnerved as the snow was up to my chest. It was a long freaky and exhausting episode that didn't end until late weds afternoon (I had come in on Sunday afternoon).

[wickerwoman]

55. Oh yeah!

I got snowed into Newark airport for *three days* with that one.

There was baddish flooding in '99 or '00 too wasn't there? I remember Route 18 being flooded and having a picnic on the bridge in the middle of the highway one day.

[madinmaryland]

24. Blizzard of 78 that hit NW Ohio.

The two in 77 were just about as bad.

http://www.ohiohistory.org/etcetera/exhibits/swio/pages/content/1978_blizzard.htm

[Ikonoklast]

29. Yes, the 'Winter Hurricane' of '78.

I remember getting ready for work at 0530, hearing the howling wind and driving rain hitting the windows. The radio weather reporter was practically begging people to stay home, it was going to be really bad.

I had a three and a half mile drive to work, and in the time it took to drive it, the temperature dropped forty degrees and the sideways rain instantly turned to blinding snow within the first minute I was in the car. A five-minute drive took half an hour.


I didn't leave the store for three days; the employees that made it in slept wherever they could find a quiet spot. We ran out of everything edible in a 35,000 sq. ft. grocery store.

[Lady President]

71. That was my favorite storm

I'm sure it has to do with age, but I remember the blizzard of 78 fondly. I was in 1st grade, and we had a week off from school. We built giant snowmen and tunnels in the middle of the street because no cars could drive for days.

Personally, I've been through several blizzards, Hurricanes Ike and Floyd, but a tornado is the worst. There's no warning for a tornado. I live less than 2 miles from my mom, and a tornado touched down right between our houses. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but the property damage was scary.

[BarenakedLady]

72. Same, but in Rhode Island.

I was young, so it was fun.

[guitar man]

25. May 3 1999

Tornado outbreak. I had been at my parents place about halfway between OKC and Tulsa, had to go pick up an amp then get to my regular Monday night gig in Tulsa. I have never seen so many tornados in my life, they were popping up everywhere :scared:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Oklahoma_tornado_outbreak

[HamdenRice]

26. 1. Hurrican Gloria 2. On a fishing boat around 1986 with my Mom

1. Gloria was one of those rare hurricanes that sweeps up the east coast rather than hitting the south east. I was living in Connecticut and the center of the storm passed right over my apartment building.

I was also a goofy student who had never been in a hurricane and didn't take it seriously. First, I took a friend, an Ethiopian student, in my car to the beach to "watch the hurricane." But power lines were down electrifying puddles, and the police turned us back. My friend realized I was insane.

I went to my apartment, which had a south facing window -- the direction the hurricane was coming from. As it got bad, I went down to the south exit of my building into the parking lot, turned right to walk to a north south street. As I got there a piece of 4x8 foot sheet metal flew through the air at head decapitating speed, and I began to realize that this was not a joke. I went back to the parking lot. A power line exploded in sparks and the wires fell into the water, electrifying them. At that point, I realized I was in trouble. I ran around to the front of the building and managed to get inside. I went to may apartment and looked south and realized I was in deep shit. I put a table up against the south facing window. At some point, it got so bad, I went into the hallway. I was shocked that all my neighbors were huddled in the hallway, and a woman was crying hysterically. The hallway looked over a staircase that had a big window, and a cement cornice from a nearby building flew through the window, just barely missing us. A short time later, the eye of the hurricane passed over us. The second half of the storm wasn't bad. After the storm I walked around and say that roofs had been lifted off several houses and businesses in the neighborhood.

2. I don't remember the date exactly. My mother was a fishing fanatic, and part of a group of senior citizens who rented charter boats to fish off the east end of Long Island. When one of them couldn't make it, I would fill in the last seat of the charter.

We were fishing for blues and strippers in Peconic Bay. A storm kicked up, but we were in the shelter of an island, but didn't realize it. The captain decided to head back to port, and when we rounded the island, we all realized that there were gale force winds and white caps. The small boat could get over the white caps head on, but that kind of boat can't take a wave from the side. He went as far as he could into the waves, but to get to port had to turn hard to starboard. A wave hit and washed over the boat and all of us fell, our equipment and fishing gear flew all over and we almost capsized. Somehow we managed to get to port.

[RebelOne]

27. Lots of hurricanes in South Florida

and some tornadoes coming real close here in North Georgia.

[bikebloke]

28. Gale in Holland

Only because I was sleeping in a tent. The next morning some people next to me in a hut said they were worried if I was alright. No problem, though at times the tent was flattened over me during wind gusts. Had I been indoors, it wouldn't have been bad.

Then there was a sand storm in the Sinai. We were trying to hitch out. In the end, a bunch of us hitchers were given refuge in the back of an Israeli army truck till morning near Nuweiba. When we climbed out, the guard hut had been completely flipped over.

[NJmaverick]

49. Ever wonder what would have happened if you hadn't come across that truck?

[azmouse]

30. Hurricane Agnes

[surrealAmerican]

32. I got caught outside in a hailstorm with my two small children.

The sky was green, and there was golf-ball sized hail. We ended up ducking under the "L" tracks. It's scary when you don't have the option to go inside.

[NJmaverick]

47. That sounded pretty bad. How bad does the hail hurt

when it's that size?

[surrealAmerican]

66. I didn't get hit by the larger hail.

We were already under the tracks by then.

[murielm99]

78. It hurts.

We had a storm here with golf ball sized hail about twenty-two years ago.

A neighbor was driving by on his older tractor. Of course he was out in the open, with no cab. He pulled into our driveway and ducked into the corncrib. When he came to the front door, he was bruised, and his hands and arms were cut and bleeding. I provided some minor first aid.

All the cars on the road were pulling over. Some of them were dented and damaged. Fortunately, the storm lasted only a few minutes.

[lunamagica]

33. Hurricane Andrew

I was living in Miami Beach back then (South Beach). I wanted to stay home. We lived on the second floor and felt we would be safe there. I was outvoted so we went to Kendall. Turns out that area took the brunt of the storm. Thankfully the house we were in wasn't blown off like so many others nearby.

When we went back home, everyhing was intact.

That was exactly seventeen years and one day ago,

[KatyaR]

34. May 3, 1999 F5 tornado in Oklahoma City.

I lived way north of where there storm hit, but it was HUGE and seemed to rage all night, enough to be scary for everyone. I remember being at work the next day and looking out the window at 9 am and it was as black as midnight, rain slashing at the windows. An hour later the sun was out. There were widespread power outages, so it was hard to know exactly what had happened for a very long time. We went down the street to the mall and stood in line for 3 hours to give blood, there were so many injured.

In subsequent years I became friends with someone who had been alone in her house when it was destroyed by the tornado. It still makes me sick to see those pictures; I truly wonder how she survived, her home was totally gone.

I've learned that when a local weatherman tells you, "if you're not below ground when this storm hits, you're going to die," he's not kidding.

Forty-four people died, 748 people were injured, and over 10,000 homes were destroyed.

Here are some videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYdTLEBddPY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN4Hm_Q1dxU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qwMELTHBWE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Trr5HG6swKg

And an article:

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/tornado/storms/1999/w503tor0.htm

The ice storm we had in December of 2007 would be the second worst. Hundreds of thousands of people all over the state without power and ice everywhere. I didn't have power for almost 4 days; some people didn't have power back for weeks. I remember finally get out and driving to work the second day, and there were no stores or lights on anywhere--it was so strange. I was never so happy as when I found a Sonice drive-in that had power and was open--first hot food in days. By the end of the week most of my area had power again, and I went to the grocery store to restock my fridge. It was bizarre to walk in and see the produce section, the meat and dairy sections, and many other areas almost totally empty. So much food had spoiled that the shelves were bare. It was truly creepy.

[NJmaverick]

46. Wow, that is so freaky

absolute destruction and yet a little distance away cars driving like nothing is happening

[KatyaR]

51. If you're on the backside of the storm, you're pretty much okay--

the tornado would be moving away from you. However, sometimes it's hard to tell where the backside is, and those storms can change REALLY fast. That's why people who don't know what they're doing should NOT go off chasing storms--they could end up injured or worse. The guys who do it for a living have the knowledge and the gear to stay safe.

[RoyGBiv]

76. Lived through those also ...

... then moved to Houston last year, just in time for Ike.

I just love weather. :-/

[PRETZEL]

35. Been in a few,

Hurricane Agnes I remember most. The Ohio River crested and our house barely escaped being destroyed totally.

Many a blizzard.

Florida wildfires was something. I was driving down to visit my brother and I-95 was like midnite in the middle of the day.

[LisaM]

37. Holy crap, these are some horror stories

We got caught in the fringes of Hurricane Camille when I was a kid, driving through the mountains - we saw a car slam into the rockside of a mountain, but really, they were lucky because 10 feet either way and they would have gone off the mountain (and everyone was driving slowly). I've seen a tornado out the back window of our house - we had a "tornado corner" in our basement. I've been in a couple of quakes and it's true, they are scary because you are unprepared and feel helpless. And we've had some wicked wind a couple of times here in Seattle the last few years, but really, I feel lucky compared to some of these stories.

[sarge43]

39. Perfect spring day in Nebraska.

Driving down back road, within 15 minutes a full blown blizzard shows up -- total white out, couldn't see beyond hood of the car. Pulled over and did some serious praying (wasn't dress for this, of course and couldn't leave engine on). The longest 45 minutes later storm is over; I'm about a couple degrees from hypothermia. Made it back home, obviously, but that was no longer a perfect spring day.

Also, hurricanes, earthquake, flash flood, tornadoes and that one night with a wind chill of minus 45F and the furnace goes out. But Nebraska gets the prize.

[Parche]

40. christmas 1983

on a nucular missile site, Minot AFB ND 50 below zero temp, and 50mph winds, so it was 100below wind chill...:nuke: :hi:

[NJmaverick]

45. Did you go outside?

[Parche]

59. we were outside

in a 'air force camper' :grr: :hi:

[NJmaverick]

79. That must have been beyond cold

:hi:

[galledgoblin]

42. ice storm in upstate NY, 2002

basically trapped inside the house for a few days, lines and trees falling all over outside.

[Hayabusa]

43. I have two

One for the actual conditions at the time, the second for having to do something very vital in bad conditions.

In 1999, I went to a big Boy Scout camp on the Lake of the Ozarks. Penultimate night there, there's this huge thunderstorm that rolls into the area. We think nothing of it and all turn in. Then, the camp leadership is rushing to all the tents, telling us to move out quick. There was a tornado warning in the area and it was getting really bad. Our campsite was right on a plain, so we were really in a bad spot, so we marched down to another camp site, this one in a little valley, a little bit safer. There, we stayed for a good hour or two until the worst of the storm passed.

The second one was a huge blizzard/ice storm that hit the Mid-Missouri area. My college was 40 miles away in Moberly, and they hadn't been able to clear the roads yet. To make it even worse, it was the main day for taking finals. Surely, I thought, as Moberly had been hit just as bad as Ashland, that classes would be cancelled. No such luck... So, my mom takes off work and states that I absolutely have to go and take my tests and that she was driving me. A trip to Moberly, at that time, took around 45 minutes. We spent 2.5 hours driving as slowly and carefully as we could on covered streets to get there, passing overturned cars & SUVs on the way. Well, I passed my tests...

[TrogL]

44. Tornado, massive ice storms

all with power out, trees down.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

48. Whether Nanette was going to say "yes" or "no"

She said "yes" so I did all of that worrying for nothing.

That's easily the worst "whether" situation I've ever been in.

:evilgrin:

[krispos42]

50. Hurricane Gloria, 1985

It made landfall less than 20 miles from where I lived in Connecticut; the eye of the storm actually went over us. We lost power as I recall, but no damage other than downed limbs and such.

[Initech]

52. I was at DFW airport when a massive thunderstorm shut it down.

[mnhtnbb]

53. Massive ice storm Dec 02. Having lived through a wet snow in Nebraska

several years earlier that downed trees and power lines and when I got up at first light and saw all the tree limbs going down and a huge 100 ft tree fall over in our back yard, I knew it would be days before we got power. I also knew our contemporary house with no window coverings on the big windows would lose heat FAST. I got on the phone and called the one hotel in town that I knew was on underground power (provided by the University) and was able to make a reservation for that afternoon. I called the vet and they agreed
to board the dog and cats. Hubby was out of town. My oldest son hadn't been able to get home from
school the previous day because of the ice and he was safely camped out at a friend's house close to school.
The roads were impassable. My younger son took the dog on the leash and I loaded each cat (and they both weigh 20 lbs) into their fabric carriers and put one over each of my shoulders. We walked a mile to the vet's to board the animals. Then we walked home and each packed an overnight bag and walked a mile and a half to the hotel in town. When we checked in at 4 pm I heard the desk clerk tell somebody they had 100 people on the waiting list to get a room!

When hubby returned two days later, he checked into the hotel with us. Our older son was able to get through later that day --so we were 4 people in one room with two beds and a cot. We stayed for a week in the hotel before our power came back on. The only problem we had with the house was that I didn't think the pipes would freeze the first night so I didn't leave the faucets open. Wrong! A pipe froze in the lower level bathroom the first night. Fortunately it didn't burst. I was able to have a plumber come fix it. Ticked me off, because a few months later we remodeled that bathroom and redid the plumbing, but at least we didn't have a frozen pipe burst in a new bathroom!

About the storm: http://www.nc-climate.ncsu.edu/climate/winter/dec2002ice.html

See some photos (not mine) http://justinsomnia.org/2002/12/north-carolina-ice-storm-of-2002/

[NJmaverick]

89. Sounds like you are pretty skilled at dealing with adversity

[unpossibles]

54. been caught outside in some bad blizzards

but I was prepared for it. Dust storms can suck too.

This is at Burning Man a couple of years back - there was a bad dust storm, then some rain, then a fantastic double rainbow. This is stitched together from two photos

[Wapsie B]

56. May 15, 1968 F5 tornado, Oelwein, Iowa

Thankfully for us we missed the worst of it. But we were in the same storm that caused a lot of damage to a number of towns in the area. I remember seeing the sky almost coal black and the eerie dead silence before everything hit. There seemed to be a green tint to things outside too. We went to the basement with the flashlights and transistor radio. The local station was off the air and I couldn't understand why. I can't remember how long they were down in that storm.

[pokerfan]

57. Ice Storm

1996. Half-dozen fatalities. Businesses and schools shut down for weeks. Homes and businesses without power, some for up to a month. We lost power for ten days. Still, not much compared to a hurricane.

[NNadir]

63. Definitely an ice storm in the 1970's. The storm killed two of my brother's friends,

in a scenario very much like the Sigourney Weaver movie of the name, "Ice Storm."

I've been through some very nasty hurricanes.

The most I've ever been scared personally, besides the ice storm - where I nearly collided with an oil truck - was not really weather per se, but was an earthquake in the early 1990's, the Landers quake.

[pokerfan]

70. That's terrible

The ice storm wasn't too terrible for us, personally. I rigged up a small generator to run the (natural gas) furnace, a few lights and a radio. Cooked meals on my backpacking stove:

[NNadir]

74. It was pretty terrible. It involved downed power lines and a series of chain link fences

on a block of suburban houses.

One of the kids was cooking over a gas stove and there was a little grease fire. She ran out of the house and grabbed the chain link fence and was electrocuted. Her brother saw what was happening and tried to pull her off the fence. He was killed.

Another brother, was going to try to pull them both off, and another kid in the neighborhood, up until that time thought of as a ne'er do well, thought of as a little hoodlum, saw what was happening, leaped over the electrified fence and tackled the third kid before he too could be electrocuted.

That boy justified his entire life with that selfless and brave act which I, for one, have never forgotten.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

88. We had a horrible ice storm in 1994 in Maryland.

Power was out for a week but it felt like a month. Everything was coated in 4-5 inches of solid ice. You literally could not walk out side.

Ugh. I hate, hate, hate winter.

[triguy46]

58. Ice Storm. Just brushed us so we were only without power 4 days. Others had it worse

[mvd]

60. Remnants of Floyd were hard to deal with

Also had one severe hailstorm.

[LostInAnomie]

61. Driving home in the worst blizzard the area has had in a century.

Three feet in a few hours with 50 mph winds. I couldn't believe I made it.

[SeattleGirl]

62. Hail storm with golf-ball sized hail stones at a baseball game.

Scary stuff. My car looked like it had been hit all over by a ballpeen hammer.

[TK421]

65. It was a tornado in Florida ( surprise ) I was working in a Walgreen's

and a guy came running in screaming for everyone to get away from the windows....this guy had a camera in his hands. I put 2 and 2 together but it was confirmed that he was a tornado chaser and the tornado actually passed over the store ( apparently no damage? ) and they left after twenty minutes or so after that

[tinkerbell41]

67. Tornado

5th grade making a Liberty Bell for bi-centennial celebration. I got up from my desk to look outside and I saw objects swirling in the air. It was a perfect day clear sunny, it turned green fast. Looking out that window I was alone teacher at front of class, I seen tornado moving down the middle of the main street through the residential area. I started saying "it's a tornado" the teacher kinda freaked, no sirens or alarms went off. We had drills all the time, it was a freak thing. We lost power for about 20 min, then the alarm went off. I swear we were in school til 5pm.
Sitting in the lunchroom with arms over our heads.
When the buses finally brought us home it was so scary to see fire engines, ambulances, all over.
Odd that no one was there to get me. We had very little damage, but the house next door their garage fell with roof on top of pile. A block away a house looked like those dollhouses with one side open, like someone took 2 story side of house and peeled it away, everything inside was untouched, blankets still on beds, trinkets on shelves. This tornado actually traveled a few towns from me all the way to the Lakefront downtown. We had another one about 2 yrs ago same town, that took the same path.

[Orrex]

68. I was once caught in the middle of a field during a thunderstorm

While wearing a suit of three-quarter plate armor. True story.



That's the day I almost learned how to conduct myself properly.

[Strong Atheist]

69. I was once driving on a back road in New York in the winter. It was snowing

so hard that I could not see where the edge of the road was on the passenger side, or more than a few feet in front of the car, so I drove on the left hand side so I could see the edge of the road...

:hide:

[kwassa]

73. hurricane, Northridge and many other quakes. whiteout blizzards ..

The scariest was being on top of a mountain in Yellowstone National Park, above the tree level with no cover, in July, in t-shirts and shorts, when this huge thunderstorm with lots of lightning came right for us ... and the temperature dropped like a rock and it started SNOWING.

We ran down the nearest open side of the mountain, which took us through huge fields of loose shale rock, through which we shussed like skiers. We were motivated, and we got off of that mountain, fast.

Later that day we warmed up by jumping in a thermal creek that was runoff from one of the geyser basins. Nature's jacuzzi.

[Ohio Joe]

75. Blizzard of 78

My sister, my younger brother and I got stuck on the Garden State Parkway right in front of Paramus Park Mall when the parkway became a parking lot. We were there for over six hours before we were finally evacuated to the Mall to spend the night with a crapload of other people. Did not get home (Closter) until the next night.

[NJmaverick]

82. How did they tell you to go to the mall?

[Ohio Joe]

84. You know... that was something we never heard all of

There were about 20 or 25 people walking down the highway, going from car to car and telling people to go there. I have no idea who they were, where they came from or how far down the highway they went. I never heard anything about them again. I don't think they were cops or state officials of any kind... Not sure why but they did not strike me that way. We had been in the car a long time and were worrying about running out of gas... Plus, everyone else was going, so we just went, it made sense to do it. There were Red Cross people at the mall, setting up cots, so maybe they were with them? I don't know.

[applegrove]

81. I was in hurricane Juan in Halifax 6 years ago. I went for a walk two hours before

the hurricane hit landfall. The rain was pelting me like a bunch of knives. I hightailed it back home. Left my window open to the screen. When I got back to the apartment the cat was going nuts trying to lure me into the closet. I then closed the window and the cat calmed down completely. Seems that old wives tale is true.

[spindrifter]

83. Typhoon in Hong Kong--

I was with my 8-year-ols on the Wan-Chai side of Hong Kong Island. She was having a melt-down, so we headed to the Star Ferry Terminal--didn't realize this was going to be one of the last ferries crossing back to Kowloon. During the crossing, it dawned on me that all the junks were tied up. got back to the place we were staying and the storm began. The building swayed back and forth all night. The next day, the rain was still pouring down, bamboo scaffoldings were falling, eventually things settled down and the city began picking up the pieces.

[snailly]

85. A tornado landed on my house when I was five

I've been terrified of those fuckers ever since.

[NJmaverick]

87. How did you guys manage to survive?

[Nevernose]

86. Tornado, hurricanes, flash floods, and a blizzard

The hurricanes weren't so bad, we taped up the windows and spent along weekend at grandma's house. Tornadoes were a constant threat, but the only time I actually saw one my mom floored the '81 Civic and that little bitty Texas highway turned into the Autobahn in approximately three seconds. I've had two residences flooded during flash floods in the Mojave; it doesn't rain vary often, but when it does and if the rain comes just right, you're screwed. We got hit by a freak snow storm in NE Nevada a few years ago the first day of a camping trip; that was the calmest I've ever acted, but it was also the most frightening weather-related difficulty I've ever encountered.

[unapatriciated]

90. Last night

pretty intense lightning storm here in Atlanta.

[baldguy]

91. Oct 12-13, 2006

A "winter" storm that hit Buffalo, leaving 8"-22" deep snow in it's wake. Trees were down literally everywhere, Hundres of thousands of homes were without power. My normal 20-min drive home took 2.5 hours, and when I did finally get home, half of the 120-ft tree in front of my house was resting in the street.

Most people didn't get power back for a week or more, and the damage took months to clean up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Storm_%22Aphid%22
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Friday_the_13%22_Buffalo,_New_York_snow_storm_in_pictures