What is the worst weather disaster you ever personally experienced?

[Halloween]

October 3, 1979 tornado that struck Windsor, Windsor Locks and Suffield. I will never forget the green colored sky or watching tall oak tree tops touching the ground then swinging back the other way.

 

[superjohn]

Went through Hurricane Bob while vacationing in Cape Cod. Luckily it hit Truro at low tide. Was actually down on the beach with 100+ winds. Because of the way the end of the Cape curls, the wind was coming directly off the water and there were no boats or anything in sight. They were all out of that part of the bay well in advance. You would have to stand/walk at like a 60 degree angle to keep from going over. I remember watching the roof of a big timeshare lift up, break apart and blow away like little matchsticks, and then the brick wall of a hotel just get blown away. Walking the path back to the cottage we were renting, my brother almost got killed by a screen door that ripped off the neighboring cottage, flew like a frisbee clipping his hair. We were inside for the rest of the storm after that. We didn't have power for the next week I believe.
Went through Ernesto down here in Virginia.
And actually drove through one of the 1989 (I think) tornados. She was driving and pulled the car over. We were on our way to the movies in Torrington. The car started sliding sideways on the side of the road in Litchfield.

I also remember a blizzard in the early 90s when I was in high school. I lived in Morris and we got right around 4 feet of snow. The funny thing is my grandma lived in Oakville and just that little change in elevation and distance, and she got like 14 inches. I went sledding off my friends rooftop. I think we got out of school early on Wednesday (I think that was when it began) with no school the next two days and then no school the beginning of next week because they had no place to put the snow in the school parking lot at Wamogo.

You grew up in the same area I did, Litchfield County always seemed to get the most snow. Norfolk, the icebox of Connecticut once got 15 feet of snow in a single year, that blows my mind.

 

[Lafayette]

Sandy here in NJ lost power for 5 days and had a lake in our basement - ungood.

‘78 blizzard in CT was in April and melted pretty quickly so while it was fun hearing Bob Steele announce school closings, they were reopened pretty quickly.

 

[CL82]

Gotta go with the '73 ice storm. It's why I will only have gas stoves. We had all electric everything at mom's house so couldn't cook anything indoors for five days. We had charcoal and a hibachi to cook on outside - we used that instead of the larger grill because it was more efficient. We slept by the fireplace.

As I worked for the Stamford Advocate as a driver, I had to go to work. I slid sideways into a tree on the way downtown - almost pulled out of it, but my car was a '68 Olds Cutlass that had a pointed grille that extended about 2" out from the front edge of the hood. And that's what caught the tree, which was also where the hood latch was, so I couldn't open the damned hood. And then I had to drive a freaking van. Going out it was loaded with newspapers so there was weight. Coming back, the van was empty and I was fishtailing all over the place. Had to navigate around downed power lines and whatnot, but gotta say, it was beautiful - trees bent over the road creating glistening canopies.

I was at Storrs for the Blizzard of '78 (This just in: "Rhode Island is closed"). Being college kids with access to beer, it was fun, except for the kid in Crandall A who jumped from the 3rd floor window into a huge drift not remembering a steel bike rack was hiding in that drift. Ouch. My car was in the South Campus lot and got plowed in. The snow hit on Washington's Birthday, and I didn't see my car until the 2nd week of March. But once it was unburied, it started right up.

Lol, I actually know him. He was Wheeler not Crandall. I'm pretty sure Crandall was an all girls dorm at that time.

 

[HW611]

CT snowstorm in October of 2011 had power down for a week and pretty much canceled Halloween.

That was a crazy time.

 

[husky8273]

Ice Storm December 1973 in Wilton. No power. Frozen pipes. Could not go outside due to downed power lines. Biting cold everwhere but immediately infront of the fire place. As a 1st grader this memory stuck.

moved from NYC to Wilton in Dec. 73 to a house with no power

 

[husky8273]

Ice Storm - '73
'78 Blizzard at UConn, dragged a toboggan full with beer from package store
Irene and Sandy near Hartford - no power for 5 days for both

 

[UCFan1513]

I got stuck in a bad blizzard in the 90's that turned into a great weekend, but given how sensitive some posters get, I won't share the story.

Do it

 

[NJHusky]

How do you wire it into your home? Thankfully, I had a generator for Sandy, but I was just running extension cords up to critical things like heaters, and the refrigerator, etc.

Sandy was definitely the worst I've seen. Urban sprawl in New Jersey creates a lot of light, even out into the suburbs. Everything was pitch black. I can remember driving down Route 10, which is pretty developed and everything was pitch black except for the occasional generated powered traffic light. It was eerie.

I remember the blizzard of 78 but for whatever reason it doesn't seem as impactful for me. For Sandy, we were without power for a couple weeks.

Most generators have a 30 amp output. That’s enough to run most household items including a gas fired heating system. I was able to run heat, 2 refrigerators and dishwasher. If y have electric stoves or a heat pump it’s not going to work for that.

The proper way is how Theshot mentioned. There is a special switch that gets installed so that y either run off the generator or the line voltage. That’s what a meant by bypass beaker—not the correct term. I didn’t have time for that, but being an engineer I had a work around that I won’t publish. Lol

If y live jn the northern climate it’s really a no brainer. We were without electricity for over a week and were totally comfortable in late Nov. we had neighbors stopping by throughout the day to charge phones and warm up

 

[boog204]

Growing up on the CT shore and having police/fire telling us to evacuate for Hurricane Gloria is kind of a core weather trauma memory. I was only 6 and thought the world was ending. Actually turned out to be a fun couple of days hanging out at my grandparents' house in Wethersfield, and an amazing memory of my grandfather telling me that Gloria was winking at me as the remnants of the eye passed overhead.

 

[CL82]

Most generators have a 30 amp output. That’s enough to run most household items including a gas fired heating system. I was able to run heat, 2 refrigerators and dishwasher. If y have electric stoves or a heat pump it’s not going to work for that.

The proper way is how Theshot mentioned. There is a special switch that gets installed so that y either run off the generator or the line voltage. That’s what a meant by bypass beaker—not the correct term. I didn’t have time for that, but being an engineer I had a work around that I won’t publish. Lol

If y live jn the northern climate it’s really a no brainer. We were without electricity for over a week and were totally comfortable in late Nov. we had neighbors stopping by throughout the day to charge phones and warm up

Yeah, I actually do think about getting a Generac and putting in a master transfer switch. I just have not pulled the trigger on it.

 

[Richmondhsky]

Blizzard of 1978

Freshman at Southern CT…school and state shutdown for a week. All guys dorm (it looked like we went coed that week). Was part of a search party for provisions…took beer orders and donations of ski gear and homemade sleds to haul the beer! Walked half a mile downhill and downwind to Harry’s Package store fairly easy. The trip back to the dorm took 90 minutes. Looked like a cross between The Day After Tomorrow and National Geographic . Worth it for the obvious…kings of the dorm until reopening. And, oh yes, the 5 explorers got our beer for free.s

 

[NJHusky]

Yeah, I actually do think about getting a Generac and putting in a master transfer switch. I just have not pulled the trigger on it.

Generac is a whole house generator that looks like a chest freezer. They are connected to natural gas and will come on automatically when power goes out. They will usually run the entire house if sized properly, including AC. That’s what people here in Fla have because they want ac during hurricane season. A portable generator won’t suffice

If you don’t mind spending 10k+ they are a home run. You can do my method for probably 1k with the electrician and generator cost.

 

[cullaville]

Ice Storm - '73
'78 Blizzard at UConn, dragged a toboggan full with beer from package store
Irene and Sandy near Hartford - no power for 5 days for both

Some guys from our floor in McMahon did the same thing - took orders and went to th epacjake store

 

[Richmondhsky]

Sandy here in NJ lost power for 5 days and had a lake in our basement - ungood.

‘78 blizzard in CT was in April and melted pretty quickly so while it was fun hearing Bob Steele announce school closings, they were reopened pretty quickly.

February

 

[jleves]

Ice Storm Felix was a trip. We got our power back in about 18 hours which was awesome. Most of our relatives did not, so we had an extra 15 to 20 people living in our house for a week.

My dad was an electrical contractor and after that storm, he had a huge generator installed. It was actually a V6 engine converted to LP gas.

One awesome thing about that ice storm is it covered several inches of snow and made everything a place to ice skate. We skated on the yard, through the woods, down slopes - everywhere for hours and hours. A complete blast.

 

[HCCForever]

Ice storm 1973
Blizzard Larry 1978
Tropical storm Irene in Vermont in 2011 was devastating

My events mirror yours. I was without power for ten days after Irene when I lived in Coventry CT. I had a well and filled my tub ahead of time so I could flush. Fortunately it was August. I did not lose power for the early snowstorm later in October that year.

I also had tornado warnings after hurricane Milton in 2024 after move to central Florida. I remember Gloria in 1985 causing damage in CT.

 

[CL82]

Generac is a whole house generator that looks like a chest freezer. They are connected to natural gas and will come on automatically when power goes out. They will usually run the entire house if sized properly, including AC. That’s what people here in Fla have because they want ac during hurricane season. A portable generator won’t suffice

If you don’t mind spending 10k+ they are a home run. You can do my method for probably 1k with the electrician and generator cost.

Yep to all of that. We have natural gas here so I do think about it. One grand actually seems too low to me, but I think I'll reach out to an electrician to verify that. I think I'd probably pull the trigger on that even if the electrical work alone was $1000.

Good idea, thanks for the suggestion!

 

[husky8273]

‘78 blizzard in CT was in April and melted pretty quickly so while it was fun hearing Bob Steele announce school closings, they were reopened pretty quickly.

you have misremembered this

 

[NJHusky]

Yep to all of that. We have natural gas here so I do think about it. One grand actually seems too low to me, but I think I'll reach out to an electrician to verify that. I think I'd probably pull the trigger on that even if the electrical work alone was $1000.

Good idea, thanks for the suggestion!

Also if y want a bit of an upgrade $$ on the portable generator they are avail to run on multiple fuel sources. So y can get one that runs on natural gas Y just need a gas connection that logistically works with generator location.

During sandy I was running around looking for gas and using 5 gallon water bottles to store gas while my neighbor just wheeled over his natural gas portable generator, connected it and turned it. on and laughed every time he saw me lugged gas cans around. Lol

Good luck

 

[uconn13]

Yep to all of that. We have natural gas here so I do think about it. One grand actually seems too low to me, but I think I'll reach out to an electrician to verify that. I think I'd probably pull the trigger on that even if the electrical work alone was $1000.

Good idea, thanks for the suggestion!

Generac generators are worth every penny

 

[karstenkibbe]

Blizzard of ‘78 was pretty extreme, but as an eight year-old, i loved it. The most terrifying experience I had by far was a wrong-place-wrong-time weather nightmare. July 2010, I was driving back to Stamford from brunch on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with friends. My wife and then-one and three year old daughter and son were in the car too. We were driving over the Henry Hudson Bridge into the Riverdale section of the Bronx and my wife looked across the Hudson and saw an almost-black cloud that started to morph into a funnel as it crossed from Fort Lee, NJ. She screamed at me to pull over. I didn’t see the funnel but it got very dark. Then instantly we were literally swallowed by what I would describe as a grey fog and 100mph winds. I couldn’t see. I managed to pull off at 256th street where trees were snapping all around us, some falling on parked cars. EF1 tornado. Only the second tornado to ever hit the Bronx. I’ve been scared before. I’m a seasoned hiker. I’ve been caught by surprise storms in the ADK High Peaks, Colorado Rockies, New Hampshire Whites, Sierra Nevada. Not fun. Somewhat terrifying, but manageable. But this… this was a different level of fear, especially with my wife and young kids in the car and I had zero control over the situation.

More on this tornado here:

2010 Bronx tornado - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[CL82]

During sandy I was running around looking for gas and using 5 gallon water bottles to store gas while my neighbor just wheeled over his natural gas portable generator, connected it and turned it. on and laughed every time he saw me lugged gas cans around. Lol

Good luck

Same! I can remember making runs to Pennsylvania to get gas. I actually didn't mind it because it was an opportunity to go out to eat in a place that was warm and had electricity!

I'll actually think about it. It may just end up prompting me to bite the bullet and get a whole house natural gas generator. Friends of mine have done that, and the wife loves to say "did we lose power? I didn't notice." 😠

 

[Karmacop]

Growing up on the CT shore and having police/fire telling us to evacuate for Hurricane Gloria is kind of a core weather trauma memory. I was only 6 and thought the world was ending. Actually turned out to be a fun couple of days hanging out at my grandparents' house in Wethersfield, and an amazing memory of my grandfather telling me that Gloria was winking at me as the remnants of the eye passed overhead.

Coincidence -- I was also in Wethersfield during Hurricane Glorida. I was 12, and my family lived there. And I also remember the eye going overhead, which was really cool.

 

[HCCForever]

Coincidence -- I was also in Wethersfield during Hurricane Glorida. I was 12, and my family lived there. And I also remember the eye going overhead, which was really cool.

Gloria was a weird one. I remember partying at my buddy’s house in West Hartford during the event and then driving home to Bristol.

I lost my power in Bristol. There is a package store on route 6 near downtown. Half the store had power and the other half did not, due to the store being on two different circuits. The video store near me gave me grief for not rewinding my VHS until I reminded him of the power outage.

I was also affected by a minor CT hurricane in 1976. Hurricane Belle arrived in August 1976. I rented cottage with three others at Misquamicutt. Being young and fearless, we figured we would stay there and party. The Westerly cops kicked everybody out and we had to go home to CT for the night. We saw pickup trucks empty out the booze from the bars like The Wreck, Blue Sands and King Neptune.

Belle weakened by the time it hit Bridgeport and I don’t believe it caused much damage. We returned to the cottage the next day and continued our vacation.

 

[storrsroars]

Lol, I actually know him. He was Wheeler not Crandall. I'm pretty sure Crandall was an all girls dorm at that time.

Wheeler was 2 floors girls, 1 floor boys. Crandall was 2 floors boys, 1 floor girls. I lived in Crandall C in 1978.

 

[Horatio]

Blizzard of 78
Hurricane Gloria- Hurricane Gloria destroyed almost all the big beautiful trees in New Haven. Looked like a war zone. Things looked totally different and it was in the middle of my high school football season.

 

[jleves]

The 1979 tornado that cut through the Poquonock section of Windsor and route 75 in Windsor Locks.

I was a student at Loomis Chaffee during that tornado. We were all out sliding down the hill that led to the Meadows during the heaviest rains.

Came in and found out there was a tornado about a mile or two away.

We all bussed over the next day to help with cleanup. Amazing the destruction.

 

[NJHusky]

Same! I can remember making runs to Pennsylvania to get gas. I actually didn't mind it because it was an opportunity to go out to eat in a place that was warm and had electric electricity!

I'll actually think about it. It may just end up prompting me to bite the bullet and get a whole house natural gas generator. Friends of mine have done that, and the wife loves to say "did we lose power? I didn't notice." 😠

If y get one post the prices. I’m curious

 

[Henry]

The October snowstorm of 2011. It certainly wasn't the most snow we ever got in CT, but the personal impacts were the worst. We had no power for a week, lost all our refrigerated/frozen food, lived in a house that got down to 46 degrees, lost some trees. It was brutal.