What is the worst weather disaster you ever personally experienced?

[uconnblueinky]

Hurricane Wilma in Fort Lauderdale was our Waterloo. We lost power for 17 days, many roof's were lost, top winds of 120 MPH. All traffic lights were out for many days, intersections were a mess. People rallied together, restaurants did cook outs to get rid of food, all free! Gas stations could not pump gas. Home Depot/Lowes ran out of key rebuilding materials like fencing, roof tiles etc. Many residents took big financial hits as they didn't have wind insurance from the state-run insurer.

Tighter new building regs were enacted. That was needed but took too time to enact. Some key building contractors turned city officials went back to being contractors as that's where the money was. It was a challenging time, one where you were left to your own devices.

I was in Fort Lauderdale for Wilma and Katrina, it was rough. Fire department kept coming by and putting out our fires that we were using to cook. We received food from local restraints. One club owner bought a massive generator and opened up a week into having no power.

 

[Waquoit]

The October snowstorm of 2011.. It was brutal.

Yeah, it was. Except we never lost power, for some reason we were in the 1% of town that didn’t. But we did end up taking in 14 in-laws ranging in age from 7 months to 85 years. Most of the adults were slobs the entire time, took a week to get rid of them all.

 

[TGW93]

Was a kid for the blizzard of 1978 - it was great. I lived at the end of a cul-de-sac, which was at the top of a hill and had a hill next to it - it was a 1,000 foot sled run.

However, the worst weather event for me was a nor'easter in March 2010. My neighborhood lost a dozen large trees and I had one fall just short of my house.

 

[CL82]

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

What was the all girls dorm in south? Stowe was the all boys dorm.

So there may have been more than one person who hit something. The guy from Wheeler that I remember hit one of those big cement trashcan things that they had.

 

[CL82]

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

Friends of mine got them for 10,000 all in, but inflation may have raised that

 

[Lafayette]

you have misremembered this

Correct remembered 1982 April Blizzard

 

[uconnfan68]

I had to endure 5 misty days the first year I was stationed in San Diego. I had never been in a drought before.

 

[LIUCHusky]

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.

The 78 blizzard in CT was in February. Corny Thompson committed to UConn the first day of the blizzard.

 

[storrsroars]

What was the all girls dorm in south? Stowe was the all boys dorm.

So there may have been more than one person who hit something. The guy from Wheeler that I remember hit one of those big cement trashcan things that they had.

It was one of French, Merritt or Beard. I was never in it. I can't find an old map. It's confusing because now they're using those South Campus dorm names in the Hilltop complex. I want to say Merritt.

Our guy was definitely a bike rack casualty.

 

[businesslawyer]

Blizzard of ’78 in CT - Stranded for three days.

Hurricane Wilma in FL - Out of power for 7 days, out of water for 5 days. My building had a big party to use up the food they had in their freezers before it went bad. The hurricane spawned tornados. I bet the guy from Kansas never thought he would experience a tornado in South Florida. Lifeguards had the day off.

View attachment 116300View attachment 116301

LOL. It wasn’t that you were stranded for 3 days in winter of ‘78. It’s that there was nowhere to go. Basically the entire state was simply closed.

I was a freshman at Trinity. I have two strong recollections. One was of people pulling sleds for repeat trips to the package stores the first afternoon, once snow had started but before everything shut down. The second, much less pleasant, was our wrestling coach being snowed in on campus which meant we kept practicing while classes were shut down and everyone else was drunk every waking minute.

 

[CL82]

It was one of French, Merritt or Beard. I was never in it. I can't find an old map. It's confusing because now they're using those South Campus dorm names in the Hilltop complex. I want to say Merritt.

Our guy was definitely a bike rack casualty.

Speaking of jumping out the windows, remember how half the second floor Windows used to open onto a flat roof? One time I was being chased by one of the girls in the dorm and I figured I would go out a second floor window onto the roof and run in through another room. As I went to vault out the window, I heard everybody yell yelling "CL don't!!" Unbeknownst to me, I had picked one of the rooms that did not have the roof there, and I found myself falling from the second story of the dorm. I windmilled my arms to get my legs under me, landed on the grass and kept running, thinking to myself "what do you know I can jump from a second story window." after that from time to time we used to do it, but that first time I'll admit to thinking "awwww sh.......t!!!!!"

 

[huskiemaniac]

And now for some context: 48 foot sailboat. Middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Tail end of Hurricane Agnes.

In the Gulf Stream. (Bermuda Triangle, too. Scary place!) Winds, a sustained 55 knots, for 3 days, with higher gusts, and occasional excursions above 60 knots. Winds at the finish, reported by some boats, at 70.

Waves 20 to 30 feet high. Real big waves! Smashed right in to some of them, the boat fell off some of the other ones.

Heard it described as driving a tractor trailer into a brick wall 3 or 4 times each minute. For days! (Cue the Edmund Fitzgerald: "Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya.")

By far the worst storm I ever sailed in. Hope I never sail in one so bad ever again.

Oh, and as the saying goes: You can't walk home from a boat ride.

I think id die from a heat attack. That sounds perfectly terrifying to me!

 

[TheShot1990]

Without going into too much detail there are a few basic choices:

1) Small portable generator that can run the fridge and the boiler - 30 amp and 15 amp output but 110v only. Then you could run an extension cord from the generator to one of these to get the boiler going (get an electrician unless you are handy) :

Reliance 15 -Amp ProTran Manual Transfer Switch​

2) Get a bigger, 220 volt output generator and do what NJHusky said and have an electrician install something like this on the outside of your house to the electric panel

RELIANCE Power Inlet Box - 4 prong for 220v​

3) Get a whole house generator from Generac or Kohler - the big advantage here is you do NOT have to be home during an outage because it starts automatically during an outage. I'll bet these are $20k now to install and.....they want a service contract to "keep it running smoothly" every year

1 - probably 1k all in if you install the transfer switch yourself
2 - probably 3k - 1k for the electrician and 2k for a serious large 220v generator
3 - guessing 20k

 

[UConnTrumbull]

One time I was being chased by one of the girls in the dorm

You dawg, you!

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Speaking of jumping out the windows, remember how half the second floor Windows used to open onto a flat roof? One time I was being chased by one of the girls in the dorm and I figured I would go out a second floor window onto the roof and run in through another room. As I went to vault out the window, I heard everybody yell yelling "CL don't!!" unbeknownst to me. I had picked one of the rooms that did not have the roof there, and I found myself falling from the second story of the dorm. I windmill my arms to get my legs under me, landed on the grass and kept running, thinking to myself "what do you know I can jump from a second story window." after that from time to time we used to do it, but that first time I'll admit to thinking "awwww sh.......t!!!!!"

I can't help but think that the best part of that story is what you did that led to the girl chasing you.

 

[CL82]

I can't help but think that the best part of that story is what you did that led to the girl chasing you.

Haha honestly, I can't remember. We ended up dating for a couple of years though so it couldn't have been that bad.

 

[blkknight1]

3. Hurricane gloria. Wasn't too bad as I was only 5 at tge time and didn't understand what tge hell was going on only really remember losing power for a little while and dad taping the windows. We all stayed in my parents bedroom a d watched the little battery operated black and white tTV.

2, the blizzard of 2013. Being stuck in the house the worst was part. Neighbors came together to clear our entire street as the plows never did our small street anyway, not that the plows were out anyway. I remember the massive snow drifts as well.

1. hurricane charley. Was on vacation with my family for my sister's birthday in Orlando. I remember trees being uprooted power going out and all you could hear was the wicked winds. The next morning looked like a disaster zone.

 

[boog204]

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.

In a previous life, I had a whole-house propane fueled Generac, and it was the greatest thing ever... Didn't have to run it too often, but for the few times it needed extended use, it was the freakin' best.

 

[Waquoit]

The 78 blizzard in CT was in February. Corny Thompson committed to UConn the first day of the blizzard.

Back then they used to say UConn would get the top five recruit when hell froze over

 

[upstater]

Christmas Buffalo Blizzard of 2022:

1. Who cares about the snow... maybe 3 feet, maybe 6 feet, people stopped measuring

2. 47 people died.

3. The snow wasn't the problem; the constant sustained wind (with regular gusts of 70mph) created whiteout conditions for hours at a time.

4. People abandoned their cars in the road rather than wait it out (smart, because they found frozen dead people in cars the next few days).

5. This made the roads impassable for emergency vehicles, so teens on snowmobiles buzzed around town strapping elderly folks to their backs and delivering them to hospitals.

6. People walked outside of their homes, became disoriented, and couldn't find their way bank. Many people were found in snow banks only 100 feet or so from their homes.

 

[NJHusky]

I just realized it’s predicted to be 39 Monday morning here…..time to go to take the ferry to key west 🤪

 

[Lafayette]

Unrelated but who remembers that squirrel that chewed thru a lead line from the electric generators in Hartford (might have been E Hartford) and power went out in Hartford county?

Squirrel was instantly turned into carbon ashes.

 

[businesslawyer]

Haha honestly, I can't remember. We ended up dating for a couple of years though so it couldn't have been that bad.

Your dating history had to be as pitiful as mine if you'd date with someone you disliked enough, or was scared enough of, to jump out a second story window to escape her.

 

[TheShot1990]

Speaking of jumping out the windows, remember how half the second floor Windows used to open onto a flat roof? One time I was being chased by one of the girls in the dorm and I figured I would go out a second floor window onto the roof and run in through another room. As I went to vault out the window, I heard everybody yell yelling "CL don't!!" Unbeknownst to me, I had picked one of the rooms that did not have the roof there, and I found myself falling from the second story of the dorm. I windmilled my arms to get my legs under me, landed on the grass and kept running, thinking to myself "what do you know I can jump from a second story window." after that from time to time we used to do it, but that first time I'll admit to thinking "awwww sh.......t!!!!!"

I'm sorry...but we can't let that little phrase slide "One time I was being chased by one of the girls in the dorm and..." without hearing more details. What did she look like? Why was she chasing you?

 

[prankster]

Speaking of jumping out the windows, remember how half the second floor Windows used to open onto a flat roof? One time I was being chased by one of the girls in the dorm and I figured I would go out a second floor window onto the roof and run in through another room. As I went to vault out the window, I heard everybody yell yelling "CL don't!!" Unbeknownst to me, I had picked one of the rooms that did not have the roof there, and I found myself falling from the second story of the dorm. I windmilled my arms to get my legs under me, landed on the grass and kept running, thinking to myself "what do you know I can jump from a second story window." after that from time to time we used to do it, but that first time I'll admit to thinking "awwww sh.......t!!!!!"

Like this:


But Joan Jett!

 

[NJHusky]

Without going into too much detail there are a few basic choices:

1) Small portable generator that can run the fridge and the boiler - 30 amp and 15 amp output but 110v only. Then you could run an extension cord from the generator to one of these to get the boiler going (get an electrician unless you are handy) :

Reliance 15 -Amp ProTran Manual Transfer Switch​

2) Get a bigger, 220 volt output generator and do what NJHusky said and have an electrician install something like this on the outside of your house to the electric panel

RELIANCE Power Inlet Box - 4 prong for 220v​

3) Get a whole house generator from Generac or Kohler - the big advantage here is you do NOT have to be home during an outage because it starts automatically during an outage. I'll bet these are $20k now to install and.....they want a service contract to "keep it running smoothly" every year

1 - probably 1k all in if you install the transfer switch yourself
2 - probably 3k - 1k for the electrician and 2k for a serious large 220v generator
3 - guessing 20k

If y are handy and understand electricity there is a 4th option…..

A 4kw generator with a 30a 240 output is prob $400 plus. If y want a dual fuel
Prob 5-600. So prob 1.5 with the electrician imo.

 

[thekollieman]

Ironically, i moved out of CT to New Orleans in time for Sandy to do nothing whatsoever in Nola while CT got smashed. I was in Nola for hurricane Isaac though which takes the cake for me.

 

[UConniki]

Blizzard of’78 in CT
Hurricane Ian in FL

I was present for both of those storms and hurricane Irma knocked the power out in Lee County and Sanibel for approximately 22days. The length of that storm was the biggest issue living in relative darkness, no power, no electricity, generators were running out of gas, thieves were circling our electronics store ( no power= no alarm = no insurance = sleeping at the front and rear entrances armed, and taking shifts with family, employees neighbors) eating hotdogs on the Coleman propane camping stove for almost a month.

 

[dvegas]

Hurricane Gloria got the 1985 Yale UConn football game cancelled. I had just started a (IMO) well paying job in NYC and couldn't wait to buy lots of beers and drinks for my old UConn housemates, who were either still in school, unemployed or making way less money than I was.

 

[Halloween]

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.

I lived in Crandall my freshman year then low and high rise the next three.