What is the worst weather disaster you ever personally experienced?

[Kitaman]

I'm sure some of you have some interesting stories.

I would say Hurricane Sandy. Being without power for days was no fun. My big oak trees were leaning hard, tree branches snapping all around the house, windows shaking scariest thing I experienced. Neighbors were not so lucky with their trees.

The snowstorm 10 years ago was no joke. Snow was so high the sidewalks had walls.

Lived in Kansas and saw a tornado approaching our house and it veered. Scary shiat!

 

[WillB4]

Blizzard of’78 in CT
Hurricane Ian in FL

 

[SoFla Steve]

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.

 

[alexd]

Here in central CT:
Blizzard of '78 - streets shutdown....skiing down our street in W. Hartford.
October 2001 snowstorm - Storm Alfred - no power for a week.
There were a few other memorable snowstorms, mid 90's (uconn/nova gampel game got pushed from that monday to Tuesday) and 2013 of 24+ inches.

 

[temery]

Tornado, 2011

 

[Leebo]

This was an intense several weeks

2018 Osaka earthquake - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

2018 Japan floods - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Icehawk]

Katrina, made worse by the fact my wife, MIL, and SIL were in New Orleans at the time.

 

[freshler40]

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.

 

[prankster]

1972 Bermuda Race.

You can look it up if you wish.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Storm of '78 in CT.
Snow storm in Rochester, NY in 1993.
Ice Storm in Memphis in 1994.
Ice Storm in Pensacola, FL 2014. Rain storm on Pensacola in 2014.
Hurricane Sally in 2020.

Vague memories of '78 as I was a kid back then.

2014 in Florida was wild. January 2014 had an ice storm hit in the Panhandle. State is absolutely not set up to handle ice and the 2-3 days of cold weather which followed. I-10 was shut down for a few days. Schools and businesses were shut down for several days. Burst pipes in all sorts of buildings and houses. Roads were not driveable.

A few months later in the Spring, a normal Spring rainstorm stalled and dumped over 20" of rain in 24 hours. Flooding like you read about.

A few years later in 2020 when Hurricane Sally hit and we got over 20" of rain, I knew my home was safe because, well, I had experienced it just a few yedrivable.

Having been to over 40 states and about 20 other countries I've seen some extreme weather and other events like earthquakes. Ice is by far the most debilitating and biggest equalizer. Flooding is #2 for worst weather event for us humans.

 

[CTBballfan243]

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

 

[Shamon30]

Hurricane Andrew

 

[UCLJ0211]

Ben Gordon and Rashad Anderson made it rain pretty bad in the 2004 NCAA tournament. Never seen it downpour like that.

 

[cullaville]

Snowstorm that shut down Uconn 1978
San Francisco earthquake 1989
Major Typhoon in Osaka Japan Sept 1990 - supposedly the worst one they had had in over 40 years

 

[HuskyV]

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.

 

[ucp990411]

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

 

[Dooch]

Ice storm in Dec 2002 in Raleigh. Lost power for a week (with freezing temps most days) and my wife was 6 months pregnant with our first child. Luckily had family members nearby who had power after a few days....

And now, we are preparing for a major ice storm this weekend and temps aren't getting above freezing for 4-5 days....good times

 

[Flipside]

Ice Storms, Hurricanes and Blizzards in CT, that had us out of power sometimes for weeks

Earthquakes (never experienced one, until)

• May 2010 in Okinawa Japan ... never seen spaghetti walls before
• November 2010 in Maui (Invitational) ... in the middle of Calipari speech to the KY faithful
• August 2011 in Washington DC ... by then I was a pro, and realized that standing under the door frame 25 stories up, was not going to protect me, and just to enjoy the ride

 

[OviedoFLHusky]

"Southern New England Ice Storm," also known as "Ice Storm Felix," 1973 - outside, it looked like a beautiful frozen fairyland; but it was so cold that my family all slept in the living room fully clothed, in our sleeping bags next to the roaring fireplace.

Blizzard of 1978 - was attending UConn at the time; someone somehow got a keg and we had a dorm party, with screenings of "Young Frankenstein" and "Blazing Saddles."

In Florida: Charley/Frances/Jeanne, 2004 (everyone I knew had storm PTSD after Jeanne); Irma, 2017; Ian, 2022; Milton, 2024; a few tropical storms; and FL's costliest hailstorm, March 1992, which put a bunch of dents in my car.

 

[NJHusky]

Having a portable generator comes in handy and is a good cheap investment even if you only need to use it once or twice every few years. You can get an electrician to wire a bypass breaker so it connects right to your main breaker panel, but only powers necessities. Way better than running 10 extension cords.

When Sandy hit NJ in Nov we had no power at bedtime. I assumed it would be on in the am, but when it wasn’t at 6am went to Home Depot and got one of 4 generators left. I probably used it 4-5x after that

Was able to power the entire house (including heat) so our house became the place for family for almost a week. The only time generator shut down was when my Father in law insisted on having toast…shut down the entire house electrical. Last time he asked for toast.

 

[willie99]

2013 Blizzard dropping 3 feet of snow. My street wasn't even plowed for 3 days Had to walk 1/2 mile to get to the main road where somebody could pick me up and drove me to work

I was also in Marco Island when Ian hit in 2022. Although it was forecast to hit Tampa, we decided to leave Monday. On Tuesday, I received a text from the Marriott that I had to evacuate the island by 8 PM. If I was still there, we would have been !@#$%%!

Went back in January, Fort Myers Beach still looked like a war zone. No joke, no embellishment whatsoever


For the 1978 blizzard, I was a kid. Made to work at McDonald's on Thomaston Ave in Waterbury (don't remember how). We had a skeleton crew and were extremely busy despite the roads being "closed". I think every snowplowing guy in the region, and essential workers, stopped in.

 

[CL82]

Having a portable generator comes in handy and is a good cheap investment even if you only need to use it once or twice every few years. You can get an electrician to wire a bypass breaker so it connects right to your main breaker panel, but only powers necessities. Way better than running 10 extension cords.

When Sandy hit NJ in Nov we had no power at bedtime. I assumed it would be on in the am, but when it wasn’t at 6am went to Home Depot and got one of 4 generators left. I probably used it 4-5x after that

Was able to power the entire house (including heat) so our house became the place for family for almost a week. The only time generator shut down was when my Father in law insisted on having toast…shut down the entire house electrical. Last time he asked for toast.

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.

 

[TheShot1990]

The ice storm of 73

https://www.newstimes.com/news/article/1973-ice-storm-felix-50th-anniversary-ct-18554045.php

My dad was smart enough to install a natural gas pilot-light ignition direct vent heater in our basement a few years prior. Kept the whole house warm enough to live in and the pipes from freezing.

I did the same in my current house sort of - direct vent Mendota gas fireplace. Also have a portable generator just in case.

 

[BuffaloHusky]

I lived in the Virgin Islands in 2017 and experienced two Category 5 Hurricanes (Irma and Maria) back to back after only living there for two weeks. Irma was a like a neutron bomb destroying everything but the buildings. Maria ironically had little effect because the damage was done but then went on to waylay Puerto Rico.

 

[storrsroars]

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.