What is the worst weather disaster you ever personally experienced? | The Boneyard

What is the worst weather disaster you ever personally experienced?

Kitaman

Kitaman

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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!
 
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.

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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.
 
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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.
 
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.
 
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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
 
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
 
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"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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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NJHusky said:
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.
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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.
 
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.
 
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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.
 
prankster said:
1972 Bermuda Race.

You can look it up if you wish.
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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.
 
OviedoFLHusky said:
"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.
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We lost power for over a week in the 1973 thing
 
NJHusky said:
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.
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Correct - an electrician can do exactly this but make sure they also install a safety interlock switch so when the power comes back on you don't fry the generator (or electrocute a linesman).

If you wanna be nice to your neighbors, get an inverter-generator - wayyyyy quieter and safer on your electronics.
 
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.
 
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