What is the worst weather disaster you ever personally experienced?

[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.

 

[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.