Worst weather event you've ever experienced

[TheWeatherChannel]

Was it a tornado? Hurricane? Earthquake? What's something that made you go "holy ****, I need to take cover".

 

[Travel60]

Tornado 1973. Was on a date on way home to my parent's house. Three blocks from home, date saw it coming, pulled over, tightened seatbelts and cowered in seat. Car damaged, date hit on back by piece of lumber. Took us 5 hours to walk the 3 blocks...trees, lines down, neighbors kept calling us into their homes as storms returned. One bandaged date's back and loaned us jackets and flashlights.

When we finally saw my home, top floor was gone. Parents and two brothers in basement figuring we were dead. Three of four cars damaged including my new car. Got the one not damaged and brother and I took date home, avoiding flooded roads. Got home and took youngest brother, who was experiencing asthma attack, to grandparent's home. They called all aunts and uncles who came with pickup trucks to salvage furniture. Dad had a friend who was a developer who let us move into two apartments until dad bought a new house. Ultimately fixed damaged house but it took a while.

 

[CBMom01]

Snowmageddon (2011 Chicago blizzard). The wind was blowing so hard and steady with so much moisture in it that it created an ice wedge that forced my closed, locked balcony door open. Being snowed in, in the heart of a gigantic city was a very strange thing even for someone used to Great Lakes blizzards.

 

[CBMom01]

Second was a squall on Lake Erie that (as squalls can do) came out of nowhere.

 

[disneyseniors]

We moved from the deep South to N. Minnesota; we were not prepared for the cold or blizzards.
The first winter, we had so much snow in one night (I think it was close to 3 or 4 feet) that everything was closed down. Up here, hardly any business closes down because they are used to big snowstorms. I remember my daughter going outside and it was up to her shoulders. We had a snowmobile but it got stuck in all the snow.
Doctors and nurses were fetched from their homes by snowmobile and transported to the hospital - it was that bad. We had blizzard conditions with blowing wind. It's funny, but I don't remember the temperature that time.

We Have had -50 degrees with high winds probably causing it to be -60 or so. I remember one trip to town my daughter talked me into. We rode on square tires and bumped our way to town. Yep the store was open, but we were crazy for trying! Can't believe we did that as I am now older and supposedly smarter, LOL. We still live here but we are retired and don't have to go our in those conditions anymore!

 

[ashley0139]

I lived in NYC during Hurricane Sandy. We actually fared pretty well, but it was crazy. The next day I ended up walking 5 miles to and from work because no public transportation was running.

 

[MillauFr]

Is an earthquake even classified as a weather event?

 

[bcla]

Is an earthquake even classified as a weather event?

That was my first thought. However, there are ton of myths about weather and earthquakes. I have one friend originally from China who insists that when there's a sudden heatwave that means that an earthquake is likely in a few days.

 

[E&Cmom]

The Ice Storm of 1998. It was bad. My hometown was in one the most impacted area. They called it “the triangle of darkness”. No power for over 2 weeks. I was at home initially and then stayed with friends downtown as they regained power.

 

[AussieFan8]

Bad ice storm in 2002. My daughter was 3 weeks old. City was pretty much shut down for two days. We lost power for three days and had to drive on the ice to my sister-in-law's since her family did not lose power.

 

[bcla]

I had no problem with the one tropical storm (not hurricane strength at the time) when I was in South Florida. I just holed up in my hotel room and nothing happened. I was a little bit freaked out about tornado warnings though, but I still managed to sleep.

The worst weather might have been massive precipitation. I've seen it just pouring in Florida, Hawaii, and Thailand. Once we were on some boat ride in Oahu (at the Polynesian Cultural Center) when it was coming down so hard that our boat operator just parked our boat under a bridge. We might have been waiting there about 30 minutes, but nobody was complaining. Once in Florida it was raining so hard (and frankly sideways so taking cover didn't help so much) that my digital camera got waterlogged and stopped working. It did start working again though after it dried out the next day, but the memory card data was intact.

I've been in whiteout snow conditions around Lake Tahoe. That's pretty dramatic driving through all that, and yes I did think of just finding a place to hole up until it was over. I think I had enough gas to just idle for heat for several hours while still having enough fuel to make it to the next gas station. The important thing is to keep going but to not make any sudden, panic movements or else one can lose control. I saw a large SUV that managed to slide off the road.

 

[jlmarr]

Since we're allowing quakes I'll say the 1994 Northridge quake - 6.7 on the Richter Scale. Even though we were 40 miles away from the epicenter I found myself leaning hard against our China hutch so it wouldn't topple over. 4:30am - a rude awakening.

As for traditional "weather", I'd say a blizzard we drove through to get to Lake Tahoe Feb 1984. Over Echo Summit with chains, etc.

 

[prairie_girl]

Is an earthquake even classified as a weather event?

No, it's not.


We've had many, many major blizzards, but they aren't an emergency or anything. We just stay at home and wait for the roads to be passable and then proceed as usual. Usually plowing is started while snow is still falling.

A few years ago we had all the right conditions for a tornado (even had a few funnel clouds, but luckily we were spared. That was one heck of a night to be standing outside watching it all.

 

[Kitty 34]

Welcome to the DIS!! I go to your DIS "login" name all the time!!

What's your worst weather?

 

[Metro West]

Hurricane Irma in 2017....roared through my area during the night which are always the scariest storms.

Knocked power out for two days...which was lucky but it look weeks for the County to clean up the debris left behind.

 

[bcla]

We've had many, many major blizzards, but they aren't an emergency or anything. We just stay at home and wait for the roads to be passable and then proceed as usual. Usually plowing is started while snow is still falling.

It's certainly an emergency when you're in it. I started driving in light snow but then it just kept getting worse and worse. It did end up checked at a chain checkpoint (I have an AWD car so my chains stayed in the trunk) and they let me go. I was a bit surprised that they didn't just close down the road.

There was stuff like the legendary ice conditions in Portland, Oregon in 2008 (or was it 2007?). There was video of drivers just sliding around on an icy incline and one Volvo SUV playing pinball with other vehicles.

 

[mamamary]

Back in 2003 (I may be off a year or 2) we had a really big blizzard - for Maryland anyway.

I do remember hurricane Gloria when I lived in NY but I don’t think we were too affected by that.

 

[lucas]

1965 Hurricane Betsy in New Orleans.

 

[luvnwdwgal]

The Blizzard of 1978.

 

[Judique]

Hurricane Allen August 1980 while living in South Texas.

It blew the roof off our house, blew down our fence, and then the rising waters entered the house.

We had evacuated early in the storm to Kingsville Naval Air Station. Spent days there before the worst of the winds hit.

Then the rain took over. We were allowed to go home once the rain stopped and the road was passable. Wading to the front door when my neighbor called out, hurry up that's water moccasin swimming over there.

Same neighbors toured the street in their bass boat.

No power for about 2 weeks, no usable water. But mosquitos and heat, yes.

We were the lucky ones as many people died during the storm mostly in the Caribbean. In addition a good friend lost her father while he did his job as a power company employee.

I always pay attention to hurricanes and get nervous.