Question for the Members

[ticka1]

What is the worst type of weather situation have you been in?

For me its has been flooding here in the Houston area - most recently Tropical Storm Allision. The evacuation of Rita was horrible but didn't get any bad weather from that storm.

I have been watching the weather for upteen years now and each time I think I have seen it all - I'm totally surprised.

[Texas SpeedDiva]

My top two are the tornado that tore apart the hotel we were staying in Dalhart Texas. Summer trip to Colorado interrupted by that. I was maybe 7 or 8 and it gave me a great fear of and respect for weather. Second would be Alicia. We stayed in our house in League City and you could hear tree limbs breaking and fences being torn down and the sound of tornados all night long. And my parents slept through it all.

[Wholelottafun33]

Tropical Storms. That were once hurricanes. By the time they get to us, they weaken. We have had some very heavy snow blizzards.

[Calistar]

I have been in a few... as a child, back in the 60's, living in a very small town outside of Eugene, Ore. we had a huge storm that hit with hurricane force winds which was very unusual up there. It knocked tree's down all over the place and I remember my Daddy was out hunting in the woods and we were scared to death that he might get crushed by one out there! It was called the "Columbus Day Storm" but that's about all I remember on it.

Another was right here in Houston back in the mid 80's when we were living in Lakewoood Forest in Cypress and 2 tornadoes touched down and tore everything up, including Hooks Airport... scared the bejesus outta me!!

The 3rd was Katrina... the aftermath and having to rebuild. Our home got 4 ft. of water from the actual surge and had almost 30 tree's down in our yard, 4 of which hit the house. I was sure glad we decided to evacuate but the heartache of having to live with the widespread damage was too much. I feel much safer here now!

[BaytownWeatherWatcher]

When I was a little kid, my family and I went through Hurricane Carla. It was very frightening, and I can remember it to this day. More recently would be Hurricane Alicia in the 80s, of course Rita, and various tornadoes here and there.

[Bozo]

Gotta be Alicia, followed by Allison. With Alicia, I had no power for 10 days and with Allison, Meow was trapped at IAH for 48 hours.

There's been a few hairy chase runs but now that I have a partner, it's getting easier to WATCH rather than be slammed by it.

[GalvestonDuck]

I was in Louisville for the Super Outbreak, in Lexington for several blizzards and one earthquake, in Bama (and Mississippi and Louisiana and Texas...on I-20) during Georges landfall while moving to Texas, and here in Galveston to experience some or all of Allison, Edouard, Humberto, and Claudette.

But nothing beat the Rita evacuation in my book. Even without experiencing the weather part of it, it was still a weather situation...and a pain in the butt to boot.

[fredhopkinsiii]

[quote=ticka1;9983]What is the worst type of weather situation have you been in?

3 - One was Alicia where I ran to Austin: Could see the circular formation from (south of Austin). My excuse was I was on crutches before the storm. Neighbors said the pines in my yard were bowed over almost to the ground. Yard had a 12" layer of green snow (pine needles)
2 Pumped gas in school in Iowa - my brother in Alabama sent me a snowmobile suit. Night I got it the absolute air temp was thirty below farenheit...And the winds were gusting to almost 70MPH
3 Sitting in a car with a friend in Iowa - looking at nasty seasick looking clouds. Counted 7 elephant tails hanging from the clouds.

Worst I wasn't in was the '79 storm (Frederick?) that had been a force 5 but stopped near Dickinson. Was told that water was flooding over the Jersey Walls on I-45.:thrasher:

[Lindaloo]

Hurricanes are not called "Force 5's" In the United States of America we call them CAT 5.

[fredhopkinsiii]

Sorry some days I get my Hurricanes and Tornado's mixed, you're right and I did see the Alica colmn from near Bergstrom and I did watch a Tornado take apart a small town Live but 15 miles away.


Alicia tracked in parrelel to I-45 before it hit Houston proper - one of the things I remember is the talk if it Had been a Category 5 storm. That was what I thought of most in the lead-in to Rita. Probably me and everyone in Galveston & Harris counties.

[Lindaloo]

The F-5 does not stand for force. It stands for Fajita. lol. It is all good though.

[slirette]

When a kid lived in Lafitte, LA and hurricane Audry came in. I was scared to death as the water surrounded our home. Trees and other things flew by as we stayed in our home.

Was in the smack middle of Camille in Biloxi, thought I was going to die.

Lived through Juan that crossed over Picayune, MS where I lived at the time and then Andrew that passed right over us here in Houma.

There were others but the memories aren't as vivid as the above mentioned storms.

I know when we lived in Venezuela in the mid 60's a hurricane came in to Maracaibo but don't remember it being anything like what we have here.

[fredhopkinsiii]

What is the worst type of weather situation have you been in?

For me its has been flooding here in the Houston area - most recently Tropical Storm Allision. The evacuation of Rita was horrible but didn't get any bad weather from that storm.

I have been watching the weather for upteen years now and each time I think I have seen it all - I'm totally surprised.

Trying to take my mind off the November you-know-what and noticing an SD blizzard and an atlantic tracked storm

11 AM Iowa day with totally clear skies and 80 degrees that dropped to 0 degrees by 5PM and 30 below overnight - typical but extreme Northern Plains blizzard. Dropped maybe 15 inches of snow with winds gusting to 75.

Tornado chasing in the summer and "Drifting" in the winter,

[-j-]

Mine would have to be the Bizzard of '78 without a doubt.

We had a snow blower, but it was of little use initially, because when we opened the garage door, there was no daylight to be seen. We had to shovel snow into the garage to get the snowblower out. Most of the snow removal was done by hand, and when it was all over, the piles on either side of the driveway were 10-12 feet high.

This was a scene on I290, probably 4-5 hours into the storm. Once it hit, snow fell at a rate of up to 3" an hour, and winds were sustained at 20-30 mph. Most people left work early enough to beat it, but if you didn't, you never made it home as cars were abandoned on the Interstate, and people spent the night at grocery stores or were rescued by snow mobiles. It was unbelievable.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/jhes/bilde.jpg

[MandyM]

For me it would have to be Hurricane Ike !
Never been so scared in my life !
I've been here for 8 years now and i hope i'll never have to go throughan ything like that ever again ! We didn't get any house damagae or anything but it was still scary , esp. the noises the house made.......

[HarvestMoon]

Hurricane Rita for me. Friday morning around 10:00am I went to Port Arthur to get my father who refused to evacuate when my brother got my mother out of there earlier in the week. We lost cable at 8:00pm Friday night and power followed at 8:30pm. We were without power for seventeen days and water for a couple of days. After five days, the water was safe to drink. We flushed the toilets with buckets of water from the swimming pool. After seven days, the generator on the RV stopped working, the LP frig in it worked the whole time. A lot of trees & fencing down and we loss the roof turbines. We did not go outside until it got light Saturday morning, while during Ike, we went outside to watch the blowing rain.