Tam I Am Post Count: 311 |
I'm watching The Weather Channel's coverage of people's stories of survival through Hurricane Ike and I got to thinking...
1. Have any of you rode out a hurricane at home? 2. What was it like? How did you manage to keep yourself from completely freaking out? 3. Did you watch most of the action through your windows? 4. After it was all over with, what was one of the first things you did other than try to call family? |
Chris Post Count: 1938 |
1. Yes
2. Shitrox. 3. Yes. 4. Went outside and marveled at how strong the wind STILL was. |
Mami 2 ♥ 1 Post Count: 361 |
i live in daytona beach. ive been through quite a few hurricanes in the 15 yrs i have lived in florida. in 2004 we went through 4 hurricanes literally in like a lil over a month. those are the hurricanes charlie, frances, jeanne, and ivan. i remember hurricane floyd before that maybe in like 1998 but we evacuated for the one.
honestly here people prepare but there isnt a great panic. its just like "hurricane is coming, no work or school." most of us floridians have been through enough hurricanes that they dont freak us out. however the people that do freak out are the ones who had never been through one before. it isnt scary for me when i know a hurricane is coming. when its here the only thing i worry about is tornados that come from the hurricane. in 2004 for hurricane charlie i spent that hurricane at home with my family. we have a bunch of board games that only come out after the power goes out during a hurricane. so we played board games over and over again for a day or two. for hurricane frances my boyfriend stayed the night with us. my boyfriend laid in bed in my candle lit room talking about the most random things. (with the door open so my parents could make sure everything was PG.) Meanwhile under the covers we were fondling each other and being frisky. It was sooo hot under the covers without power and the candles added way more heat than necessary but it was very sweet and romantic i think. after everyone went to sleep my bf and i closed my bedroom door and had sex on my floor. then opened it and pretended like nothing happened. haha. the next hurricane i went to his families house (he had his own apt but went to his families house and invited me along.) however my poor bf had to drive me home in the middle of the hurricane because i had an allergic reaction to their cat. So i had another hurricane full of board games with the family. The last hurricane was the best experience of riding out a hurricane. I spent that hurricane at my bf's apartment. We spent the whole timedays pretty much having sex(5 days in all), walking around naked (haha there was no power and it was hot), and after a couple days word got out of a convenience store that was open and we went and got some beer. the storm passed i believe after 2 days or so but all the street lights were not working so there was a city curfew and we were told it was better for us not to leave the house if we didnt need to. so for the next few days we enjoyed not having power. we sat on the patio and listened to the car radio drinking. it was nice. after the hurricanes over and the power is back onwe take showers, we clean up our street, and drive around to see the damage that was done to our town. after hurricane season 2004 our state saw a huge baby boom bcuz with no power and no where to go ppl pretty much just had sex. haha. |
BeautifulBrownEyes Post Count: 68 |
1. Yes, we rode out Ike.
2. It was really scary. I'd been through earthquakes before, but those are done and over in a short while. The hurricane lasted all night and was super loud. I kept thinking FOR SURE we'd have blown out windows, but luckily that didn't happen. We didn't have power, so it was freaking HOT and humid. There was nothing to do so we were really bored all night and had to try and keep the two girls (2 and 4) from panicking. (and truth be told, I was trying not to freak out too) 3. No! I was scared something would hit them and break them in front of my face. lol 4. Go outside with the rest of the neighborhood and try to clean up. We also cooked a lot of our freezer food (yay gas stove!) so we could take it with us up to Dallas and it wouldn't just spoil. lol We spent one full night after Ike before we left and there was NOTHING to do so everyone in the neighborhood had their lawn chairs out in front of their house and we all just drank. haha |
Newmommy09 Post Count: 89 |
Iv lived in florida for 23 years. I LOVE hurricanes! I dont know something about them just make me excitied! I love them esp at night! I usually dont freak out about them. I dont know maybe just cause im so used to them..now if a tornado were to come through I would freak. I always just watch the news and prepare myself..if its going to hit right on the coast of florida that Im on then yeah Ill usually go out and buy water and such JIC. But usually we just get bunch of wind and rain but it doesnt usually do any damage. I always watch it through my windows. Since I still live at home my parents dont usually do anything I think the only time iv seen my dad put wood up is when Charlie come through. Other then that I love watching the wind whip around. I usually dont do anything after its over. Go to the beach to see how big the waves are..lol But im sure if theres trees or limbs in the yard then yeah just try and clean up what you can.
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Lauren. Post Count: 885 |
1. Have any of you rode out a hurricane at home? Well, it wasn't at "home", but it was a beach house we were staying in... so yes.
2. What was it like? How did you manage to keep yourself from completely freaking out? It was extremely scary and extremely loud. The whole house shook and you couldn't see two feet outside the windows for all the rain/wind. 3. Did you watch most of the action through your windows? NO WAY! I was too scared the windows were going to bust. 4. After it was all over with, what was one of the first things you did other than try to call family? We walked outside and our jaws hit the ground at the damage and then the profound silence and stillness. |
dreams.came.true Post Count: 1 |
I grew up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, I lived there from 1958-1987. During that time we rode out countless hurricanes at home. Betsy in '65, Camille in '69, Frederic in '79, and Elena in '85 were the most noteworthy although to be perfectly honest we did leave the house and go to a local shelter during Camille because it was so strong. Camille was the worst, we knew it was a really powerful storm and we had no idea if the shelter would survive. Power went out there around 8pm and we had to lie in the dark listening to wind banging stuff around on the roof and outdoors. It's scary, and the not knowing how bad it's going to get is the worst part.
I try to stay away from the windows during the worst of the storm, although with Elena it was relatively mild with only 110 MPH winds so once the radio told us that it had made landfall and was past us I knew the worst was over and peeked out the window to survey damage and see how strong the winds were. The first thing you do is triage. You check to see where the damage is, make sure your home is safe to live in. You check for roof damage, for broken windows, for power lines down, for water and gas leaks. It's a guarantee that you're going to be without electricity for at least two weeks so you empty the refrigerator and freezer and try to cook as much as you can on the gas or charcoal grill. Making sure you have food, water, and gasoline is a priority because stores won't be open for a while and everyone is looking for those necessities. And ice, to preserve a little food and to make ice water for drinking. Keeping cool and hydrated is important in the heat and humidity during the aftermath. You work to clean your yard. Cutting and picking up limbs and leaves and twigs and pieces of damaged structure. You help your neighbors do the same thing. You just try to do whatever you have to do to try and resume a normal life. Katrina in 2005 was a different beast. The storm surge was much higher with Katrina than even with Camille. My in-laws sought refuge with us (we were living some 300 miles from the Coast at that time) then returned home to find that their home had been under four feet of water. They had to spend a week securing the property and mitigating damage, when there's water there's mold so they had to remove carpets, furniture, the lower portion of walls, lower cabinets, clothing, blankets, everything that was submerged in the oily muddy waters. At the end of the week they came back to stay with us until power was restored, they went three or four days with no running water while they were doing all that work. I never saw a family so happy to have hot showers when they arrived back at our house after that week of work. |
queenbutterfly Post Count: 425 |
1. Have any of you rode out a hurricane at home? Yep. I lived and stayed at home threw Hurricane Bertha, Fran, Bonnie and Isabel. (Isabel was a 5!)
2. What was it like? How did you manage to keep yourself from completely freaking out? Some of them were completely horrifying. Our family house would shake and we would lose power normally within two hours of the storm hitting our area. We would go sometimes weeks without power. I never really freaked out per say, because I was 10 when I first went through my first hurricane, but I was more scared. 3. Did you watch most of the action through your windows? OH GOSH YES! I was fascinated by the hurricanes. The destruction it caused, and afterward I LOVED the smell. 4. After it was all over with, what was one of the first things you did other than try to call family? I think it wasn't what we did right after, but what we did right before the power and water went out. We would always run all the bathtubs with the hottest water we could get. We would also store water in milk jugs that we recycled. We always where prepared for the water and power to shut down. After the storm we would survey the damage to our home and clean up the mess. We always had great neighbors and we would all help each other. House by house. |
~RedFraggle~ Post Count: 2651 |
Goodness. I'll never complain about the rain again. I'm so glad we don't get hurricanes here!
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