Sunday Aug 17th.

[Project-D]

It's the day after SF live which was a big party. Good times. As I watch the news there's a tropical storm out in the Gulf of Mexico. The very second a system forms off of Africa, the news stations start predicting dire consequences. When they fizzle, as most of them do their disappointment is palpable. I've lived through three category one Hurricanes, 2 direct hits (where the eye passed overhead) with little problem. Most Florida homes can take a cat.1 no problem. In fact, my 85 year old house lost one shingle, although I was without power for about 36 hours (in 90 deg weather at 90% humidity being w/out AC is nooo fun). Hurricanes are no joke of course, but the media gets a little too much joy out of exaggerating them.

So, on to the QOtD. What is your worst weather survival story? Hurricanes, tornados, blizzards, lightning storms, etc. Whatever you have where ever you live.

[Caravan Ray]

I have just missed quite a few tropical cyclones while travelling around far north Queensland over the years - but never actually experienced one at ground zero.

My worst weather survival story has been the last 3 months living in New Zealand. It fucking rains - every fucking day. Fuck. Actually I don't think it is a weather survival story. I don't think I'm surviving. I am being slowly consumed by mildew...

I was without power for about 36 hours (in 90 deg weather at 90% humidity being w/out AC is nooo fun).

Heh! Big girl. Try living for for 2 years on an equatorial atoll with no AC, no running water, no garbage collection, intermittent power and occasional pigs wandering through the house.

[JonPorobil]

My family didn't evacuate New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit.

[HeuristicsInc]

Probably the most severe weather I've had was the Blizzard of '77 in Buffalo, NY. Although at the time I was only 4, so I don't remember much of it. We actually have the board game they mention in that article, it's fun.
Here's a good picture to illustrate the amount of snow:

-bill

[Project-D]

My worst weather survival story has been the last 3 months living in New Zealand. It fucking rains - every fucking day. Fuck. Actually I don't think it is a weather survival story. I don't think I'm surviving. I am being slowly consumed by mildew...

I was without power for about 36 hours (in 90 deg weather at 90% humidity being w/out AC is nooo fun).

Heh! Big girl. Try living for for 2 years on an equatorial atoll with no AC, no running water, no garbage collection, intermittent power and occasional pigs wandering through the house.

If I could run around on the beach in a loincloth it might be more tolerable. In a house or in a car, not so much. I grew up on the east coast of FL w/out AC, it's a little cooler there, but I couldn't (wouldn't) do it now. Your N.Z. weather sounds like FL summers. The "winters" are great though.

[roymond]

Im with Bill. The 77 blizzard on Long Island was preceded by an intensely heavy (literally and devistatingly) ice storm. We slid off the road heading home after a gig, had to change a tire in the driving freezing rain on top of two feet of snow that was already there. On the way home we saw power boxes exploding and lost power for over a week. We survived pretty much unscathed but had to drain the house.

In '79 I hitchhiked to UMass Amherst in the rain to hear the BSO. The return trip was in snow and I was stuck in the Adirondacks in what became blizzard conditions. Fortunately I was dressed well and the public phone worked. My roommate wouldn't come for me but some guy I didn't know said he would. It took 3 hours to reach me and 4.5 to get back for what normally was a 2 hour round trip. I was happy but had no way of knowing whether they'd ever arrive. I tried not to think about that and kept moving about.

[rone rivendale]

QotD: Well back in 1995 me and my parents were coming back on a plane from Kansas to WA state and we ran into a thunderstorm. Which wouldn't have been so bad really except we were on one of those tiny 30 seater planes and it shook the hell out of it and everyone (including the flight attendents) was screaming. In fact the backup pilots were getting drunk during it which was REAL comferting. We made it thru though and ended up landing in Dallas where we stayed for free at a hotel overnight and got another flight the next day. That was one scary nite though.

[Caravan Ray]

Your N.Z. weather sounds like FL summers. The "winters" are great though.

Oh? You have sub zero temperatures in Florida in summer?

No - Brisbane weather is like Florida - (and yes, the winters are great). Hot and wet is tolerable. Cold and wet really sucks.

[Niveous]

I don't have a bad weather story but there was a big blizzard in 1996. My girlfriend got stuck at my house due to frozen train lines. That would be the first of many sleepovers (she would later become my wife).

[fluffy]

Monsoon season in Las Cruces, NM can be pretty intense. Heavy rains and wind and the streets flood.

There was also the blizzard in NYC when I lived there. Also when I was growing up there'd be pretty regular wintertime blizzards in Albuquerque. It didn't help that my family lived up in the foothills and the only way into the neighborhood was a bridge close to the bottom of a deep valley.

[roymond]

I don't have a bad weather story but there was a big blizzard in 1996. My girlfriend got stuck at my house due to frozen train lines. That would be the first of many sleepovers (she would later become my wife).

Oh man. During my sophomore year, my new "girlfriend" got stuck at my place during a blizzard. She was 19, called home. It seemed ok, but she slept on the couch. Years later I met her girlfriend. Last I knew they were still quite happy. I've had better blizzard relationships, thankfully.

[Rabid Garfunkel]

Huh. Okay. Long Beach, CA '92. Not a bad storm, per se. Was living with my first wife (just before we got married). She had a whole mess of cacti and succulents up on the roof. Torrential rain, and I'm up there hauling the damn things in for her, bracing myself with a foot against one of those iron water ventilation pipe things that stick up. There's a flash (in which I see all the neighbors in the back apartment lined up on their walkway watching my antics), a big hunk of the avocado tree in the backyard comes crashing to the ground, and my bracing leg goes numb.

Needless to say, I left the rest of the plants on the roof, and hobbled back in through the window. Should've taken that as a sign for the way that relationship was to go, heh.