The Weather (2011)

[imref]

I used to be a big hurricane dork when I was a kid.

have you been through them?  Growing up on LI we had Gloria in 1985 that did a lot of damage and kept us out of school for a week, and belle in the early 70's that I barely remember.

[The Chief]

have you been through them?  Growing up on LI we had Gloria in 1985 that did a lot of damage and kept us out of school for a week, and belle in the early 70's that I barely remember.

I have extremely vague memories of Gloria (I was 4 at the time, living in Newport News), and my parents had downed trees, long power outages, heavy rain, etc. from Isabel in 2003 (I was in Fredericksburg at the time, so it was mostly a bit of rain and brief power loss there), but I wouldn't say I've ever been through a "serious" hurricane, no.

Why do you ask?

[HalfSmokes]

I have extremely vague memories of Gloria (I was 4 at the time, living in Newport News), and my parents had downed trees, long power outages, heavy rain, etc. from Isabel in 2003 (I was in Fredericksburg at the time, so it was mostly a bit of rain and brief power loss there), but I wouldn't say I've ever been through a "serious" hurricane, no.

Why do you ask?

That's funny- I remember living in Norfolk for gloria getting blown around playing outside

[Frau Mau]

AtBC should tell you about Andrew. He was living in Miami at the time.

[skippy1999]

I used to be a big hurricane dork when I was a kid.

You got over it?  I will watch non-stop coverage of hurricanes, I have no idea why I find it all so fascinating but I've never gotten over being a hurricane dork

[imref]

I have extremely vague memories of Gloria (I was 4 at the time, living in Newport News), and my parents had downed trees, long power outages, heavy rain, etc. from Isabel in 2003 (I was in Fredericksburg at the time, so it was mostly a bit of rain and brief power loss there), but I wouldn't say I've ever been through a "serious" hurricane, no.

Why do you ask?

just curious, cat 1s are almost fun, i wouldn't want to be near a 3-4-5.

[skippy1999]

just curious, cat 1s are almost fun, i wouldn't want to be near a 3-4-5.

We went through a Cat 3 a few years ago and we all look back on it now as a blast-of course it helps that our house didn't blow away, although it seemed iffy for a little bit 

[JCA-CrystalCity]

One of my first memories is riding with my Mom and my Grandfather down to RI during what I thought was a hurricane.  Since New England was nto hit with a square hurricane in the early 60s, it must have been the remnants.  I think we were on Route 1 sbecause 95 wasn't built yet.  I remember going under bridges with deep puddling around the car.

Gloria pretty much blew out by the time it got up to Boston, although the remnants of the eye structure was visible.  I was in Crystal City by the time of Isabel.  There was another hurricane that tracked up to Maine around 1976 (or 1975).  I was at summer camp and all the buildings were wooden cabins. This one died as well before it hit.  But this camp area also got hit with a microburst / tornado around that time (maybe 1974).  No sever damage to my camp, but the area was so messed up my brother's camp team had to take a boat back across a lake to get back to a road that we could send a truck to.

[tomterp]

We went through a Cat 3 a few years ago and we all look back on it now as a blast-of course it helps that our house didn't blow away, although it seemed iffy for a little bit 

My inlaws weathered Hugo in their house in Mount Pleasant, SC, just outside of Charleston and 1 block from the water.  Though they did fine, upon further consideration they would have not stayed in the house, it was pretty scary.

[skippy1999]

My inlaws weathered Hugo in their house in Mount Pleasant, SC, just outside of Charleston and 1 block from the water.  Though they did fine, upon further consideration they would have not stayed in the house, it was pretty scary.

Oh yea, a block from the water and I would have been long gone.  We're about a mile from the bay, we went through Ivan and then Dennis a year later and they were both pretty intense.  The worst part was living without power for weeks afterward 

[imref]

so the latest models have it hitting the D.C. area with 60 MPH winds and up to 8" of rain, i'm guessing it will be much worse east of the city than west.

[imref]

models have shifted east again, delmarva will get something, the rest of the D.C. appears to be in the clear.

[The Chief]

models have shifted east again, delmarva will get something, the rest of the D.C. appears to be in the clear.

I bet we all get a nice bit of rain regardless.

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

I was in a 5, just north of the northern extent of the eyewall...it pretty much sucked.  Fortunately the architect who designed my folks' house had been through the killer hurricane of 1927 which made him a bit obsessive about hurricane worthiness (the house was a single story with heavy cement tile on a low slung roof--the corners of which were anchored deep in the underlying limestone--and all windows had steel hurricane shutters).  Had the storm made landfall during high tide, we probably would have drowned, but the roof stayed on (unlike most other houses in the area).  There wasn't a tree to be found standing between South Miami and the Keys for years afterwards.   

just curious, cat 1s are almost fun, i wouldn't want to be near a 3-4-5.

[tomterp]

I was in a 5, just north of the northern extent of the eyewall...it pretty much sucked.  Fortunately the architect who designed my folks' house had been through the killer hurricane of 1927 which made him a bit obsessive about hurricane worthiness (the house was a single story with heavy cement tile on a low slung roof--the corners of which were anchored deep in the underlying limestone--and all windows had steel hurricane shutters).  Had the storm made landfall during high tide, we probably would have drowned, but the roof stayed on (unlike most other houses in the area).  There wasn't a tree to be found standing between South Miami and the Keys for years afterwards.   

Working shutters!   I've read about those in history books.


My in-laws lost one window in Hugo despite working wooden shutters on their 1900 home.  House was elevated above the wash and the cypress wood extremely durable against flying debris and wind.  3 story house + about 5 feet underneeth made for a tall house, you'd think would make it more vulnerable but probably caught less wind due to being a block off the waterfront, and this on a side facing Charleston, not the open Atlantic.  Plenty of houses in their neighborhood were destroyed by storm surge, however - mostly waterfront or one lot back.

[imref]

looks like we'll escape, but those in Long Island are in for a rough weekend.

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

It'll be a walk in the park after what they have endured with the Islanders for the past few years.

looks like we'll escape, but those in Long Island are in for a rough weekend.

[Terpfan76]

The big ones I recall from my youth were Andrew and Hugo. They were pretty crazy. We didn't get much but a little wind and rain, but I just remember how devastating they were.

[Minty Fresh]

looks like we'll escape, but those in Long Island are in for a rough weekend.

Actually, having lived on Cape Cod for 25 years and enduring three hurricanes in my lifetime, I can tell you that hurricanes are not "weekend" long events.  By the time hurricanes make their way up toward New England/New York, they're usually fairly weak and very fast moving.  Most are in and out in less than 8 hours.

My wife who is from coastal Mississippi said that hurricanes are no laughing matter in the South.  In the North, it's an excuse to take a day off from work and throw a Hurricane Bender.

[imref]

the models I saw earlier show it hitting LI as a cat-2, the last few have been weak Cat-1s.  Gloria caused a lot of flooding along the south shore, this one will have a bigger storm surge.

the models just shifted back west, NYC is in a lot of trouble if this holds.

[imref]

Euro model - up to a 16' storm surge into NYC

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

The lunatics are already claiming that yesterday's earthquake was caused by the almighty's displeasure with Obama...I'm sure that a 16' surge would quickly be associated with gay marriage.

[Nathan]

The lunatics are already claiming that yesterday's earthquake was caused by the almighty's displeasure with Obama...I'm sure that a 16' surge would quickly be associated with gay marriage.

Yep.  Had to listen to that kind of talk in my temporary work area last night.  Thankfully, I'm back in my normal area now.

Apparently, this stuff is structurally sound to repair cracks in walls caused by earthquakes:

[KnorrForYourMoney]

So you're a caulk-soaker?

[Nathan]

So you're a caulk-soaker?

?