As a native Floridian I have been through at least a dozen hurricanes, but one of the most memorable was Camille in Biloxi. I was 8 at the time and visiting grandparents. My grandmother and I were on the last flight evacuated out going east. When they told me to get my things together, I grabbed my "huggy" pillow and a pack of cards then declared I was ready.
Grandad stayed there and though the apartment building next to his was flattened, his was completely spared. Ya never know................
How about you?
Leslie
Share your memorable hurricane experiences.
Somehow I have managed to miss all the really bad stuff. I was visiting friends when Camille hit. We lived in North MS (still do) but felt quite an effect from her. I was in a panic because, with all the phones out of order or just tied up, I couldn't find out how my family had faired, and the news cast made it sound like the whole state of MS had been blown off the map. That is as close as I want to get to a monster like that.
ginni
(check back into "neighbors" for directions to sheyland)
Leslie... first I have to say I like the name Leslie. My maternal grandmother was one of 6 girls, the youngest was Leslie. She died of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix when she was about 20. I have one cousin my age with that name but she has chosen to use her middle name for all of her life.
Well... the first hurricane I can remember was as a small child in Miami in the early 1940's, age 3-4 at most. I remember big towels at all the windows being wrung out, and grandma talking about opening windows on the lee side after the eye passed. At some point I was put to bed, not in my own bed, but a big double bed 45º to the door.
The next thing I remember is everyone standing at the bedroom door. A big coconut tree had hit the house, they heard a big crash upstairs and came running. That old Miami house had thick plaster walls and ceilings, and all around me in the room the ceiling had crashed down. Nary a single piece on the bed I was in!
Grandma always said the young men went out in the eye to fetch big fish thrown up on the beach.
Hurricane Irene hit South Florida on October 15 of (don't remember what year)- at any rate the storm was a whole lot of water and not much wind so no shutters were up. In the later evening I was writing one last email before shutting down the computer and the husband had just done one last dog walk (dressed as the Gorton's Fisherman), or better yet dog "swim" as the rain was very intense, and the water level in the front yard was rising rapidly. Who knew we had lakefront...
I mean it was *raining*!
So the house is settling down for the storm, rain is pounding up, down, sideways and everything else but at least we are in and ready. Then in the midst of all the water we hear a tiny tap-tap-tap on the front door. I quietly peer out the kitchen window to see what in the world could be making that noise in the face of all this rain, and I see a *drenched* little man holding up a huge bouquet of flowers mouthing to me "flower delivery".
Flower delivery? In a hurricane?
Duh! It is my birthday, and a Mother always remembers you.
I will always remember Jim Threlkel Flowers as one business who doesn't let a little rain get in the way of their deliveries!
Cearbhaill, That's funny!
I remember Hurricane Donna (Seot. 1960) with 160 mph winds hitting Miami whern I was a young adult. I slept through it.
But I have to say it was beautiful afterwards, with all those negative ions. Clear blue skies, and everything washed clean. Of course, all the beach hotels had 8 feet or more of sand in the lobbies after the storm deleted their windows.